In a World Just Right by Jen Brooks
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Review Copy from Edelweiss
High school senior
Jonathan Aubrey creates worlds at will. In
Kylie-Simms-is-my-girlfriend, he’s given himself everything he doesn’t
have in real life-–the track team, passing grades, and his dream
girl–-until one day he confuses his worlds and almost kisses the real
Kylie Simms. Now his girlfriend Kylie and the real Kylie are changing,
and Jonathan must solve the mystery of his own life to save his love
from a gruesome fate.
My Thoughts:
After recovering
from a coma as a child, caused by a tragic accident in which Jonathan
lost his mother, father and sister, he has been wanted to disappear
and had dreamed about a life in a world where he is not scarred,
pitied and a social outcast. Fortunately for Jonathan, since the
tragic accident, he has been able to do just that. Jonathan is a
world-maker, an individual who can create and inhabit alternative
worlds, worlds in which he can have what he wants, what he cannot get
from the real world. First, his worlds where ones in which he was the
leader in missions against aliens, worlds where he was the leader and
looked up to by other children. During his sophomore year, he created
'Kylie-Simms-is-my-girlfriend', a world exactly like his own in
outlook, but different in ways that really matter to him – he is
popular, part of the track team, on his way to college and most
importantly, loved by Kylie Simms, the most beautiful girl he has
ever seen.
After juggling
between the alternative world and his real world for years, Jonathan
makes a mistake that spirals out of control – he confuses the
worlds and tries to kiss the real Kylie Simms, the Kylie that has not
shown any interest towards Jonathan, the Kylie that has not even
acknowledged his existence before. As a result of this mishap, the
real Kylie starts to feel things that she never expected to feel and
very quickly gets obsessed with Jonathan without knowing why. In
Kylie-Simms-is my-girlfriend, Jonathan's fantasy world, Kylie starts
to feel differently about Johathan and though she still loves him
(mostly because Jonathan created her to do so), she finds it
difficult to be around him. Jonathan is starting to lose control of
these two worlds and the only way he can try to gain the control back
is to bring the worlds and the two Kylies together.
The concept of In
A World Just Right is quite different from anything I have come
across before. Though these are several YA novels that play around
with two different realities, I have never seen it being done quite
this way and with so much detail. Jen Brooks's world building is
masterfully done and the world-maker aspect of the novel is extremely
well established. Though this novel can definitely be categorized as
fantasy, to me it read more like a contemporary novel – the
fantastical element is established so well that very quickly, I just
started to accept it as reality.
What I really
loved about this novel is the fact that instead of making the two
realities very different, Brooks decided to portrayed them as very
similar and gave me, as a reader, a chance to find the little
differences between them. I feel like my role as a reader was almost
like one of an investigator trying to find the little things that
made these two realities different. This similarity of the worlds and
the fact that Jonathan has created a world that is almost like his,
inhabit by the same people than his real world, instead of a world in
which he is for example rich and famous, emphasizes the fact that in
order to be happy, you don't necessarily need big changes. For
Jonathan, happiness means that he is not invisible and that he is
loved by someone – the ingredients for happiness identified
universally by the humankind. But as he creates this happiness
himself, he fails to see that with a little effort, he could get the
same from the real world.
I feel like
usually when it comes to YA novels, I am somewhat able to figure out
the twists and turns while reading towards the conclusion. This in
one way means that I think all YA is predictable – it just means
that as an avid reader of the genre, I have started to notice generic
conventions, as a result of which I very rearly am completely
surprised about the twists and turns that take place. While reading
this book, I kept making predictions about what would happen, but I
must admit that none of them ended up being right. Some insane things
take place and most of them came to me out of the blue. Since this
book is so unique in concept, I never quite new what to expect, and I
say that it was really refreshing, but also kind of unnerving, to
read a book that did not really fit into any of those generic
conventions I usually look for while reading YA.
I always find it a
bit difficult to read novels, especially YA ones, narrated entirely
from the point of view of a male character. It took me a little time
to get used to Jonathan's narrative voice and throughout I felt like
I cannot fully trust him since it seems like he does not himself even
realize the extent of his world-making powers. Since I love
unrelatable narrators, I very quickly got into Jonathan's narrative
voice and wanted to know more, wanted to find signs of what is
actually true. Brooks excels in making Jonathan problematic,
especially in relation to the way in which he treats the Kylies, but
also treats him with sympathy, making sure the reader understands why
Jonathan has made such decisions. As the novel processed, I started
to feel for Jonathan more and more, and though I never really fell in
love with him, I understood him.
Jen Brooks's prose
is incredible – the voice she gives to Jonathan is intelligent and
funny, and the detail she has put into this novel blew me away.
Brooks writes with confidence and bravado – she's an experienced
world-maker, careful in her draft, full of surprises and promise.
4 Snowflakes
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