You may know her because she's the author of the Nancy Drew series, which is about a female detective.
Where this author succeeds:
-Creating a believable mystery
-Creating an interesting mystery with an expected ending
-Creating a very smart female detective
Where this author doesn't succeed:
-Lengthy and frequent descriptions. Ex: "Janet was a tall girl with impressive curves. Her hair was a peculiar shade of brown that was darker near her scalp and was quite mousy and usually tangled. Her eyes were the color of a bruise you would get after hang-gliding into the side of Mt. Everest and falling thousands of feet to your doom. Her mouth was usually in a smile that is almost identical to the mouths on Amazon boxes that get sent to your house when you order items online. Her ears were the same shape as elf ears like the ones you might see in various Santa Claus movies." And the frequent reminders: "Janet struggled to comb out the tangle in her long, brown hair." "Janet got a bruise that reminded her of the color of her eyes." But that's not too bad. I have nothing wrong with an author wanting their reader to know what the main character looks like, even though there's a picture of her on the cover.
-The filler. Imagine ordering a burger. The burger claims to be a juicy burger. When you get the burger, there are two thin slices of bread. There's a mountain of lettuce inside, a single shred of cheese, and at the very bottom, you can barely make out a sliver of the meat you actually ordered. That's what you get when you read these books. "Nancy said, 'Yes. Give me some time to figure out if the killer is truly a monstrous demon.' Then, Nancy went to the store and bought a silk cashmere cotton flannel dress with five glittery buttons. Sadly, it was out of her price range." Then you read about the rest of her shopping trip, and it's back to the fun stuff. There was a lot of a filler, and for the most part, the author tried to weave it into the story, but when I'm reading a book like this, the only suspense I want is the suspense of wondering who the killer is. I don't want to know which color dress Nancy will choose.
-Flat characters. Most of the characters are either good or evil. None of the villains seem to have soft spots, and Nancy doesn't seem to have many weaknesses.
-Not much character development. It's okay to start out with flat characters. Like Neville, from Harry Potter--he started out as a bit of a wimp and stayed that way for 95% of the series. But he developed. We found out why he was sorted into Gryffindor. But, back to Nancy Drew. I have not read the whole series, but I did read book 1 and book 54. Nancy was the same, and throughout the books, all of the characters kept their same values and didn't really change.
-It was agonizingly slow. Sometimes, when I read a book at one in the morning and fall asleep mid-chapter, that's fine. It's understandable. I start reading again as soon as I wake up. I would be enthralled in that book, despite the fact that I feel asleep.
Nancy Drew gave me a special experience, because I fell asleep reading this book during class. That is the ONLY time that has ever happened to me. At first, I was interested in the book, then I started casually leaning my head against my hand. Somewhere in between there, my eyes closed. Thirty minutes later, the teacher said "Time to fill out your reading logs!" And I jumped awake. She knew I had been sleeping. She knew.
And guess what? In all of that time I spent with the book, I had only progressed 5 pages. It was so slow and boring.
The Nancy Drew series is not for everyone. I still recommend it because it has potential, and I think that if you try hard enough, you will really enjoy these books. But for fantasy fanatics like me, don't read the series.
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