Book 1 in the Jasper Dent series
AUTHOR: Barry Lyga
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery, thriller
PREMISE: A boy whose father was a serial killer hunts down a copycat killer.
MY REVIEW: This is one of the many books that, had it not been for the blogosphere, I likely wouldn't have bothered to pick up in the first place. I just plain didn't have any interest last year, but these past few months, with the release of the sequel, this book has gained a large following and I've seen it recced right and left and that got me curious. Say what you want about the blogging community, it is good for getting me to look at books I otherwise wouldn't, and for that I do love bloggers (even if we sometimes don't see eye to eye on books).
So is it good? Yes, definitely, but a few things did bug me. For instance, I wasn't crazy about the fact that all the women in the series were victims in some way. Even Connie, awesome as she was (and can we revel in the fact that for once, the female love interest is a PoC?), was routinely manipulated by Jasper and she never really went beyond her role as "I'm the supportive awesome girlfriend". She was a fun character, but she didn't exactly do much and she was probably the best female character in there. That and some plausibility issues made me not love the book as much as everyone else, even if I do think it's a good book.
The main thing for me in this book is the character study of Jasper and how the author goes into the psychology of nature vs nurture, etc. I just love when authors explore characters like this and make you think about the uncomfortable things and Lyga most certainly did that and he did that well. I will definitely be reading the sequel which is out now and apparently made of awesome.
WHO SHOULD READ: Dexter fans, James Patterson fans, those not afraid of gore
MY RATING: Four out of Five knives
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