by Jahnna N. Malcolm
“I guess I could pretend I’m Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie.”
“Or Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in some like it hot.”
“Or Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire.”
-Page 165
Title: Secret Identity
Author: Jahnna N. Malcolm
Publisher: Collins
Book: 1 of 12 Zodiac
Genre: YA/Teen contemporary
Found: school Library
Rating: 4 Voodoos
Aries: Direy, Determined.
Alex is a great musician.She’s also a girl.
Frustrated at not being taken seriously, Alex disguises herself as a boy and it works – too well.
Her band is a hit but if it becomes even more successful, will she be stuck as a boy forever?
-book back
This was always my favourite of this series – that I’ve previously read anyway. I read some of them when I was at secondary school, but our library never had them all and I never found them anywhere else. A few years ago I decided that it’d be a brilliant idea to buy them all and read them again! Well, I’m only just re-reading them…
This book surprised me on this read through. First published in 1995, this book covers and complains about many of the issues we complain about today. Which shows just how little progress has made when it comes to how women are treated in the music industry etc. This was obviously NOT something I noticed the last time I read it, I was probably more focused on the cute romance and the creepy crime which wasn’t quite creepy but I think it might just have meant to be – considering the others in the series.
This is only a short teen/ya book so it’s not surprising that background characters aren’t particularly well rounded or anything. And even the main characters are a little flimsy, but they are strong and interesting people so we’ll forgive them for it.
I admire Alex’s get-up-and-go. She knew what she wanted and she was willing to do anything to prove she was worth it, even pretend to be someone she was not. She shouldn’t have had to do that, but in the end she she made them all take notice and really that’s all that should matter in the music industry – talent.
For the first time I’m left wondering what heppened next. I wonder if Alex kept her ‘quirky’ look. I think it would be fantastic if she did.
