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JESUS JACKSON
by James Ryan Daley
The Poisoned Pencil, October 2014
278 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1929345062


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

As JESUS JACKSON opens, fourteen-year-old Jonathan Stiles is still dealing with the shock of his popular and athletic older brother being found dead at the bottom of a ravine near the school in an apparent accident. Jonathan's last memory of Ryan is that of an altercation over drugs with one of Ryan's football teammates, the aggressive Alistair, which ended in Ryan running away; this was the last time anyone saw him alive. Fearful of retribution and not wanting to soil his idolized brother's reputation with drug allegations, Jonathan keeps quiet but remains suspicious about his brother's death. Meanwhile, his devout Catholic high school's administration keeps pushing religious counseling onto Jonathan and planning religious memorials, which he finds both ironic and frustrating, as both he and Ryan were committed atheists.

Shortly afterwards, Jonathan encounters an enigmatic stranger named Jesus Jackson who offers to be a spiritual guide of sorts for Jonathan and help him find faith. Bizarrely enough, Jonathan takes him up on his offer and retains Jackson's services; while enlisting his new friend, an Asian-American outcast named Henry and Tristan, Ryan's grieving ex-girlfriend, to help figure out what happened to Ryan. Henry, a student of great literary detectives, employs some ingenious methods of detection, while Tristan uses her status as school "cool girl" to get Jonathan invited to some key social functions. Their investigation is both helped and hindered by Jonathan's budding romance with the quirky Cassie, who just happens to be their primary suspect's sister.

While there is a mystery central to the plot, JESUS JACKSON is never really about what happened to Ryan or even about Jonathan's investigation, but rather a vehicle for Daley to explore themes of introspection and issues of faith. It is here that this novel goes astray, with its focus frayed, and its protagonist acting in an increasingly fantastic manner. Supporting characters like the quirky teen romantic interest with dyed hair and the "Math Whiz" Asian sidekick seem to be picked from popular YA stereotypes and occasionally make the reader cringe. The novel's focus on spiritual matters overwhelms the central narrative while its title character is essentially tangential to the plot. Frequent flashbacks document the story of Ryan and Jonathan's exploration of faith and their road to atheism. A more subtle approach involving eliminating the obvious symbolism of the title character would have served the novel well, especially when the themes of faith were already well-established elsewhere in the book. By the end, not much is resolved in terms of the narrative and the author seems a little too satisfied with his protagonist's spiritual evolution while the reader is feeling a bit empty.

JESUS JACKSON is not a bad read, just an unsatisfying one. Readers get to know and care about Jonathan, but by the end of what might otherwise have been a compelling novel, they may be put off by the degree to which the message takes precedence over the story.

§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.

Reviewed by Ben Neal, October 2014

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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