Review : The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
Pages : 304
Genre : Fiction, (YA)
Stand alone
My Rating : 4/5
About the Book :
The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—they’ll swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary.
But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary’s affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends.
My Thoughts :
On Friday I finished reading The Hating Game (review to come), which I liked a LOT, and I felt so taken by it that I didn’t expect to get into another book right away. But as I tried to choose which book would be next, I grabbed The Impossible Fortress and read a few pages… and then a few more… and then I was halfway through the book. I finished it on the same night.
It’s safe to say The Impossible Fortress is extremely readable. It’s light, fun, a bit nostalgic and really likable. Billy’s story reads like an adventure, his and his friends’ plan somewhat mirroring the game he is creating, and it’s a spot on representation of the teenage mind. The book feels quite cinematic, too, both for its story and its characters; it’s a great afternoon read that is incredibly easy to visualize as you flip through the chapters. It doesn’t have one boring moment, and the pace is just quick enough.
There’s a lot I enjoyed about it. Mary, for sure. And one thing I loved was how Billy made assumptions about her, and how he was sometimes wrong about them, too. It was cleverly done, and not in a too obvious manner, I thought.
Similarly, I also really liked the ending. It wasn’t too perfect or too depressing. Somewhere in between, surprisingly honest and refreshing.
It’s interesting to me that this book isn’t marketed as YA, because it might as well be. I’ve read harsher, cruder, more shocking books sold from the YA shelves, more than once. The Impossible Fortress has a tone and a pace that would fit really well there. I’m guessing the publisher is trying to reach the older crowd, people about my age who grew up in the 1980’s and will read this book out of nostalgia, and who would never venture in the YA section of the story. I don’t see it as a negative, but it does remind me how subjective and limiting these labels sometimes are!
All in all, The Impossible Fortress was a lot of fun. I greatly enjoyed Jason Regulak’s smooth writing. Worth mentioning is the fact that you can visit the author’s website and click “Play the Game” at the top to play the game Billy works on in the book. It’s quite fun too! 🙂
I’m glad I grabbed this off netgalley because I keep reading good things about it!
I hope you enjoy it too! I was very pleasantly surprised 🙂
I just started this book last night and I agree, it’s very readable. I think I’m going to like it a lot!
Oh! I hope you enjoy it all the way through as I did! I hadn’t expected it to be such a quick read, but it was just right to tell this story. Let me know what you think!