OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Mystified By Stephanie" by Daniel A. Shea.]

Mystified By Stephanie is an illustrated novel presented as a screenplay by Daniel A. Shea. On his acknowledgments page, he claims that it is a fictional account; however, by the style in which the tale is told about the main character Dan Shea, the story feels more like an embellished memoir.

Growing up, Dan was an inventive trouble maker. Partially deaf, he used his differentness to his advantage as a child and eventually became quite proficient at reading lips. When all of his friends decided to enlist in the Marines, Dan gladly joined them on their trip to the recruiter…only to be turned away because of his partial deafness. His girlfriend, Stephanie, was also doing everything she could to try to keep him from joining the military; she even turned the recruiters away from their door when they tried to pick him up for a special hearing test he was guaranteed to pass (wink, wink). Despite his girlfriend’s meddling, Dan does eventually have the opportunity to use his unique abilities to serve his country.

While reading this book, one needs to keep in mind that it is essentially a working draft of a screenplay. It includes notes about staging and background music with a major emphasis on The Talking Heads. The piece also contains a lot of pictures of locations and people that are referenced in the novel. There are notes warning the reader that the author must be contacted to find the status of semi-classified government information. So, keeping all of that in mind, Mystified By Stephanie is a rather humorous story about childhood mischief blooming into adolescent and adult shenanigans. There were moments that had me chuckling and trying to envision the story unfolding on the big screen.

Unfortunately, the story is presented in a very choppy style that makes it a bit hard to follow along. There is some jumping about in time and location, as well as a very confusing progression of Dan’s time in the military. The title’s namesake, Stephanie, plays such a minor role in the screenplay that one wonders why her one-dimensional, weak character has even been included at all. The copy also needs a strong going over by an editor. While I am not the most well-versed in critiquing screenplays, this piece has enough grammar and editing mistakes to be distracting to the reader. Additionally, many of the pictures and illustrations are distorted from poor formatting or were of very poor resolution to begin with.

If this were a straight-up novel with this many errors, confusing plotlines, and formatting issues, I would probably assign it a single star. Since this is technically a screenplay and has some potential, I’ll give Mystified By Stephanie 2 out of 4 stars. I think with a little more work and some solid editing, Shea could have a marketable movie screenplay. Anyone who grew up wild in the early seventies would enjoy some of the nostalgia present in this work. A filmmaker or director would also be able to see this for the potentially fun movie or play that is lurking in the pages of this screenplay.

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Mystified By Stephanie
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How mystifying that Stephanie features so much in the title and on the cover and so little in the body of the screenplay! Sounds as if there are some great ideas in here. On the whole, I'm glad that the 70s are over ...

I should have mentioned that the author wrote this while recovering from a coma...with one eye...and feeling pretty awful. He has managed to do something I have dreamed of doing despite his hurdles.

It does seem strange that the book is named after a character who has such a minor role. The confusing timeline and disjointed writing style are problematic. Thanks for your honest review.

the story was interesting but there should have bin more to it for someone who can't hear but they can read lips and to add he has a good girl friend

Dan feels like a wonderful character despite his deficiencies. The humor will also make me want to read this book. Thanks for the nice review.

I do enjoy humor in stories, but this book has enough other issues that I'm glad you read it instead of me. Thanks for a very informative and well-written review!

Your summary made me want to read the book ,but as I read the rest of the review especially the section where you said that the plot is confusing and hard to follow ,I suddenly lost interest. I hope they fix the errors.

It's sad that it was not better edited and done. It sounds like it could have been a great book. Thank you for the honest review

Inspite of its flaws, I still find this book interesting. Thanks for an honest and thoughtful review.

I agree that the book's errors made the screenplay very troubling to read, along with the awkward sequencing and formatting errors. I, personally, found these things difficult to get past, but I also agree with your take on the humor. It's funny enough to find the screenplay interesting and to hope for a good movie down the line. Great review!

The book sounds great. Thank you for mentioning the errors. Great review!

Thanks for the review. I expected that the book would be all about Stephanie. I don't really know much about screen plays so I will give this one a pass.

This book looks very interesting to read. I had no idea the author was in a coma when he wrote this book.