Parenthetical

During the school year, I mostly read for work: how will I know what to give my kids if I don’t tear through as many YA novels as possible? Consequently, I almost never read sequels; I got enough of a taste with the first book, so I feel guilty if I linger. This summer’s reading project is to catch up on the sequels to some books I loved.

Full disclosure: in elementary school, my best friend and I desperately wanted to be detectives. We read the entire Trixie Belden series repeatedly, and played Trixie and Honey with our Barbies. We had maps of each other’s houses and yards, with all the best spying spots marked. We even scoured the obituaries looking for anything that seemed related to her neighbor’s plot to smuggle TVs (…don’t ask).

So holy crap, did I love the first Kiki Strike book (Inside the Shadow City, as reviewed on the excellent Bookshelves of Doom)! I book-talked it non-stop to my middle schoolers before our Book Fair. All I had to do was read the back copy out loud, and they were hooked — we sold out within two periods and had to order stacks of extra copies. “Five delinquent Girl Scouts, a million hungry rats, one secret city beneath Manhattan, and a butt-kicking girl superspy… welcome to the world of Kiki Strike.” How can you not want to read that immediately? (The fact that their teacher said “butt-kicking” in class had nothing to do with it, I’m sure.)

The Empress’s Tomb is only slightly less awesome. The plot was a little more scattered, the resolution of the mysteries a little less tight, and the Harry Potter-esque “all my friends have deserted me” middle of the book was too drawn-out.

But seriously, “only slightly less awesome” than Inside the Shadow City is still more awesome than most things you’ve read this year. I am totally addicted, and if you were the sort of kid who had dossiers on your classmates and spied on your little brother (…you know, hypothetically), you will be, too.

Read-alikes: I never was a fan of Nancy Drew; Trixie Belden was way more badass. (Why yes, there is Trixie Belden fanfic, why do you ask?) Her forty-some books were published between 1948 and 1986. For more recent spunky girl ass-kicking, you absolutely must read Bloody Jack by L. A. Meyer. It’s Alanna on the 19th century open seas — what’s not to love?