Jas, the star of Bad Kitty, is back, this time in Italy, completely against her will, thanks to Dadzilla, who's researching the history of soap, of all things. Okay, Venice isn't all bad, what with the pretty canals and gondolas and 142 types of pizza, but Jas still has to write college essays, and go to Italian class, and her only friend is this lame girl from Italian class.
Arabella is paranoid, like seriously certifiable, but when she doesn't turn up for a meeting with Jas, and her body is found in the water, Jas doesn't believe for a minute that it was suicide, not matter what the carbinieri think. Rescued by the appearance of her best friends (and, sadly, her evil cousin and her lame best friend), Jas investigates Venice to find the killer, and the truth.
Like its predecessor, Kitty Kitty is a witty, fast-paced novel that hinges on the unique voice of its narrator - her description, for example, of petite Arabella's black-and-red-beruffled apartment ("any parts of the room not suitable for Ruffling were filled with porcelain statues of pugs wearing red ribbons round their necks") as "what I imagined an Elf brother would look like (not that I've spent a lot of time imagining that)." Or her dialogue (in footnotes) with her evil alter ego BadJas, particularly their disagreement about using the same word (in this case 'smoulder' and versions thereof) in the same sentence, which results in "Smoulderingly, he reached out with a gentle yet-filled-with-smoulderingness touch to brush a lock of hair from my forehead and said, smoulderingly..."
The mystery zips along, with some new vocabulary,* a satisfactory number of red herrings and a surprise killer with a strong but unseen motive, but I was less interested in that than in Jas, her friends, and the interesting outfits and creations they came up with. I can't wait for the third instalment!
In a unique twist, by coincidence Lynn and I both have a copy at the same time, and are attempting a synchronous read-and-review - hers follows and, as we felt quite differently about Bad Kitty, I imagine will be somewhat less of a rave. - Alex
*Rompicoglioni, by the way, means "ball breaker" or (if you want to be less colourful and still have the same flavour "strong woman"
For a brief synopsis of this story please see Alex’s review above.
While Kitty Kitty has some very funny moments, for me much of the humour just missed the mark. It was in the mystery elements of the plot that, I think, the best of the story was to found. They were very well written with no hint as to who the antagonist was until the reveal and yet when unmasked the culprit was entirely plausible. Praise where it’s due, that’s not easily done.
It is no secret that I am not a fan of the footnote conversations as used by this author. I find them distracting at best and often pointless. Information they provide could easily be given in the body of the text with little or no effort.
I’ve thought long and hard about why it is this series doesn’t appeal to me. Humour and mystery in the plot are well balanced. The writing is of a reasonable standard. By all indicators I would expect to like these books much more than I do. I think the problem for me resides in the characters. While they are meant to be in their late teens they behave, speak and think as if they were much younger. I think the disconnect is too much for me. If these characters were starting middle school instead of shopping for colleges I think the stories would gel better.
Though Kitty Kitty doesn’t appeal to me, it is a hit with its target audience. My teenaged daughters love this instalment and eagerly await the next in the series.-Lynn
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