Name: If Jack's in Love
ISBN: 9780399157523

Stephen Wetta

Struggling to survive in his 1967 Virginia suburb home where his trouble-making father has lost another job, 12-year-old genius Jack witnesses accusations against his brother, who has been implicated in the murder of a boy whose sister Jack secretly loves. A first novel. 30,000 first printing.

If Jack's in Love

Dorian Avers

** spoiler alert **
           Disclaimer: I read the ARC version of this novel, so I don't know how much was changed before publication. This book was okay. The title makes it sound like a light-hearted coming-of-tale and even the summary sounds a little light. This book IS more a coming-of age with a bit of grit rather than an investigative child crime sort of thing, even though it starts out with the imagining of finding a dead body. Jack lives in what I call the "Boo Radley House". The neighborhood kids bully him and his family because their house is poorly kept and his brother is cruel. The only reason this kind of worked for me was because it was from the point of view of the outsider. All the love between the kids seems more like a filler and Jack's relationship with Gladstein isn't appropriate because he's teaching him to be predatory towards girls. This book was just ehh, and of course the cliched ending of Jack going to Harvard, it's just ehh.

Quotes:
* "She suffered terrible post-migraine depressions and every new attack brought her a fresh understanding of the brutality of existence." (242)
** "Families live on loyalty more than love" (295)

If Jack's in Love

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