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Jake and the Dynamo: The Wattage of Justice
Jake Blatowski can’t wait for high school: basketball, calculus, and a cafeteria that isn’t under investigation by the health department. Well, he’s going to have to wait: a computer malfunction has assigned him to the fifth grade.
It’s bad enough that he bangs his knees on the desks or that Miss Percy is going over long division … again … but Jake’s sitting next to Dana Volt. She’s a perpetually surly troublemaker who doesn’t even have to exert herself to make his life a living hell. But no, it gets better: Dana secretly belongs to a coalition of girls protecting humanity from the horde of deadly monsters that plagues the city. But Jake’s no hero; he just wants to get to varsity tryouts!
When the monsters choose a new target, Jake’s not at all surprised that the target is him. Sure, why not? That's the kind of week he's having. Now the impulsive and moody Dana is the only one who can save Jake from certain death—but Jake is the only one who can save Dana from herself.
It’s bad enough that he bangs his knees on the desks or that Miss Percy is going over long division … again … but Jake’s sitting next to Dana Volt. She’s a perpetually surly troublemaker who doesn’t even have to exert herself to make his life a living hell. But no, it gets better: Dana secretly belongs to a coalition of girls protecting humanity from the horde of deadly monsters that plagues the city. But Jake’s no hero; he just wants to get to varsity tryouts!
When the monsters choose a new target, Jake’s not at all surprised that the target is him. Sure, why not? That's the kind of week he's having. Now the impulsive and moody Dana is the only one who can save Jake from certain death—but Jake is the only one who can save Dana from herself.
317 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 29, 2018
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
D.G.D. Davidson
12 books5 followersD. G. D. Davidson is an archaeologist, librarian, and magical girl enthusiast. He is the author of the JAKE AND THE DYNAMO series, featuring the madcap adventures of the luckless Jake Blatowski and the surly Pretty Dynamo.
Davidson makes his home in various places throughout the Midwest, where he pops up at unexpected time and in unexpected places to deliver extemporaneous pontifications on Cardcaptor Sakura or Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. He is excessively fond of cheese and flavored whiskey, and he blogs on occasion at www.deusexmagicalgirl.com.
Davidson makes his home in various places throughout the Midwest, where he pops up at unexpected time and in unexpected places to deliver extemporaneous pontifications on Cardcaptor Sakura or Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. He is excessively fond of cheese and flavored whiskey, and he blogs on occasion at www.deusexmagicalgirl.com.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 17, 2018
Side-splitting, thrilling, poignant
This is at once a loving tribute to magical girl anime and an insightful criticism. It is also hilarious. There are times when the laugh lines come so fast you can't catch your breath and other times when the insight is so deep you can feel it all the way inside you. The author is very familiar with his source material and understands the consequences of its tropes far more than the creators that develop it. Jake is very identifiable and you really feel for him. The central magical girls-- Pretty Dynamo, Card Collector Kasumi, and Grease Pencil Marionette-- are deep and well-drawn. You feel their triumphs and their pain. Things you took for granted are exposed from entirely new angles. But it is also rip-roaringly funny. The tale is barely begun and book 2 is nearing completion even as I write this. It cannot come too soon for me!
This is at once a loving tribute to magical girl anime and an insightful criticism. It is also hilarious. There are times when the laugh lines come so fast you can't catch your breath and other times when the insight is so deep you can feel it all the way inside you. The author is very familiar with his source material and understands the consequences of its tropes far more than the creators that develop it. Jake is very identifiable and you really feel for him. The central magical girls-- Pretty Dynamo, Card Collector Kasumi, and Grease Pencil Marionette-- are deep and well-drawn. You feel their triumphs and their pain. Things you took for granted are exposed from entirely new angles. But it is also rip-roaringly funny. The tale is barely begun and book 2 is nearing completion even as I write this. It cannot come too soon for me!
January 12, 2024
I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. This is in the top five most unusual, good books I've ever read. At turns hilarious in a screwball way that evokes Mel Brooks at his best, surprisingly poignant, and deconstructionist without being destructive, if you can catch my meaning. Look, I'm a 46-year-old girl dad, with lots of memories of 80s and 90s anime, and while this deconstructed the magical girl genre (as well as other genres and pop culture works), it did it in a way that doesn't sneer at them or their audiences. It's an authentic love letter, while not shying away from the more questionable elements taken to their extreme absurd implications. The poignancy comes in a deft weaving in of moral and religious themes, adolescence, doomed war for survival and what's worth saving about humanity, and it means to be human. The author threads the needle between serious moments and yuk-yuk comedy in the same scene, in way the Thor movies only think they did. Recommended!
September 17, 2018
This novel maintains a very nice balance. The premise is that Earth is a battleground and that magical girls have been raised up to protect people. Jake is a young man who does not like magical girls and yet gets caught up with one as the story unfolds.
I was grinning throughout. I always like when the potential for an interesting premise is taken advantage of. This is well done here. Lots of room for laughs and an over-the-top running gag added to this. What I really liked was that this novel could be hilarious while also making fighting scenes meaningful. There are consequences and you come to care for the characters. This is something I rarely see. The battles are not just plot points.
So I definitely am looking forward to the next in the series.
I was grinning throughout. I always like when the potential for an interesting premise is taken advantage of. This is well done here. Lots of room for laughs and an over-the-top running gag added to this. What I really liked was that this novel could be hilarious while also making fighting scenes meaningful. There are consequences and you come to care for the characters. This is something I rarely see. The battles are not just plot points.
So I definitely am looking forward to the next in the series.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews