Worrals Carries On
Feb. 9th, 2024 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosanicusAnd so with Murder By Air staring plaintively at me each time I check my Reading Pouch (a bag I put my books/e-reader in so they don't get wet or covered in biscuit dust, chocolate stains etc), I instead powered through my new copy of Worrals Carries On in just under two days. This includes the point last night when I fell asleep on our sofa for two hours while my partner was watching House. We're on series 2.
This being my fourth Worrals, it was honestly a little strange to read about Worrals and Frecks on their first cross-channel adventure! Discovering an enemy spy by the end of chapter 1 and being discovered in the act of uncovering his deception at the start of chapter 2 really is WEJ at his pacy best, and the rest of the book barely gives any breathing room for the reader or for its poor protagonists. No wonder Worrals has a little moment at the end of the book and is solicitously given a palmful of raisins by Bill Ashton.
Joudrier is a very thinly sketched villain but that's par for the course in WW2 era WEJ, and I don't begrudge him that at all given the circumstances. As it is he works well enough as a plot device, and the various times when he and our heroines are in close quarters, them hiding and him unaware, are excellent and tense stuff. I do think that the side characters in general were more 'stock' than in the other Worralses I've read, particularly Flies Again and War-Path (Lucien and Raoul <3) but they worked well. I especially liked Suzette the barmaid, who is brave in a wonderful understated way and may or may not go off with Frecks at the end of the book while Worrals and Bill are busy canoodling.
The Bill/Worrals romance is about as perfunctory as WEJ usually is, but in a way that's what I like about it. They're both fairly practical people so when Bill gets in a tangle about bringing Worrals into danger and ends up confessing his feelings in a sweetly roundabout way it comes off as very honest - as does Worrals' embarrassed, blushing pleasure over the whole ordeal. It really shows how young they both are I think, while Frecks heckles them in the background (having not realised that Worrals was reluctant to bring Frecks due to essentially the same motivation... Worrals really does have two hands).
The rescue of the British soldiers who had been holed up in a crypt (fantastic WEJ location!!!) was page-turning stuff. And then of course Worrals decided to steal a lorry and I cheered out loud, hands in the air. And then she KICKED A NAZI OUT OF THE DRIVER'S SEAT!!! I am literally obsessed with her. When the flyleaf said 'this story will make her your friend for life' it was not lying.
Also, the ending is extremely sweet. Worrals and Frecks get commended (non-specific) while Bill gets the DFC, which almost feels like a commentary although I'm not sure if WEJ intended it. And then they get PRESENTS!!! I love any story which ends with presents. As a child I reread the last 50-ish pages of A Little Princess genuinely dozens of times. The book ending with Frecks stuffing her face with chocolate is genuinely perfect.
In other events of the day, I read some of this on the bus home and when I first got it out my partner teacher (who was also on the bus, it was a nice coincidence) said, "Wow, that is an old book," to which I reminded him that I already told him I had SO many WW2 books for next term. Did not mention Biggles by name but at least he might be slightly prepared for the onslaught. HALF TERM STARTS NOW!!!
This being my fourth Worrals, it was honestly a little strange to read about Worrals and Frecks on their first cross-channel adventure! Discovering an enemy spy by the end of chapter 1 and being discovered in the act of uncovering his deception at the start of chapter 2 really is WEJ at his pacy best, and the rest of the book barely gives any breathing room for the reader or for its poor protagonists. No wonder Worrals has a little moment at the end of the book and is solicitously given a palmful of raisins by Bill Ashton.
Joudrier is a very thinly sketched villain but that's par for the course in WW2 era WEJ, and I don't begrudge him that at all given the circumstances. As it is he works well enough as a plot device, and the various times when he and our heroines are in close quarters, them hiding and him unaware, are excellent and tense stuff. I do think that the side characters in general were more 'stock' than in the other Worralses I've read, particularly Flies Again and War-Path (Lucien and Raoul <3) but they worked well. I especially liked Suzette the barmaid, who is brave in a wonderful understated way and may or may not go off with Frecks at the end of the book while Worrals and Bill are busy canoodling.
The Bill/Worrals romance is about as perfunctory as WEJ usually is, but in a way that's what I like about it. They're both fairly practical people so when Bill gets in a tangle about bringing Worrals into danger and ends up confessing his feelings in a sweetly roundabout way it comes off as very honest - as does Worrals' embarrassed, blushing pleasure over the whole ordeal. It really shows how young they both are I think, while Frecks heckles them in the background (having not realised that Worrals was reluctant to bring Frecks due to essentially the same motivation... Worrals really does have two hands).
The rescue of the British soldiers who had been holed up in a crypt (fantastic WEJ location!!!) was page-turning stuff. And then of course Worrals decided to steal a lorry and I cheered out loud, hands in the air. And then she KICKED A NAZI OUT OF THE DRIVER'S SEAT!!! I am literally obsessed with her. When the flyleaf said 'this story will make her your friend for life' it was not lying.
Also, the ending is extremely sweet. Worrals and Frecks get commended (non-specific) while Bill gets the DFC, which almost feels like a commentary although I'm not sure if WEJ intended it. And then they get PRESENTS!!! I love any story which ends with presents. As a child I reread the last 50-ish pages of A Little Princess genuinely dozens of times. The book ending with Frecks stuffing her face with chocolate is genuinely perfect.
In other events of the day, I read some of this on the bus home and when I first got it out my partner teacher (who was also on the bus, it was a nice coincidence) said, "Wow, that is an old book," to which I reminded him that I already told him I had SO many WW2 books for next term. Did not mention Biggles by name but at least he might be slightly prepared for the onslaught. HALF TERM STARTS NOW!!!
no subject
Date: 2024-02-09 10:17 pm (UTC)Steeley's good fun, but Worrals is better, Murder By Air can wait till you're done Worralsing :-D. I still think Worrals could beat Biggles in a vehicle-stealing contest, if it's nailed down she'll just jimmy it loose first and then take it. And she and Bill and Frecks are all adorable in a perfect low-key way and Worrals rescues both of them in exactly the same way <3<3<3
no subject
Date: 2024-02-10 08:56 pm (UTC)WEJ loves to have his heroes steal vehicles, particularly if they do it literally under the noses of the villains or by actually removing a villain from the driver's seat, and I love it every time.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-11 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-11 12:30 pm (UTC)I adore the vehicular theft every single time. I think it's War-Path where she steals a car a plane and a motorbike right?
no subject
Date: 2024-02-12 01:14 pm (UTC)