By night

Jane's working a dead end job in dead end Spectrum, South Dakota, when her old friend Heather literally shows up on her doorstep and ropes her into an unexpected adventure involving an abandoned factory, a missing baron of industry, a secret room, and a portal to a weird alternate universe. Impulsive Heather is the perfect foil for nervous, rule-following Jane, who, while initially reluctant to join in Heather's urban exploration (aka hipster trespassing ), sees in it the perfect opportunity to reclaim her passion: documentary filmmaking. Allison crams this comical sf adventure with crackling, witty banter and sharply defined characters, including Heather's affable, clever dad and Jane's loyal coworker. Larsen's playful character designs, emphasizing vivid, eloquent postures and facial expressions, add to the cartoonish fun. Meanwhile, the alien universe through the portal is charmingly strange, and the dusky, tumbledown storefronts in Spectrum nicely evoke the boredom of small town life and, by contrast, the thrill of an oddball adventure. Fans of Allison's Giant Days series will find a similar brand of smart comedy here, with the addition of a compelling mystery at its heart. Plenty of lingering questions, puzzling clues, and a cliff-hanger ending mean this series starter happily has much farther to go.--Sarah Hunter Copyright 2010 Booklist