So I finally finished Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City this afternoon. Really, all I have been doing lately is barbequeing, swimming and riding bikes.

Back to the reading though!

Kiki Strike is the story of Ananka, who lives in New York city, and, along with several other Girl Guide rejects, becomes one of the Irregulars. Their intrepid leader is the one and only Kiki Strike. The girls are handily all equipped with their own talents, which makes their adventures that much easier. And what adventures they have! Kiki has recruited the Irregulars to help her explore the Shadow City, a series of underground tunnels below Manhattan that haven't been used since the criminals that lived there disappeared more than a hundred years ago. But maybe Kiki's motives aren't entirely exploratory in nature?

I think Kirsten Miller's biggest accomplishment with this book is that she has created one of those great old-fashioned adventure stories, and modernized it. Ananka and her friends are smart and funny, and not willing to take crap from anybody. The New York setting will help to draw in tweens who are more Gossip Girls oriented, and Miller's great story and characters will hook them.

I really am looking forward to reading more adventures from the Irregulars.

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller
ISBN 1582349606
387 pages