This is the third of Dr. Wilson’s “Repairman Jack as a teenager” books (following “Jack: Secret Histories” and “Jack: Secret Circles.” These three books show how Repairman Jack was as a teenager, and fills in some background as to how he became who he is in Dr. Wilson’s Adversary Cycle and the Repairman Jack series.
If you haven’t read the Repairman Jack books, get with it, man! Sorry, for those who don’t know who Repairman Jack is, he can’t fix your washer. He is the man you call if you have a problem that cannot be solved by any other means. He sounds like the “A-Team,” but he is one man and he is a lot more subtle.
In this book, his friend Weezie has finally won a date with the BMOC, the star high school quarterback, Carson Toliver. He takes her to a spot in the Pine Barrens, a mysterious million-acre stretch of trees in southern New Jersey on which their town borders, and there begins to attack her. She escapes from the car and flees the scene.
In school that next Monday, Carson begins to tell a different story: that she attacked him and he repelled her. Naturally, since he’s the quarterback and she’s just a sophomore sort of goth chick, his story is believed and soon people are calling her “Easy Weezie.” This upsets her so much that she runs home and vows never to return to school.
This does not please Jack, and he begins a week-long scheme to thoroughly humiliate Toliver to make him feel like Weezie is feeling.
If you have read the other two books, some of the lingering mysteries from those books are answered, such as: why does Weird Walt always wear gloves, and; who is setting those leg-traps on old man Foster’s property in the Barrens, and; why does Jack’s mom call him her “miracle boy”? New mysteries are exposed and not answered, although they do tie in to other books (mainly in the Adversary Cycle).
Wilson’s books are always pleasant reads, and the Repairman Jack books in particular are enjoyable. The three young-adult novels in this series are readable by older people and are fun and quick, but you do need to read them in order. So go pick ‘em up.