KARITO KIDS: Zoe

Zoe! Okay, so I've honestly only read this series of books once before and that was in summer 2008. I thought I'd reread them since, but I really don't think I ever did.

In summer 2008, I lived in New York City, as I mentioned in my post about Gia.

Zoe lives in New York City.

However, it's only now, upon rereading this book ten years later, that I've realized Zoe lived in the part of New York City that I would be moving to shortly after reading her book.

If I put the two together back then, I've since forgotten, but I honestly don't think I ever realized until now.

Not too long after I got into Karitos, I had to rush-move from Brooklyn to the West Village. I was caught up in a new job and a new internship and then in the fall, my classes started up again. So yeah, I was insanely busy and I honestly don't think I thought back to this book and went, "Hey, I live here now."

But rereading it now was an amazing experience, because Zoe went to so many places that I know. Every street she listed off is one I've walked down loads of times.

One flaw of Ling's book that I forgot to mention is that the mystery becomes bigger than the location. Gia's books did a good job of balancing mystery and learning about Italy. Ling's did not teach that much about China.

Zoe's book is definitely centered on the mystery, but it's still filled with a strong essence of New York. The details seem less important than Gia's Italy or Ling's China, because they seem less different than what a typical American is used to, but there is a difference. New York is like nowhere else I've ever lived and this book captures a lot of it, though people who have never lived there might miss out on that.

Zoe herself is a fun character, but not that unique. Her problem is that the writer (or Karito character designer) tried too hard to make her the quirky girl. She's a singer/songwriter/guitarist who's known for making up her own words and collecting hats. In trying so hard to be quirky, she becomes not unique but instead like every other quirky female character that's been written.

She's still really likeable and fun though. I enjoyed the book a lot and part of it was definitely her character. I shouldn't fault her for not being able to compete with the actual main character of the book: New York City.

No one can compete with New York.