Jack: Secret Histories -- F. Paul Wilson
They discovered the body on a rainy afternoon.
Lots of excellent first lines lately, huh? Jack and his friends Weezy and Eddie find the body in a huge, seemingly ancient mound in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. With it, they find a black cube covered in strange symbols. Only Jack is able to open it. Inside, they find an equally strange black pyramid, also covered in strange symbols. When they report the body to the police, they don't mention the cube.
Are you familiar with Repairman Jack? If not, just know that he's awesomely awesome. I love him, and I don't even know him all that well. So the idea of a YA novel -- about Jack as a teen -- appealed to me in a big way. I wanted to know how Jack became Jack. And Secret Histories was a good start on the way towards figuring that out: he discovers what may be a government (local and national) conspiracy, learns lock-picking skills, and exhibits insatiable curiosity, very quick thinking, a tendency towards justice via revenge and a willingness to engage in violence.
The story is set in 1983. It's very easy to figure that out, as there are multiple references to bands, video games, computers, food, celebrities, television shows, movies, etc., etc., etc. on practically every page*. I have to say, I really dislike it when authors choose to evoke an era in that way -- because (for me at any rate) it doesn't work.
It's the same with The Clique novels or Gossip Girl or any of the other books jam-packed with superfluous brand names -- rather than evoking an era or a lifestyle, the names (again, for me) are distracting. There was also some effort made to explain some of the differences between 1983 and now (no internet, cultural stuff), but those bits felt disjointed and inorganic, and so they were also distracting, felt a bit teach-y and made me feel like the author might not think much of the audience's reasoning capabilities. And the minor storyline about the friend with a drinking problem was WAY issue-y and frying-pan-to-the-head-message-y. Not cool.
I think, even with the secret society and murders and government baddies with big helicopters in the dead of night, if I hadn't already been a fan of the character, I'd be skipping the rest of the series. As it is, though, I know I'll read the others. I can totally get over issues with the writing style if it gets me more Jack. It's the first in (I believe) a trilogy about Jack's teen years, and it might appeal to readers of Alfred Kropp and other similar stories.
*Seriously. First page: Police, Sting, Pole Position, Atari 5200, Atari 2600, The Jeffersons.
Grown-up Repairman Jack books*:
*That I've read. It's odd -- though I'm not all that fond of Wilson's writing, I'm way fascinated by the mythology he's created and, of course, by Jack. I'll probably eventually go back and start the grown-up books from the beginning.