Review #8:The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill

Title: Barnhill, Kelly Regan. The Mostly True Story of Jack. Little Brown. 2011. 323 pages. Tr. $14.49. ISBN 978-0-316-05670-0
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
Reading Level/Interest Level: 5.5 /Grades 5-8
Awards: None
Similar Titles: The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle

Jack has never felt like he belongs. In fact, he often feels like his family forgets he is even there. That is, until the day his parents decided to divorce and his preoccupied, executive mother take him to live with his Aunt and Uncle in rural Iowa. As if his life wasn’t strange enough to begin with, odd things begin to happen, the moment he attempts to enter their home whether from the tremble of the house boards, Nature’s measurable reaction to his presence,  a relentless itch, his parents forgetting his name, the cats that monitor his every move, or the legend in the town regarding the disappearance of children.

 For a 12 year boy that never had friends and didn’t believe in fairy tales, he is given a rude shock as his eccentric aunt and uncle try to enlighten his mind with the mystical truth and the seemingly paranormal circumstances surrounding his life. Hoping to write them off as nutty kooks, he has no choice but to begin to believe that there might just be something to these occurrences when his first real friends show him first hand proof that something is not right in their town and whatever it is, is dangerous. If he wants proof, he just has to look at one of the twin’s disfigured faces, the scars which turn redder the closer the danger comes.

 Whether battling the town bully, or trying to save his Uncle and Aunt’s house from the biggest man in town and his ulterior motives, Jack finds these are the least of his problems as he is thrust into a world that he finds he has no reason to accept if he is to find his true identity, his real mother and the truth behind unavoidable changes.

On a personal note, when I picked this book up, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It looked like a mystery but what I found was mystery, science fiction and mythology, relying heavily on tales of the Greenman and Earth Mother. The characters were wonderfully complex and the story written so that you didn’t know whether you were supposed to love them or hate them when you met them, and for a solid chapter afterward.

This reminded me very much of The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, a collection of nature related short stories featuring heavily on Green Man, changeling and forest myths. Green Man also happens to be one of my favorite books that I read over and over again. Jack reminded me so much of it, as a matter of fact, that it ended up on my Christmas list. If you have ever felt like you don’t belong, that there are secrets in nature that could be unlocked, and want a cerebral but easy to read fiction experience, do yourself a favor and pick up this book.