Teddy Sparkles Must Die!

"This new governess needs investigating."

Writer: Paul Magrs
Format: Short Story
Released: February 2018
Printed in: The Missy Chronicles

Featuring: Missy

Synopsis

Missy isn't exactly cut out to be a 1920s governess, but a wish-granting alien teddy bear will make anything worthwhile.

Verdict

Teddy Sparkles Must Die! was a rather interesting little story to continue my reading of The Missy Chronicles. It really was quite bonkers and that's probably the word I'd use to best describe Missy so I was more than happy for a bit of a bananas story that was far from the norm. It was all set within a house and the prospect of Missy being a family's new governess was wonderful. You just knew that she wouldn't really have the patience and could you actually imagine her liking children? Of course, it was all part of a mad plan to take over the world and the means by which she was attempting to do so were incredibly unique. I liked that. Teddy Sparkles was literally a teddy - a golden bear to be specific. Well, that's how he appeared. He was actually quite a clever little alien who could engineer reality and I liked the way that his abilities were disguised as wishes. That worked very nicely considering the focus of the story was on the three children that Missy became the governess for in 1925. Peter was quite humorous and useless with his single line of 'boop' occurring sporadically but Esme and Jack were really good characters. As the eldest sibling, I enjoyed how sceptical the latter was towards their new mistress and he just knew that she was no good. The scenes on the Moon were quite unexpected but the image of Missy using her umbrella to glide down and to save the children from the Moon Men was delightful. The children being granted wishes by Teddy Sparkles was great and I loved that Missy also had to save them from Mars on a previous occasion. Missy persuading the children to wish for powers of authority after saving their lives and promising to leave them was devious and quite a mad and roundabout way of gaining the ammunition she needed to take over the world. When she returned in the 1960s to enact her scheme, Teddy Sparkles was having none of it and despite being neglected in a cupboard for a number of years, he reversed his changes in time in a sacrificial manner as it would mean he would exit existence. Missy wasn't happy and that of course meant Teddy Sparkles must die. But her damage was undone. Missy was used to setbacks though but she had grown sick of this family and time period as Sparkles' changes meant that she became famous and revered - something she detested. I wasn't a huge fan of the section where Missy narrated and I felt at times that the story became a tad silly but it was very enjoyable despite a somewhat predictable conclusion. Overall though, still a lovely little read!

Rating: 7/10