In A World Just Right by Jen Brooks - ADVISABLE

Brooks, Jen In A World Just Right, 419 pages. Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2015. $17.99

Language: G (2 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG. 

Jonathan Aubrey has been a loner since he awoke from a coma after surviving a plane crash that killed his entire family when he was only eight. However, the lonely existence does not bother him since he has the ability to create other worlds for himself; in these worlds Jonathan can have the life he wants to have—including the girlfriend he could never have in the real world. But one day his worlds collide for reasons he cannot explain and as Jonathan tries to put things back he comes to learn that world-making is a lot more complicated than he ever knew.

I was initially a bit lost with this book since the author drops you right into a world with ideas and rules that are totally new and expects the reader to just catch up. But once I caught up and caught on, I was totally hooked.  The story struck me as being very fresh and inventive--any movie studio would be lucky to turn this one into a film—and the author kept the writing clean and focused. There are some vague references to sexual activity, but nothing concrete enough to be even PG-13. The twists and turns that make this book so good (and keep me from giving any spoilers away!) also require some intense thinking and following so the book would really be best directed to a high school audience.  

HS – ADVISABLE.

Reviewer: Tara C