Jasper Jones

Shame on all my Aussie friends for not insisting I read this as soon as I became a citizen. Should be required reading. Beautiful, poignant and funny. It's so much more than a whodunit. I loved it.

This book was almost soooo good. And there are some things it nails. It's interesting, quickly paced, and has some great dialogue (even though I felt like the author was patting himself on the back for recreating early teen speech patterns) and an understanding of the society in which it's set. Also shout out to the main character for being as afraid of insects as I am. But dang there were some clunky parts. Don't you just love it when writers explain their metaphors explicitly? “It's like I'm batman and that means I have to be brave because overcoming your fears is a great coming of age theme” (exact quote (really)). And for a book that claims to see its characters as three dimensional people, the portrayal of a lot of these people is remarkably caricaturish. That mom though. I have a pet peeve when writers reference other books. Loved all those super obvious references to To Kill a Mockingbird. It's like when pretentious teens name drop bands to jack some of their cool (and I'm in a position to know because that's what I do).
This book probably deserves a three, but it was a fun read and the flaws were only obvious after reflection. They didn't really interfere with the reading experience. If only the author would just let his protagonist be without low key inserting his philosophy and musings into this absurdly precocious 13 year old.