Book Review: The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike
I grew up reading Christopher Pike, so I was interested to see how his style might have changed in the million years since I devoured his teen thrillers Weekend and Slumber Party.*
The answer: not a whole lot. In The Secret of Ka, American teen Sara is killing time in Turkey, while her father works on some excavation project at an ancient religious site. She’s, like, totally bored, but a chance encounter with the Turkish Amesh, a cute boy her own age, sparks her interest. The two go exploring, and find an honest-to-Allah magic carpet in the excavation site. The discovery begins a whirlwind adventure filled with djinn, magic, wishes, bargains, and some serious conspiracies.
In this book, Pike brings more obvious fantasy elements into its plot than in some of his earlier books, and he does a good job of presenting the world of the modern Middle East as a foreign but very realistic place. The characters are portrayed with tact, if not a lot of depth, and the worst stereotypes are reserved for Pike’s usual villains: adults in positions of authority. One thing that hasn’t changed about Pike’s work is that the plot is so twisty and filled with one back-stab after another that summarizing it is impossible. Sara learns of her secret origins, her family’s secrets, her boyfriend’s weaknesses, and her possible destiny in a series of breathless scenes, some of which result in her death (but this is Pike’s world, where death is neither permanent nor an impediment to dating). In the finale, with a lot of help and some dizzying endgame moves, Sara triumphs, though “winning” looks a lot different to her than it would have in the beginning of the story.
One thing I do like about Pike’s books is that even when his heroines do something dumb, they’re still generally smart, good people who can figure out how to make up for it. He talks about destiny a lot, but it’s Sara’s choices that get her into and out of trouble. And her choices (even the bad ones) are primarily motivated by her love of people. Sometimes it’s the ZOMG HE’S CUTE kind of love, but just as often it’s familial love or Sara’s simple conviction that it's right to help people when she can.
While The Secret of Ka is mostly pure fluffy entertainment, one could do a lot worse than Sara for a role model, and the book is a fun read.
*Now available as a 2 book
with an unfortunate cover.