The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line

I love Veronica Mars more than probably any other TV show in the history of TV. It's certainly the only show I ever donated to the kickstarter of. The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line reads exactly like a Veronica Mars episode – the pacing's the same, the visuals are the same, the mandatory cameos of the season regulars are the same – to the point that I could imagine the commercial breaks. And it's fun. It has Rob Thomas' characteristic wit and depending on how fast you read you might, like me, find that it's in fact less of a time commitment than watching an episode.

Downsides? Maybe I just don't have Veronica momentum any more. This just didn't really stick with me. It didn't have the context that a VM episode did, so it mostly felt like a filler one-off episode. I want wry class commentary, anti-hero feminism and friendly camaraderie. Oh, Veronica, we used to be friends, a long time ago, but I have yet to see a high school show that makes the transition to post-high school and retains its je ne sais quoi.

Fun, well-constructed mystery novel, especially enjoyable if you like the character and the show. Everything is here, characterization, dialogue, tension, story. It's just as satisfying as any episode of the original series ever was.

The only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is, it doesn't go beyond the show. It doesn't offer you much that you don't get from the series, other than that she's in her adult years now.

[b:The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line 18525889 The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars, #1) Rob Thomas https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394812296s/18525889.jpg 25630244] is a must-read for Veronica Mars fans (which I freely admit to being).The story takes place shortly after the events of the recent Veronica Mars movie. Veronica is still in Neptune where she is running Mars Investigations while Keith convalesces.The central mystery, which is quite well plotted, involves two teenage girls who go missing during “spring break” festivities. The Neptune Chamber of Commerce, having no confidence in local law enforcement, hires Veronica to find them. The story has some really tense and dark moments, but it also has plenty of the trademark Veronica sass.I listened to the audiobook version, which is masterfully narrated by none other than Kristen Bell herself. That was a real plus and I suppose is what pushed the story to five stars for me. Good book.

If you're a fan of Veronica Mars, this one's a no-brainer. It's a seamless extension of the Veronica Mars story, written by the man who created the character, showran the series, and directed the movie. So it's more like transmedia than traditional “tie-in” fiction. Veronica was always one to narrate her adventures, as well, so it's easy to jump into this without any adjustment.

As far as the story's concerned, it's a pretty straightforward mystery - a teenaged girl has gone missing on Spring Break, and Veronica's hired to try to track her down. The action's pretty tightly plotted, and we see some development of Veronica, as well - I felt a lot more comfortable with some of the choices she made in the movie after having this as additional context for them. If you're unfamiliar with the character of Veronica Mars, this might not be the best jumping-on point for you, but if you're in the tribe already, it's a story well worth your time.

Executive Summary: This is a good continuation of the series/movies for people who are already fans, but probably a pass for anyone looking at this as the start of a new mystery series.

Audio book: Um, Veronica Mars herself reads the book, so obviously it's AWESOME!

But if that's not enough I thought her voices for Mac, Wallace and Keith were all excellent too. I imagine all those years working them and Ms. Bell's talents made it easy for her to mimic those voices so well.

All and all an excellent way to do this book (and really the ONLY way IMHO)

Full Review
I liken this book a lot to the movie. If you enjoyed the movie, you'll probably enjoy this book. It's full of cameos that don't really need to happen, but you just love to see them anyways if you're already a fan.

This book may be approachable to someone new to Veronica Mars, but I doubt they will get as much out of it. It probably got an extra star from me simply for being a Veronica Mars book with all the characters that come with, rather than “Jane Private Eye”. If I wasn't already a fan, I know I wouldn't have picked this up.

I never cared as much about the Logan vs. Piz thing. That's certainly downplayed here. So if you were hoping for more of that, you may be disappointed. You get a fair bit of Mac, Wallace, and Keith. Also Sheriff Lamb. Pretty much everyone else is relegated to cameos.

The book seems to takes up right after the movie. So if you haven't already watched the TV series and the movie, I'm not sure if a lot of this will make sense.

The actual story itself is about on par with one of the episodes. Obviously compared to an episode or even the movie, this is much longer. As a result, You get a lot of extra “world building” I think the series transitions well to the page, and this seems like a smart idea to ride the momentum and fandom after the movie.

I've never really been a reader of mystery books, but I will likely keep reading these if they keep releasing them. They are a fun way to keep experiencing the world of Veronica Mars.

I was a fan of the tv series and I enjoyed the movie when it came out earlier this year, so it probably comes as no surprise that I liked this book as well. The writing is as good as the show and the plot takes place shortly after the events of the movie. That means that Logan is out of the picture for the most part and that is a good thing in my opinion. There is plenty of emotional angst without that story line. Most of the cast of characters is present as well, although more Weavil wouldn't have been a bad thing. All in all a pretty good mystery with a few twists to keep you guessing.

As a Veronica Mars fan from when the series aired (or when I decided to watch the whole show during a weekend in March 2013), I truly think this book does the series justice. I watched the movie last month when it came out, but I didn't realise until two days ago that Rob Thomas had also gotten a novel published as a continuation to the movie and when I immediately downloaded the eBook and matching audiobook (WHICH IS READ BY KRISTEN BELL OMG??). I started out listening to the audiobook but I just couldn't just sit there and wait 8 hours to finish this book, and zoomed through the eBook in less than half that time.

There is so much I love about this book. I love that Rob Thomas wrote it and perfectly captured Veronica's to a T in an unfamiliar format. Veronica's thinking process was totally nostalgic to the TV series and an older and more mature Veronica meant she was allowed to take more risks making the storyline a million times better than what the TV series had given us. It was sosososo smart of Thomas to reacquaint the fans with Veronica's mommy issues that weren't addressed in the movie but definitely shaped Veronica as a character.

I am just so happy this book series isn't utter shit and turned out to be a lot better than I had expected and still encapsulated everything Veronica Mars is without missing any traces of her identifiable smart ass remarks.

Props to you, Rob Thomas! I am definitely going to read the next book of this series if/when it comes out.

I feel about this much the way I felt about the Veronica Mars movie, which is to say I can't be objective about it because my overriding feeling is just YAY MORE VERONICA MARS YAY!!

I rarely read mysteries so IDK how this compares to other mystery books. It was as twisty and bonkers as an average story arc of the series. I was happy to see more of all my fave Veronica Mars characters–this picks up right after where the movie left off. (So if for some reason you're interested enough in Veronica Mars to want to read this, but haven't seen the movie yet... see the movie first.)

I wouldn't say I loved it quite as much as I love the show–a lot of Veronica's ~snarky quips~ work better when Kristen Bell is saying them, as opposed to just being read on the page. (I saw that she read the audiobook and I bet that would be worth pursuing.)

Still: I loved it! It's more Veronica Mars! Hooray!