A review by jojol
Golden Gate by James Ponti

4.0

The plural references to Sydney's "anti-establishment tendencies" really sold it for me, but wow, they really did not make children's books like this when I was the target audience. And yet, somehow, I was the exact target audience. The love for SF, from Muir Woods to Chinatown to the greatest airport in the world (when I say I squealed upon hearing "Chapter 33: SFO" I'm not joking), and the entirety of the Oxford scenes but especially the Bodleian heist (which did not sting because I hadn't yet been rejected from Oxford when I listened to that part) were things I wouldn't have appreciated in the same way I do now had these books existed when I was in elementary/middle school, but I can undoubtedly see how I would've had a different relationship with those places had I had the background Golden Gate would've given me earlier. I was a bit miffed at them referring to Squaw Valley as "a little town none of us have ever heard of"—like, they literally held the Olympics there, but okay.