Craig Silvey

Jasper Jones

Jamieson

Superman fears nothing because outside a few very specific circumstances where he might encounter some stupid rock, nothing can possibly do him in. Batman has the same vulnerabilities as the rest of us, so he has the same fears as us. That’s why he is the most courageous: because he can put those aside and fight on regardless. My point is this: the more you have to lose, the braver you are for standing up


There are some books that keep you entertained.. and there are some books that touch your soul. Jasper Jones is a real soul toucher. It's a beautiful book, about growing up and discovering things about ourselves and others. It's a book about good friendships, strong friendships and unconditional friendships. It's about standing up to those who unfairly keep us downtrodden, it's about confronting injustice and small-mindedness and it's about first loves and it's about so much more. 

It's set in Australia, 1956, small town called Corrigan. It follows our protagonist, Charlie Bucktin, a bookish boy of 13 who's in love with literature, terrified of his mum and eager to leave the small town to head to the city. 

Enter Jasper Jones: Half Indigenous Australian, the town "delinquent", not as bad as people would have you believe. When Jasper Jones comes to Charlie's window in the middle of the night, to desperately ask him for help Charlie follows, and soon is embroiled in a mystery about the town that's bigger then both him and Jasper. 

It's hard to explain exactly what this is about without spoiling everything, but it was intriguing to me to the very end, and surprisingly, I actually remained completely clueless until the great reveal, I didn't guess anything that was revealed at the end.

The beauty of this story is in alot of things, but one highlight is the characters. The main three characters, Charlie, Jasper and Jeffery Lu are so different to eachother but each has a great dynamic. Charlie serves as an honest and raw protagonist. Jasper is an interesting, dynamic character who's presence immediately lights the book up - he was endlessly interesting. And Jeffery Lu is hilarious, genuinely made me laugh out loud while listening to this more then once. I loved his and Charlie's dialogue and banter - but I loved too that he had real sides to him, hard edges and the way he moved this his space in society due to his race was honest yet saddening. 

I honestly don't know how to explain this book, except to say I found it honest and raw - I found it did not skate over the icky bits of history, it did not shy away from portraying Australian's as maybe we don't like to be seen. And I'm glad it didn't do the whole "the bush will revive me as a human" thing that all Australian authors seem to do. It was realistic, gritty and awful at times but realistic. And I thought the discussions on race were accurate, and I think the way the characters were treated for their race was an honest discussion that had to be had. 

The blooming romance between Eliza and Charlie was not overdone or cringey, it was cute, slow-burn and I thought Silvey portrayed that breathless discovery of first love so perfectly. I loved the friendships, I loved how Charlie and Jeffery talked, I loved how Jasper and Charlie talked. 


  Sorry means you feel the pulse of other people’s pain as well as your own, and saying it means you take a share of it. And so it binds us together, makes us trodden and sodden as one another. Sorry is a lot of things. It’s a hole refilled. A debt repaid. Sorry is the wake of misdeed. It’s the crippling ripple of consequence. Sorry is sadness, just as knowing is sadness. Sorry is sometimes self-pity. But Sorry, really, is not about you. It’s theirs to take or leave.


Jasper Jones: a beautiful story about friendship and first love. An honest story about small-mindedness, racism and country towns. Funny, sad, disturbing, cute, quirky and honest - I loved the portrayal of Australia and it's people, I loved the mystery, I loved the romance, I loved the characters and the prose and everything in between. 

A really wonderful Australian novel, genuine and realistic. It's hard to explain exactly what is so captivating, and exactly why it has me reeling and why it's touched me on a profound level, but it has and this is in instant Australian fave.

priya

Jasper Jones gave me nightmares. I was definitely too young for this content when I read it. I still can’t handle it. I’m probably going to get nightmares just from thinking about it. Honestly, even reading the title gives me nightmares.

Nadine 

#YA well written mystery set in small town Australia where everyone has something to hide

Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleepout. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu. And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

A Novel

Katie Day

** spoiler alert **
           Gripping first-person account of a 13-year-old boy in Australia (Perth?) in 1966? 1967? and his growing knowledge about himself, his family, and his community. Class differences, racial prejudice (against Vietnamese and Aborigines), suicide, secrets, violence, incest..... Loyalty.... Friendship.... Love.... Life... Dreams and ambitions.... A mystery about a girl's disappearance drives the events...

Sarah Jackson

This book was so enjoyable to read! Charlie is such a well developed and interesting character and he is complimented so well by Jeffery's ceaseless banter. 

My only criticism is that I think it got a bit wordy/tedious in places. This was fixed though in Kate Mulvany's stage adaptation. I can't wait to perform this in October

Jasper Jones

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