Impossible Fortress

by Jason Rekulak

It's 1987. Billy Marvin, the tallest boy in ninth grade, has just witnessed history.

Wheel of Fortune presenter Vanna White is on the cover of Playboy.

Billy and his friends, Alf and Clark, know that if they can get hold of the magazine, their world will change. For ever.

But as Billy says, 'No shopkeeper in America was going to sell Playboy to a fourteen-year-old boy.'

As they set out on their mission to find the most wanted images in America, they're blissfully unaware of the dangers, dramas and garbage dumpsters that lie ahead. And of how a girl called Mary might just change one of their lives. For ever.

• ISBN10: 0606408401
• ISBN13: 9780606408400
• Publish Date: 28 November 2017 (first published 2 February 2017)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 September 2021
• Imprint: Turtleback Books
• Edition: Bound for Schools & Libraries ed.
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[anastasia]

Full Review on my blog!

Cute, funny, 1980’s love story~

Fourteen year old Billy (Will) Marvin loves hanging out with his two friends, Alf & Clark, and programming video games on his Commodore 64. But when Playboy publishes photos of Vanna White, Billy and his friends do almost anything to get copies… including breaking in to Zelinsky’s store to steal copies. Along the way of trying to get their copies Billy meets Mary Zelinsky, and everything changes. He starts going to her fathers store; they hang out everyday, programming and hanging out..

There were so many surprise, and omg moments. This book was perfect and the author did a good job creating this perfect world. I highly recommend it!

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[readingwithwrin]

"I hadn't told them about my secret plan to grow up and make video games for a living... and I wanted to have my own software company. These all seem like crazy things to say out loud."

See reviews first on my blog

I have mixed feelings on this book. Rekulak did a good job of showing the cluelessness of teenage boys and the things that they will do just to see something that there not supposed to. But I also felt that while the boys friendship was realistic, it also lacked something. Billy, Alf and Clark are best friends yet we hardly learn anything about Alf or Clark besides the fact that they've all been friends forever and that they like to give each other a hard time about things. Also that they don't really care that one of them has a hand that as the character calls it "the claw" the boys don't draw attention to it, and are supportive of the characters opinion of it. Even though they think he shouldn't hide it all the time and that just because he has it doesn't mean that he won't find what he wants later in life.

Lets get back to the main point of the story though. Getting the playboy and seeing Vanna in all of her womanly glory. But as 14 year olds this is impossible, so they come up with an elaborate plan to steal one, to do that though they need a code to make sure an alarm doesn't go off. In order to get the code one of them must befriend or make the girl fall in love with him (lots of crude language used) in order to get the code. So billy decides to do it, and along the way he becomes friends with Mary the store owners daughter. Who is amazing at coding and a mystery to Billy. (Mary just might top my favorite list of characters.)

"You're the first person I've met with a 64, and you're a girl."
"Is that strange."
"I didn't think girls liked to program"
"Girls practically invented programming."

As the two start to work together Billy genuinely starts caring about her and together they make a computer game that could help them win the latest computer. This is were things get messy because you know why Billy is being nice, but you also start thinking that maybe just maybe he won't go through with the original plan. If he does or not that's something you'll have to read to find out.

You can even play the game Mary and Billy made The Impossible Fortress game on Rekulak's website, www.jasonrekulak.com, if you're a computer game fan.
"And just like that we were back in business"

Thank you to Simon Schuster and Jelly books for an e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.