Maybe it's just me, but when I heard the title The New York Four, I couldn't help imagining a lost Enid Blyton novel.  Possibly about a New Wave band. 

Then I came to my senses and figured that it was probably going to be my least favourite type of story: "I live in a major city and I'm going to tell you about its poetic soul."  Fortunately, it's not like that either.

No, this is the latest Minx digest - only a week after Water Baby, which is odd scheduling.  Our creators this week are Brian Wood and his Local collaborator Ryan Kelly, as the imprint continues its strategy of drawing on talent from the indie scene.  Come to think of it, I've never read Local.  On the strength of this, I probably should.

Despite the title and the back cover blurb ("Experience Manhattan through the eyes of Riley..."), this really isn't a love letter to New York.  Lead character Riley is a shy, sheltered freshman student in New York, still living at home.  Her sister ran away to become vaguely bohemian; her parents are very uptight about the whole thing.  It's really a story about Riley plucking up the courage to make a break for independence.

And it does this story very well.  It's a gentle plot, but it works because the characters are detailed and believable enough to make us care about them and their essentially universal problems.  New York is used well; to be honest, you could do the same story in any major city with a university, but the story makes good use of the way Riley is able to slip into anonymity and isolate herself in the city crowds.

"Hold on," I hear you say.  "Wasn't this book called The New York Four?  What happened to the other three?"

Ah, yes, well.  Mmm.  Here's the thing.  Remember the first Minx book, Plain Janes?  And remember how that book was supposedly about four characters, except it was really only about one of them?  And remember how it all made a lot more sense when they announced a sequel? 

Well, this seems to be along similar lines.  This is Riley's story.  The other three are supporting characters, who seem to have been designed for future use.  One even has a subplot.  True, this story needs them because Riley has to get out there and make friends in the real world, but to be honest, that's the weakest part of the plot; they go from total strangers to friends rather speedily.

However.  Unlike Plain Janes, where the other three were borderline ciphers, Riley's co-stars have been developed to the point where I'd quite like to see the sequels with their stories.  They're an interesting bunch, and while there's some room for fine-tuning the group dynamics, I can see plenty of material in here.

It seems pretty clear that this is the first of a projected series.  But it delivered a complete story for Riley, and it convinced me that I want to read the sequel.  You can't really ask for much more, can you?

Rating: A

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