Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

This book follows the story of Charles "Charlie/Chuck" Bucktin and Jasper Jones (obviously. LOL). This book is set in a town called Corrigan in Australia at around 1965. Charlie, one of the main characters is portrayed as a smart, innocent boy who loves listening to cricket on the radio but pathetic at playing it. Jasper Jones on the other hand is not so innocent. In fact, he is known as the most notorious criminal in all of Corrigan despite his young age. He is also homeless and he eats whatever he steals or finds and lives on whatever he can make.

The plot of this book revolves around the death of a young girl named Laura Wishart who gets killed and hanged right where Jasper Jones is "living". So obviously, that makes Jasper the primary suspect. This is how Charlie is dragged into the story when Jasper enlists his help to try and find out who really killed Laura Wishart. (lets just say that Jasper isn't the brightest kid in the bunch) He never went to school as a young boy and grew up on cigarettes and alcohol for snacks instead of fish and chips with a family who wasn't really stable. Unlike Charlie, who is raised in a middle class family getting the needs of an average teenager.

This might seem a little weird in that two kids from totally different worlds meet and form an unlikely friendship over the death of a girl. I thought this was a really nice touch by the author in a way how he made the two main characters meet in the story. So their friendship bonds as they try to uncover the murderer and Charlie himself who wasn't even interested in the beginning of the book, his behaviour towards this incident and towards his family has changed. Especially his behaviour towards his mother when he starts swearing at her and talking back everytime he gets told off. This is because of the intense burden and pressure Charlie has inside him and he is forced to keep it between Jasper and himself only. Jasper is very concerened because not only is he the primary suspect but he and laura really liked each other and Laura was the closest thing Jasper got to a real friend (besides Charlie when he meets him ., LOL)

Of course, Charlie is forced to keep the secret until they find out who really killed Laura but he is tested by his obnoxious best friend, Jeffrey Lu, a Korean boy around Charlie's age who loves playing cricket and listening to it on the radio. He tries to let Charlie spill the secret which pressures Charlie even more and builds the guilt inside him. The story gets complicated as they meet new people who could potentially be suspects for the death of Laura Wishart and things get more complicated when Charlie madly falls inlove with Laura's sister, Eliza Wishart. He starts to from a very unique relationship with her and at one point in the story, he nearly tries to "interrogate" Eliza about her sister's death which I found very weird. hahaha , xD

I thought this book was realy good in terms of the suspense and how the author builds tension throughout the book because when I was reading this, I actually wanted to keep on reading itbecause I was really hooked in by the author and his use of vocabulary and how he made me feel as if I was really Charlie, telling the story from his point of view. I can relate to Charlie because I have been in his situation where I was entrusted with a secret by a friend and forced to keep it between the two of us despite all the temptations I was tested with. The touch of romance in this book was the cherry on top in terms of crafting this book to make it a masterpiece. I strongly reccomend this book to anyone who can read and give this book a 9.5/10 . :D

P.S: there is swearing in the book so don't be surprised guys ! hahaha ., xDD

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