mehsi's review against another edition
5.0
That was just fantastic and wonderful! The 6 year wait was well worth it! More will be coming soon. :)
sandraagee's review against another edition
5.0
I love Kiki Strike. And what's not to love? Strong, spunky characters, intrigue, action, deception, and more. It's been a few years since the last installment, but The Darkness Dwellers more than lived up to my expectations. Here's hoping that we don't have to wait another five years for another Kiki Strike book.
belle18244's review against another edition
4.0
Great addition to a great series! Even though it has been a while since I read the second book in the series I had no trouble getting immediately into the story.
*arc provided by Netgalley.
*arc provided by Netgalley.
mariaburns's review against another edition
4.0
OH MY GOSH HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS UNTIL NOW. I AM SERIOUSLY HYPERVENTILATING. GET ME TO THE LIBRARY. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
sigigraph's review
4.0
I love you, Kiki Strike series. You have always shown me girl-power and independence and how to be a lady, from my preteen years up to my teen years now. I'm the same age as Ananka, and I feel like we've grown up together. Although we've had our occasional disagreements, I'd like to think that Ananka and I get along very well. I can relate to her and at the same time give her much-needed advice. And in this book the advice I needed to give was STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM KASPAR YOU'RE SMARTER THAN THAT.
Seriously, the unrequited crush left a bad taste in my mouth, especially the way she would talk about how she was oh so sorry she was BETRAYING Betty like that, but Kaspar was just OH SO DELICIOUSLY HOT that she fantasized about making him fall in love with her! She acted horribly to all her friends, and disappointed me QUITE A BIT.
Other than this I wholly enjoyed the book, but I found it a little unnerving how Kirsten kept conveniently matching up her characters with guys who were conveniently perfect for them AND who liked them back AND who happened to be GORGEOUSLY HOT.
What exactly happened to that Kirsten Miller who I used to know? She wouldn't have turned my favorite series about INDEPENDENT YOUNG WOMEN WHO DIDN'T NEED ROMANCE TO BE AWESOME EXPLORING ADVENTURERS AND ENTREPRENEURS AND INVENTORS AND SCIENTISTS AND ALL THOSE AMAZING THINGS THAT THEY CAN DO WITHOUT BOYFRIENDS into one where three of my favorite characters have been paired off conveniently with hot guys who are basically boy versions of themselves. :(
Overall, I loved the book. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the first Kiki Strike book's caliber. Ever since the series has started pairing up the girls with fantasy boyfriends and giving them hard-to-stand unrequited love, I have started to love it less.
Kirsten Miller, you don't need to become a writer of teen romance to appeal to your fans who have been here since the beginning and crave the adventurous independent girls the irregulars used to be more of.
The messages you're giving your readers now are of perfect soul-mate guys and betraying your best friends in the name of "love" that is really just lust.
I love your writing, but the over-the top and cringe-worthy romantic elements don't have a place in the Kiki Strike series.
A Loving And Loyal Fan,
Signe The Irregular
Seriously, the unrequited crush left a bad taste in my mouth, especially the way she would talk about how she was oh so sorry she was BETRAYING Betty like that, but Kaspar was just OH SO DELICIOUSLY HOT that she fantasized about making him fall in love with her! She acted horribly to all her friends, and disappointed me QUITE A BIT.
Other than this I wholly enjoyed the book, but I found it a little unnerving how Kirsten kept conveniently matching up her characters with guys who were conveniently perfect for them AND who liked them back AND who happened to be GORGEOUSLY HOT.
What exactly happened to that Kirsten Miller who I used to know? She wouldn't have turned my favorite series about INDEPENDENT YOUNG WOMEN WHO DIDN'T NEED ROMANCE TO BE AWESOME EXPLORING ADVENTURERS AND ENTREPRENEURS AND INVENTORS AND SCIENTISTS AND ALL THOSE AMAZING THINGS THAT THEY CAN DO WITHOUT BOYFRIENDS into one where three of my favorite characters have been paired off conveniently with hot guys who are basically boy versions of themselves. :(
Overall, I loved the book. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the first Kiki Strike book's caliber. Ever since the series has started pairing up the girls with fantasy boyfriends and giving them hard-to-stand unrequited love, I have started to love it less.
Kirsten Miller, you don't need to become a writer of teen romance to appeal to your fans who have been here since the beginning and crave the adventurous independent girls the irregulars used to be more of.
The messages you're giving your readers now are of perfect soul-mate guys and betraying your best friends in the name of "love" that is really just lust.
I love your writing, but the over-the top and cringe-worthy romantic elements don't have a place in the Kiki Strike series.
A Loving And Loyal Fan,
Signe The Irregular
singerji's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
mandi_m's review
4.0
A good end to what has been a fabulous teen trilogy. I think book 2 was my favourite of the series, but this was a good ending to the adventures of Kiki Strike. Our narrator, Ananka, is a wonderful storyteller and there are more of her quirky tips to accompany each chapter. If you have a feisty girl between 12 and 15, they should be introduced to The Irregulars!
ninetalevixen's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars.
I definitely enjoyed reading this, but most of the Irregulars have been relegated to comic background characters (even Oona, the literal face of one of the main subplots) so Ananka and Kiki can continue to take center stage — the exception is Betty, who really comes into her own — and I really missed the group dynamic; it seemed like there were only a handful of scenes where Ananka is actually with the group, and half the time her mind is somewhere else. Leadership is hard, but I don’t think, objectively, she pulled it off quite as well as she implies.
Some of the “Fishbein’s Guide to...” sections are funny and practical, but some are just juvenile. That statement could really be applied to Ananka herself; she never seems to catch on to the inherent issue of panting after her friend’s boyfriend with the explicit hope of “stealing” him away, or to really recognize that other people have their own issues except when it inconveniences her with a self-imposed need to intervene.
There are only a handful of major plotlines, and yet at times I still felt like there were too many moving parts. Part of it might just be Ananka’s overwhelmedness coming through, but another part was that it was just messy — jumping around from focus to focus, switching between Ananka’s POV and Kiki’s (as told by Ananka, of course). The resolutions are too neat, as well as pretty abrupt, which was definitely disappointing.
I definitely enjoyed reading this, but most of the Irregulars have been relegated to comic background characters (even Oona, the literal face of one of the main subplots) so Ananka and Kiki can continue to take center stage — the exception is Betty, who really comes into her own — and I really missed the group dynamic; it seemed like there were only a handful of scenes where Ananka is actually with the group, and half the time her mind is somewhere else. Leadership is hard, but I don’t think, objectively, she pulled it off quite as well as she implies.
Some of the “Fishbein’s Guide to...” sections are funny and practical, but some are just juvenile. That statement could really be applied to Ananka herself; she never seems to catch on to the inherent issue of panting after her friend’s boyfriend with the explicit hope of “stealing” him away, or to really recognize that other people have their own issues except when it inconveniences her with a self-imposed need to intervene.
There are only a handful of major plotlines, and yet at times I still felt like there were too many moving parts. Part of it might just be Ananka’s overwhelmedness coming through, but another part was that it was just messy — jumping around from focus to focus, switching between Ananka’s POV and Kiki’s (as told by Ananka, of course). The resolutions are too neat, as well as pretty abrupt, which was definitely disappointing.