The Book Jumper

by Mechthild Glaser

[lizarodz]

What first attracted me to The Book Jumper was its beautiful cover and the of course, the premise. What avid reader has not dream of living within the pages of a book?

Amy and her mom Alexis are taking a “holiday” from their life in Germany by going by to the home that Alexis left years ago and never thought to return to. The small Scottish island of Stormsay is home of the Lennox and Macalister clans who are Book Jumpers and guards of the word of literature. Of course, Amy did not know any of this until the very last minute, which is quite a shock for her. However, she takes to is like a fish to the water and turns out to be a very gifted Book Jumper. Amy very smart, but she’s had problems with bullying which’s left her very self conscious and with a bit of self esteem issues. She’s brave, loyal and friendly.

Will Macalister is a fellow Book Jumper that has been training for much longer than Amy. He’s go through the crisis of loosing his friend Sherlock right as Amy arrives to the island. He’s more reserves, pragmatic, and was left behind by his parents who did not want the Macalister heritage anymore.

Is there romance? Yes, as you might imagine Amy and Will do indeed fall in love as they work together to figure out what is unraveling some of the stories in the literary world.

Other characters take a backdrop to Amy, but it is nice to see family involvement in young adult lives.

There are two things that I loved the most about the story. The first it’s the plot itself, which is to say, all the jumping around from one story to another: Sleeping Beauty, The Odyssey, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Midsummer’s Night Dream…. It’s fascinating! There are even crossroads with signs from one story to the next, a Margin, where characters hang out and even a way to go forward to skip pages. That is to say that the world building is quite awesome.

My second favorite thing is Gläser’s the writing. It is quite gorgeous, lyrical, and enthralling. The pace is action packed and fluid. The story is told in the first person from Amy’s POV and on the third person from Will’s POV, which allows us a bit more insight of what is going on while Amy is not there.

Overall, The Book Jumper is a bittersweet story that brings the power that words (and literature, more specifically) have to shape our world, our perceptions, and our memories.