The Impossible Fortress

Dina O.
Jan 31, 2017
3 min read

Author: Jason Rekulak

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2017

Pages: 304 (Kindle)

Rating: 4.5/5

"They were too short or too tall, too fat or too freckled, too sweaty and too flushed and too imperfect . But they were real, they were gloriously alive— laughing and shouting and sprinting across the field. I watched them in quiet astonishment and realized that the rumors about St. Agatha’s were true: these were the most beautiful girls I’d ever seen."

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This book is provided by Net Galley as an exchange for honest review. The story sets in 1987 and starts off incredibly awesome, Eleanor and Park who? :--)

The book mostly talks about computer programming or a game and how to develop it. But this book also talks about Billy Marvin, Alf, and Clark's plan on taking Playboy magazine that was booming that time with Vanna White in the cover from Sal Zelinsky's shop without him knowing...stealing? Nope, they are planning to pay. These three idiots are fourteen years olds (see? That's why they can't buy it directly) who have entrepreneur side, apparently, because they plan on selling amount of the magazine exemplars to their schoolmates IF they successfully get them.

(A little fact about the three of them: they're very crude, and what I mean by crude is, body shaming and swearing 24/7.

The plot. The plot is just a big big A. I'm in serious problem as I could die caused by jealousy at any time while wishing I could write a complex plot like that. Everything unbelievably adds up it's crazy. How a single mission of buying Playboy magz could lead to another issue and another one and so on and so far. The plot twist before the ending also exploded before my face like a volcano blasts off after asleep for one hundred years. Fucking genius. Indeed the there are heaps of exaggeration when it comes to making inside jokes among Billy, Alf, and Clark. They become very offensive and horribly insulting. Despite it all, I'm afraid I misinterpreted it as something inappropriate when the fact is that it is something normal back then in 80's. But after I finished this book, I felt relieved that even though that this book consists of amount of body shaming talks, there's none slut shaming especially after what everything has happened. Or it's a weird case?¿ This book is a masterpiece and I'm so glad it lacks of romance yet the story keeps on engrossing. To read a book the content I barely know about and the settings I'm not familiar with, this book is pretty satisfying.

For the characterization, Billy is a rough character. At times I actually think he always stays within his comfort zone, but then he starts smoking. Or when he is actually against the original plan but at the end of the day, he is willing to help his friends out. Very complex characterization for a very young teenager. So is Mary Zelinsky. Oh my God, I'm in awe, she's such a powerfully strong girl and has the possibility to be my new favorite character if I keep obsessing over her. She never shows her sorrow as if she's only made of suspicion and anger mixed altogether with awesomeness. Jason Rekulak is doing so excellent here with his debut novel, more than I expected the first time I requested his novel from Net Galley, and I am patiently (not so much) waiting for his next one.