Young Adult Literature without Apology

Amy's assessment of contemporary young adult literature, organized by author and title, censored by noone.

Realistic | Romance | Science Fiction | Historical Fiction | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Miller, Kirsten (2006). Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City. NY: Bloomsbury USA. ISBN: 1599900920.

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a book as much as this one; I can honestly say I didn't want it to end.

When a sinkhole opens in the public park visible from 12-year-old Ananka's apartment window, the intrepid introvert decides to explore. Upon entering the depths of this mysterious maw, Ananka discovers a furnished, secret room with a trap door that appears to lead to other, perhaps similar, chambers. Though her exploration is thwarted by the arrival of the local police, Ananka makes it her mission to find out more about what she saw and, more importantly, to uncover the identity of the person she saw slipping out of the hole and who seems to have left her some clues to the room's history. After a bit of sleuthing, Ananka meets and befriends the other figure interested in the underground room, a girl who calls herself Kiki Strike. Kiki is actively recruiting other girls with a variety of unusual talents and skills--forgery, engineering and chemistry are three of these--to form an exploratory crew she calls the Irregulars. With Kiki in the lead, Ananka and the three girls Kiki recruited begin to explore a fully formed but deserted city beneath Manhattan. While Kiki's motives for leading this exploration are not clear, the Irregulars' investigation leads to the girls' entanglement with a Chinatown mafioso, a deposed princess and the authorities.

When I first began reading, I was initially taken aback by the age of the narrator; I couldn't believe a gang of 12-year-old girls could get involved in the adventures promised by the book's length. The story, however, takes place over two years and moves at a believable pace. The central characters are clearly distinct and even aberrant preteens; however, their exceptionality is not overdrawn or even exploited a la Encyclopedia Brown, and this made their unusual talents seem authentic rather than super-hero-ish. The narrative moved quickly, but not overly so, and Ananka is realistically frustrated by the length of time that sometimes passes between Irregulars meetings. At the end of each chapter, Ananka includes some helpful tips for girls who might find themselves in a position similar to her own; among them: "how to avoid being kidnapped" and "how to follow someone".

Note: an accompanying website exists alongside the novel: www.kikistrike.com