At heart this is a fairly standard teen spy novel, with a character who sort of stumbles into espionage. She isn't suave or refine. Kitty is out of her depth and making the most of natural inclinations. She struggles, makes mistakes, and constantly feels insufficient. She's incredibly human and relatable, making this very readable. Nothing very deep but highly entertaining.

This book had a slow start but I’m glad I stuck with it. Kitty Granger is a great protagonist, a sharp and observant girl with autism who finds herself mixed up with a spy organization, and ends up making friends and broadening her world, oh and also saving the day of course! I definitely recommend this one.

3.5 stars

Before this book, I had never read a spy book like this. It takes place in 1960s London and features an autistic main character who is recruited to work as a spy for the British government because she's so observant and good at puzzles. I loved the setting and having a neuro-divergent heroine, it was very unique and set this apart.

This felt like an introductory book, we didn't get to know the side characters super well and I still have some questions about Kitty and her life before the story starts. There's no romance, which is fine, but I wanted to see some deeper connections form between Kitty and her fellow spies. Other than Verity, we only see the 'young bloods' a couple times and I would love a sequel where we get to see Kitty further drawn into their group.

The mission was fun but seemed resolved fairly easily and I was hoping it wouldn't be completely wrapped up to leave room for another book. I still think it would be easy to continue the series and I'll keep checking back in case!

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. Thank you to Lerner Publishing Group and NetGalley for the copy.

This book was recommended to me by a few friends and it sounded really fun, but unfortunately, I didn't end up enjoying it. Mainly, I feel like the story was almost too fast-paced and simplistic, to the point of feeling very underdeveloped. That was combined with very juvenile writing for a YA book with a 16-year-old main character, and I didn't appreciate seeing a teenage autistic main character portrayed so child-like. Autistic adults exist too and we are no less mature because of our autism. All in all, that means there unfortunately wasn't much I enjoyed about this book, so I didn't finish it.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was a well done story and I enjoyed getting to know the characters. I hope there is a second story.

I loved this book so much! It's the first time I've found myself hoping a book is a series. Kitty is incredible. I'm autistic and I related so much to her. This honestly reads like it's written with first hand experience and it was just so refreshing to have such. positive representation. I also appreciated the effort put in to. confirm Kitty is autistic without having it mentioned anywhere in the book. For the time period, it absolutely makes sense that Kitty wouldn't be diagnosed. I think that's what I liked about it too. It's nice to have autistic characters just existing and because it's not an official diagnosis, Kitty just IS autistic without things specifically being about her autism, if that makes sense. And generally it was just a really good book. The plot was fun, the characters were great and as. I say I really wanted it to be a series because of these aspecets.

I loved this book. It's so, so nice to read a book where an autistic girl's traits are seen as strengths. While she struggles, we never get an idea that she needs to conform to the neurotypical expectations - quite the opposite, she's treasured because of her neurodivergence.

I'm usually hesitant about Cold War settings but this was very, very far from our typical "good Westerners saving the world from the bad Soviets" narrative. First of all, the characters are so diverse, coming from all sorts of backgrounds, and are selected to be spies not because they are handsone white cishet men but because they are people who the society (especially 1960s British society) tends to dismiss. Second of all, the enemy is actually BRITISH fascists.

The book reads more like a middle grade despite Kitty being 16, but I love middle grade and it didn't bother me at all.

One thing to keep in mind is that, as far as I can tell, the author isn't autistic themselves. However, the rep is done very respectfully.

I wholeheartedly recommend!

I absolutely hated this book. I am actively seeking books with good representation of autistic and autistic-adjacent characters. If Kitty was ever identified as autistic, I didn't get far enough to find out. The writing was distant and fixated on descriptions of things Kitty was seeing or hearing but never gave a sense of how she was experiencing them. I gave up after two chapters. DNF.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley for review.

This story checks so many boxes for me:
1960's London
Feminism
Neurodiversity
World Building

It's the whole package and made it onto our Teen Bookish Round Table List for 2021/2022
I couldn't have loved it more!

Full disclosure: I requested this book only because the protagonist has the surname of Granger.

I went into the book without many expectations. An autistic girl in the 1960s becoming a spy? Yes, sounds interesting!

I was pleasantly surprised. It was fast-paced and I really liked Kitty. She is smart and badass. But I liked Verity more! Plus, no romance.

All in all, a good book. I really feel this book must reach out to autistic readers.

If you love YA thrillers with strong characters and want a quick read, this is the book you must pick.

4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Kitty is quite the character! I loved this character - warts and all. She's a dynamo of courage and fear and action. Kitty struggles with some form of autism, but overpowers it in her own unique ways. The story is NOT about autism, just the fact that Kitty must travel life a bit differently. This is more like James Bond meets Nancy Drew. And what a ride it is! Filled with intrigue, action and conquest. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and look forward to reading more about Kitty Granger.

An engaging spy thriller for teens with a memorable main character. Looking forward to seeing more of Kitty's adventures.

Definitely here for this badass girls fighting bad guys! I loved that there wasn't any romance, too. It is by far my favorite part of this book.

It's 1967, and Kitty Granger is about to accidentally become a spy. A working-class girl from London's East End who would be recognized as being autistic in today's society, Kitty Granger has spent sixteen years hiding her peculiarities from the world. She hates noise and crowds, tends to fixate on patterns, and often feels acutely aware of her surroundings even as she struggles to interpret the behavior of people around her. She is most at ease when her mind is doing something logical like doing a crossword puzzle.

Life is about to racially change for Kitty all because of a fidgety and mysterious man who she follows right into a Russian spy ring. The one thing you will immediately notice about Kitty is that she is pretty damn smart. Her hyper-awareness helps Kitty discover things nobody else can see, she finds a secret compartment that most others would have missed, she can remember the most benign but important things, she sees things which are out of place, and she's never met a crossword puzzle which can stump her. In other words, she would be the perfect spy.

After her brutal encounter with Russian spies, Kitty, who always remembers faces and names, is given a chance to work for a pair of British spies Mr. Pryce, and Mrs. Singh. She meets her new co-workers called the Orchestra, an untraditional, ethnically diverse, and welcoming group of spies and scientists which includes Verity Chase, Faith, Liam, Tommy, and Saul. In order to become a spy, Kitty must train hard and pass a variety of tests from combat training to weapons training. Thanks to her ability to mimic anyone's speech, she's given a very dangerous mission working alongside Verity. Kitty's mission draws her into a conspiracy led by a prominent politicians who want to rewrite English history.

With help from her team, Kitty must use her wits, training, and instincts to get out alive. And she might as well save the country while she's at it. But espionage is already dangerous, even without the risk of sensory overload, and Kitty struggles to stay calm and safe amid strange circumstances. With gadgets and gizmos aplenty, daring escapes, last-minute miracles, and cinematic and crisply described action sequences, Kitty's adventures read like a neurodivergent, female James Bond for the junior set.

I totally spaced on leaving the review for this after I finished it. Things have been crazy hectic ... something that I know Kitty would totally understand. She's a kindred spirit in so many ways. Granted, I am far from being 16 or British and I never got to live out my fantasies of being part of a kickass Avengers-type team (the Peel/Steed Avengers, of course .... not the Marvel ones). But still. I feel like she would get me and I definitely felt like I got her and I can't wait to see what happens with her next ... because there absolutely HAS to be a next!

Kitty Granger describes herself as ‘peculiar’. She doesn’t like large crowds, she notices small details and things out of place, she gets overwhelmed by too much sensory input and has coping mechanisms to deal with being overwhelmed. Things like playing with her fingers, talking or singing to herself, or crosswords help her calm down. Kitty Granger is autistic but that term isn’t commonly applied to girls in the UK in the 1960s.

Kitty’s eye for detail gets her into trouble within the first twenty pages. She notices a man acting strangely and follows him off the bus. After losing track of him for a second, she sees a brick out of place, feels that it’s loose, and discovers a canister of film behind it. Kitty gets kidnapped, roughed up, questioned, and then subsequently rescued by a spy group that calls themselves the Orchestra. Soon, she gets a job offer to become a spy and joins other young people serving in the organization. She learns how to shoot a gun, tail people, collect information, and other things important to spies. She already knows how to notict accents.

I enjoyed the characterization in this novel. Kitty, in particular, is very well described. Her cohort is also well fleshed out. Best of all, there is no romance between any of the characters. I was so afraid there would be, which I feel would have detracted from the plot and also from Kitty growth as a spy. Everyone else is sort of glossed over, which makes sense because Kitty is the main character. But I would have liked to see her form more meaningful relationships with the others. Because there is a significant time skip after she joins the organization, we don’t see her really get to know the other young people, particularly Tommy, who is also from the East End and shares Kitty’s unique accent. It is implied that they all spend time together and get to know one another, but seeing it would have been much preferred.

I did have trouble placing the story in time. Place was easy. But time was harder. I had to look up some key names and movements mentioned to narrow down the time period. I didn’t re-read the summary before starting but specific dates being mentioned would have been useful. The plot was a bit unimaginative at times. It follows other novels that have teen spies. Alex Rider, the Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter, the Charlotte Holmes series, even Kingsman. And the main spy adventure is foiling a plot to blow up Parliament, something that was famously attempted by Guy Fawkes and is recognized worldwide.

Even in the 60s, wouldn’t the police have to tell a parent that their child had been kidnapped? Wasn’t gun control pretty tight even then? So would Kitty have even been legally able to learn how to shoot a gun, unless the Orchestra is operating under the law? But we know they’re not, based on how they interact with the proper officials. The cover for Kitty and Verity to explore the Lowell house is pretty tight, since Verity had been friends with the daughter, Diana, for time before the main plot began. Because of the nature of their relationship and the friendship with Diana, I would have thought the Orchestra could prepare Kitty for the mission better. She walks in with a believable Canadian accent, sure, but she’s not up for the vapid small talk expected of her. She didn’t have any background on Canada, even though she was supposed to be from Ottawa. Even though the timeline was fairly short, you think they would have had her read up on Canada a bit, or sit through a tea full of small talk and banal chatter, so she could get used to it.

It could come down to them not understanding her peculiarities, perhaps assuming that she was used to small talk, working in her father’s shop. But it is clear that she’s poor, and that she hasn’t exactly played lawn tennis or had tea with upper crust people before. The Orchestra just should have better prepared her.

Despite the small plot inconsistencies and lack of completely unique plot, I fully enjoyed reading this novel. Falksen describes Kitty’s mindset well, how she feels in stressful situations in which she’s overwhelmed, how she filters sensory input and relies on patterns and clear instructions to make it through. She struggles and loses her grip a few times, which is entirely realistic and expected given that she’s overwhelmed. She’s never experienced so many of the situations she encounters, so not only are they new, they are inherently stressful for anyone.

For that, I’m giving the book 3.5/5 stars. It’s a fun young adult novel, a little juvenile. I might call it middle grade but there is a lot of violence, particularly gun violence.

What a book! Set in nineteen-sixties London, Kitty Granger is introduced to the world of Cold War spies and conspiracies, where she is uniquely qualified to succeed. Kitty, although it doesn't explicitly say so, is autistic. In her regular existence, she is considered strange, and a burden by her protective father. But, in the world of espionage, her unusual traits are valued. This was a fun, and exciting book.

What I Liked:

Setting:

Who doesn't love London's swinging sixties? The mod fashion, music, and general feelings of optimism and change are apparent in the details from the author. Growing up in London's East End (a very poor area), Kitty is used to scraping by in life. Despite this, her neighborhood is comfortable and home. I loved that Kitty instantly felt at ease when she met another fellow East Ender.

The Sixties were a time of great change in England. As more immigrants started to settle in England, some people became alarmed by what they considered an invasion of foreigners. A reactionary element in politics gained momentum. This is the political climate in which the novel takes place, and it becomes important to the progression of the story. The author did a good job of explaining the foundations of this movement to the reader.

Characters:

Kitty is autistic. The book does a wonderful job of describing how Kitty sees the world. She uses many different coping skills when she becomes overwhelmed. But the author also highlights many positive aspects of Kitty's mind. She can focus intently on an issue, and notices small details that others miss. She can also mimic other's voices, and has an amazing memory. I love how the author shows that Kitty can use her talents when others give her a chance.

But some situations are more challenging than others. Kitty has to really think through social interactions before understanding what others expect out of her. Loud noises and large crowds can trigger a panic. This is really stressful for Kitty. I could empathize with her struggle to maintain control. Having just finished The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, I can see Anya Taylor Joy as Kitty.





One of the other stand-out characters, in my opinion, is Mrs. Singh. She is a glamorous, independent woman. I could definitely see Jameela Jamil playing this character in a movie. Calm, and always prepared, she was such a great role-model for Kitty.





Story:

I love a good spy story. I found Kitty's training: learning martial arts, how to fire a gun, and using spy gadgets, to be really fun. The part of the story where Kitty finally gets to use all her training as she goes undercover was exciting. I couldn't put the book down!

Strangely, the plot central to the book is rather timely. Fascists push the slogan, Britain for the British, a racist reaction to immigration. Groups of these people are plotting something big to create change, I do not want to spoil it, but what happens echoes events happening today.

A Note about this novel's category designation: This book is being marketed as young adult fiction. But it would also be very appropriate for middle grade readers. There is no cursing, and I think younger readers in middle school will enjoy the action.

I really hope that this book becomes a series, I would follow these characters on a spy adventure in a heartbeat!

The Secret Life of Kitty Granger was a 3.5 for me. Kitty is a great character who has learned how to control her autism, however, I had a hard time with the language in this book. It took me awhile to realize that she leaves all her h's off her words, this slowed me down and frustrated me for a couple of chapters.

The story and history were fun. I really enjoyed reading about a neurodivergent main character, her quirkiness and peculiarities and how she traveled her world were really interesting which is a shame because the story felt flat and sadly didn't reach its potential. I was expecting and hoping for more character development but we only got a glimpse of it. Maybe in the next book it'll be explored at its fullest.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kitty Granger isn’t merely peculiar, she’s autistic. The Secret Life of Kitty Granger goes out of its way to describe her autistic traits, without directly stating she is autistic. This could be a sign of the times within the book itself, or the fact that young girls are more difficult to diagnose. Nonetheless, it would have lent more credence to Kitty’s character development in utilizing a neurodiverse character without hiding her true diagnosis.

Kitty’s neurodivergent-related quirks and peculiarities truly made her more adept at conquering the world around her. From being a spy and dealing with conspiracy theories, her attention to detail was indeed her super power. Kitty has such potential and I can’t wait to see wait when gets up to next. I think Kitty would be perfect for ages 10 and up!

Check out The Secret Life of Kitty Granger on 2 Mar 21’