EMILY THE STRANGE

Feline-adoring, quirky Emily the Strange returns in this tepid follow-up to Emily the Strange: The Lost Days (2008), in the second of an intended series of novels featuring the cartoon figure whose likeness has appeared on a variety of teen merchandise. This installment begins with Emily heavily procrastinating the task of packing for an impending move. Even her golem, Raven, is little help since Emily hasn’t had the chance to reprogram her to be more autonomous. Once she and her mom are finally settled in their new home, however, Emily succeeds in both improving Raven and manages to hammer out the kinks in her duplicating contraption, creating a living, breathing “Other Me.” At first delighted, Emily quickly realizes she may literally have created the proverbial evil twin and must find a way to stop her. Reger and Parker’s stylized black-and-white illustrations are the high point here, and while there is some nicely paced suspense in the story’s midsection, once Emily begins to suspect her doppelgänger’s motives, the resolution is far too long in coming to sustain it. (Fantasy. 11-14)