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Original poster

AIBU To Think That The Plots Of The Chalet School Books Were Really Improbable

453 replies

TheShellBeach · 22/02/2023 15:30

.................................such as Prince Cosimo, the endless kidnappings, all the train crashes/bus crashes/car crashes/plane crashes/boat sinkings hang on a minute, were there any boat sinkings

Okay, I've just remembered that there were a couple of near misses with boats when the CS was on the island. Joey was nearly flung overboard once (a missed opportunity for EBD to get rid of her IMO) and there were probably others.

Anyway - all aboard and ahoy there.

OP posts:
Laineythenomad · 22/02/2023 16:02

@ZacharinaQuack Can't wait to read that one, it sounds hilarious!

For me, in terms of improbable plots it's the number of times Joey is at death's door for standing on the doorstep in the cold for 10 seconds etc. etc. Also Robin being carried around like a baby from the age of 6 till 16, and the sheer snobbery of EBD's disparaging comments about girls with "a Cockney accent" - Emerence being a prime example. How could she possibly have a Cockney accent if she'd been brought up in Oz?

ZacharinaQuack · 22/02/2023 15:53

I'm up to Ruey Richardson and I am noticing that once EBD gets up to about 30 or 40 books, she seems to stop bothering to tie up her plotlines at all. I may have missed something in Coming of Age (as it was quite boring, and I was skimmng), but did Miss Bubb die? Or did she just collapse dramatically at the Sale and then no-one ever mentioned her again? It seemed a bit of a waste of time setting up all that sub-plot about her in that case.

Improbable + EBD getting bored: the bank robbers in Joey & Co in Tirol. Lots of set-up of thrilling danger, bank robbers etc., and then all the kids accidentally attack some random hikers in a comedy anticlimax. It kind of feels like EBD is taking a Josephine M. Bettany approach to writing where she's going 'I've got 10 chapters already, so I only need 4 more and then I'll be done'.

Laineythenomad · 22/02/2023 15:52

Shiver me timbers and hurl Joey into the bilge tank! 😂