I remember loving this one as a kid. It hasn't stood up as well as some of the other things I loved as a kid. It feels so dated at this point. I think the main appeal to me was the Edward Gorey covers (damnit they did not need updating-Gorey is timeless!) and I suspect the fact that the protagonist worried a lot, about everything.

I've just reread two, but they're super male oriented books. The only speaking female characters are old women in bit parts. Even the nice ones either 'nags' or flaky. And the adult male characters are condescending or downright rude to them. I guess that didn't stand out because it was a normal thing in 80s kidlit. (And not as abnormal as I'd like now.)

I really don't remember the reference to Hebrew being used in evil spells or the casual throwing out about how the guy have done something weird in his will 'like leave his money to a cat hospital or the KKK.' REALLY WTF. He's not condoning it because he has a character mention about a family being awful and a parent was a member, but still, why would you casually toss that out when there are a thousand not offensive weird things.