What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

It is the summer of 2013 and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. Teenagers around Hampstead Heath have been going missing but before the police can get fully engaged, the teens return home - unharmed but vague about where they've been. Aided only by her new friend Simon, her knowledge that magic is real, and a posse of talking foxes that think they're spies, Abigail must venture into the wilds of Hampstead to discover who is luring the teenagers and more importantly - why?

Loved the foxes. It was a little confusing how we got to the house but overall, an enjoyable Rivers story. I had to look up a lot of slang but that is part of the fun.

Interesting story, but a deep dive on Abigail Kamara and the challenges she is facing. The greatest strength of this whole series is Aaronovitch's skill with characterization. Yes it is fantasy but the main protagonists are real humans with real/relatable problems.

I enjoy spending time with Abigail and the foxes: she's a great character, and I like the foxes too. Simon and his mum are rather good characters in their different ways. But, as always with this series, I like the writing and the characters better than the opponents and problems that they run up against.

The problem that Abigail encounters here is an original idea, well imagined and described, but I find it creepy and unpleasant, and I'm unconvinced by the explanation of what it is and how it came to exist.

Furthermore, when we see a child getting it together and tackling a major life-threatening problem of intimidating weirdness that would severely challenge an adult, I have some difficulty believing in it. Yes, Abigail is a gifted and precocious child (aged 13 at the time of this story), but this is not a child-sized problem, and I don't like it when authors throw children to the wolves like this. Terry Pratchett did it repeatedly to Tiffany Aching, J K Rowling did it repeatedly to Harry Potter and friends, and I'd enjoy these books more if they gave the children problems that a brave and intelligent child could more reasonably be expected to deal with.

On my latest rereads, I skimmed over the chapters describing Abigail's adult-sized problem in detail. I enjoy the other chapters...

Abigail seems to have picked up Peter Grant's stupid habit of saying, “Me and X did something”; however, she does it less often than he does: only five times in this novella. (I don't think even they would say, “Me did something”, so why “Me and X did something”?)

Good, although felt a little uneven tonally (starting off apparently PG13, but then cutting loose with the f-bombs later on). Not sure if this is aimed at the younger or older end of YA. In any event, a nice little addition to the Rivers of London series.