Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball
At first I found this novel rather slow going. Like the main character of “Paranorman”, he sees dead people. Unlike Norman, most of Jake’s deceased are caught in loops—re-experiencing their deaths repeatedly until they dissolve in sparkly bits. Jake rarely if ever interacts with them. In fact, he tries desperately not to interact with anybody.
When a character is this shut down and the author constantly describes his spectral surroundings as mist and fog, it’s hard not to feel enervated and bored. So Jake can see dead people. Since it’s been going on so long, it’s like someone being able to see red among a sea of color-blind people but does nothing with his talent. After a while, what real difference does it make?
Then matters start to get interesting. A sociopathic (or is it psychopathic? I can’t seem to find anybody who can tell the difference with any certainty) Sawyer Doon went on a shooting spree on his school and then killed himself. When his spectral form locates the brooding, miserable Jake, the malevolent spirit sees a chance to seize Jake’s body and create mayhem with it. Throw in his occasionally mean-spirited brother, anxious mother and a guy who may have a crush on him and you can see that Jake’s got a lot on his plate.
The novel picks up speed as Jake forces himself out of his lethargy and his silences and fights back against bullies, hostile teachers who don’t want to deal with the only black kid in school yet watch him closely for signs of misbehaving and his cheating brother. Jake gets a backbone (due to a stern talking-to from his dead grandfather) and the novel gets itself a pair of balls.
Stick with this novel. When Jake gets a head of steam in him, it turns into something that bristles with energy and life.
When a character is this shut down and the author constantly describes his spectral surroundings as mist and fog, it’s hard not to feel enervated and bored. So Jake can see dead people. Since it’s been going on so long, it’s like someone being able to see red among a sea of color-blind people but does nothing with his talent. After a while, what real difference does it make?
Then matters start to get interesting. A sociopathic (or is it psychopathic? I can’t seem to find anybody who can tell the difference with any certainty) Sawyer Doon went on a shooting spree on his school and then killed himself. When his spectral form locates the brooding, miserable Jake, the malevolent spirit sees a chance to seize Jake’s body and create mayhem with it. Throw in his occasionally mean-spirited brother, anxious mother and a guy who may have a crush on him and you can see that Jake’s got a lot on his plate.
The novel picks up speed as Jake forces himself out of his lethargy and his silences and fights back against bullies, hostile teachers who don’t want to deal with the only black kid in school yet watch him closely for signs of misbehaving and his cheating brother. Jake gets a backbone (due to a stern talking-to from his dead grandfather) and the novel gets itself a pair of balls.
Stick with this novel. When Jake gets a head of steam in him, it turns into something that bristles with energy and life.