This book has a lot going for it. It’s a pretty good coming of age mystery that reminds me a little of Stand By Me. However, it falls just short of that book’s greatness.
On a hot summer night, Charlie’s reading is interrupted by Jasper Jones at his window. Much to his surprise and excitement, Jasper needs him to sneak out and help him. The excitement turns sour when Jasper leads Charlie to a girl’s dead body hanging in a tree. Fearing that Jasper will be blamed, they get rid of the body and swear to find the real killer.
The base story is really good. Charlie is a fantastic main character, just a little dorky and eager to please, while Jasper is the perfect bad boy with a heart of gold. The two characters play off each other well in the book. The rest of the characters are filled in nicely, rounded out to be more than background pieces. The mystery and the fear it generates within the town are compelling and you really want to know what happened to the girl just as much as the boys do.
One of the highlights of the book is the dialogue between Charlie and Jasper as well as the dialogue between Charlie and his friend Jeffery. It just smacks of adolescent boys in such a way that you feel like the author must have sat around eavesdropping and used real conversations he heard. By far the best dialogue I’ve read in a long time.
The only real downside to the book was Charlie’s internal monologues. They just went on a little too long and happened a little too often. At least once a chapter Charlie was rehashing everything to himself and I wanted to skip ahead because I already knew everything he was saying. However, that’s really my only complaint about the book. Oh yeah, and insanely long chapters!
Worth a read if you like mysteries and a good coming of age story, which who doesn’t?