I Can Only Imagine

Hey there!

Today, I want to talk about a book I read the other day: Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation by Matt Myklusch. (Wow, what a last name!) Apparently, the book is also known by another name: The Accidental Hero. 

So when I began reading this book, I wasn’t really all that impressed. Everything seemed absolutely predictable. The main character started off in an orphanage, was rescued by an android named Jazen and taken to a place called the Imagine Nation. Felt extremely Harry Potter-ish with a robot instead of Hagrid.

Actually, a lot of the beginning felt reminiscent of Harry Potter, even after Jack arrived. Jonas Smart was Snape. Stendeval was Dumbledore. But here’s the thing: It didn’t stay that way. No, while parts of it felt distinctly Harry Potter, something happened that threw the whole thing for a loop.

A Plot Twist. An Honest-to-Goodness, Holy-Cow-I-did-not-see-that-coming Plot Twist.

So, suddenly, the whole story is different. Instead of being slightly bored, I’m freaked out of my wits! I want to know, to understand this. How could this happen? What in the world does this mean for the characters?

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what good writing is about. Giving your readers something that makes them love these characters, this world, and then throwing them for a loop. Lightning strikes! Of course, the story could be much, much better if the initial writing was better; I think he really needed a better editor. So much more could have been done! But, as it is, Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation is awesome. I’d love to actually own it. (Though if I did, I’d probably go through and mark all the summary that should have been a scene. There’d be at least one mark every other page.)

So, yeah, I really liked this book. The world was brilliantly described; the characters were interesting; and the author led us right to where he wanted us and then spun everything around like the streets in Cognito and sent us somewhere else. He even handled the orphanage thing pretty well. The first line says, “The sign in front of St. Barnaby’s Home for the Hopeless, Abandoned, Forgotten, and Lost read CRUSHING THE SPIRIT OF CHILDHOOD SINCE 1898.” Though the beginning could have been better, and there were many places I’d have rather seen than been told what was happening, it kept me going. I didn’t want to put it down. This is the kind of book you can read and learn something from as a writer, some good things to do and maybe some things not to do. But in the end, you have a story that’s just fun to be in, a story we can all learn from.