Goth Girl Rising, by Barry Lyga

YA 390 pages. Sequel to The Astonishing Adventure of Fanboy and Goth Girl

While the last volume was told from Fanboy's point of view, this one is Kyra's (a.k.a. Goth Girl's) story. It picks up six months after the conclusion of the last volume, and contains a lot of explanation of why Kyra does what she does. In some respects it's a very thought-provoking book, and sheds a lot of light on both main characters. However, there were times where it felt like Lyga was trying to squeeze every Teen Issue he could into one person's life. It felt believable, though, and the short chapters made it really readable. While the last book had a lot of asides about X-Men, Fanboy's favorite comic, this one focused on Sandman, Goth Girl's book of choice. There's even a recurring section where Kyra writes letters to Neil Gaiman, rather than in a journal. That alone made this book worth reading for a Gaiman fangirl like myself.