This was decent entertainment. For this one I had high expectations, because I had read all of the Kiki Strike books. Those are extremely fun, but this isn’t about those books, is it? This is a review of How To Lead A Life of Crime. Anyway, I was already a fan of Kirsten Miller’s work, and this book just made me more of a fan. She definitely has talent. Her style is solid. She covers themes of everything from innate youthful powers to juvenile delinquency. She shows us how the world works for young people, even in fantasy situations which don’t seem so much a fantasy as reality, because the characters do and say things that seem perfectly normal in that situation. In this book, How To Lead A Life of Crime, she shows us what might happen to a select group if they were taught criminal skills. The book goes into entertaining detail about how certain personality types might turn on everyone around them, and others would try to emulate. There is a plot twist in the book that had me guessing, and I’m a difficult nut to crack. You know that plot twist in The Sixth Sense? Yeah, I had that figured out early in the movie. So I can appreciate that Kirsten Miller added a plot twist in How To Lead A Life of Crime that I couldn’t quite imagine the outcome, nor could I even really see it coming. There are some sexual undertones and situations to How To Lead A Life of Crime that won’t be for every reader, but I can say, without spoiling anything, that the sex scenes are tastefully executed, even if they’re unfortunately necessary to build tension among the characters. Still, no heaving bosoms in this one. The book remains a possible PG rating, if you wanted a movie-style rating. There are some criminal acts detailed in the book that we would need to explain to younger children how these are not everyday activities. It’s not like you want anyone really embezzling, or assassinating people, or making false accusations about you or anyone else. For the sake of the story though, these are necessary elements. Anyone under 12 years old might need a grown-up to explain some things. Everyone in this world needs to be able to differentiate between entertainment and reality. 12-year-olds and older could probably read this without too much confusion. So, my final judgment is that this is recommended reading. Pick up a copy of How To Lead A Life of Crime today.
Xenosthesia.com 