Secret Circles

Young Repairman Jack #2

by F. Paul Wilson

When his five-year-old neighbor goes missing, Jack can’t help feeling responsible. He should have taken Cody home when he found him riding his bicycle near the Pine Barrens. And then a lost man wanders out of the woods after being chased all night by...something. Jack knows, better than anyone, that the Barrens are dangerous—a true wilderness filled with people, creatures, and objects lost from sight and memory. Like the ancient, fifteen-foot-tall stone pyramid he, Weezy, and Eddie discover. Jack thinks it might have been a cage of some sort, but for what kind of animal, he can’t say. Eddie jokes that it could have been used for the Jersey Devil. Jack doesn't believe in that old folk tale, but something is roaming the Pines. Could it have Cody? And what about the strange circus that set up outside town? Could they be involved? So many possibilities, so little time...

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Fiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published February 2, 2009

About the author

Francis Paul Wilson is an author, born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He writes novels and short stories primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer (1976). Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog and continued to write science fiction throughout the seventies. In 1981 he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller, The Keep, and helped define the field throughout the rest of the decade. In the 1990s he became a true genre hopper, moving from science fiction to horror to medical thrillers and branching into interactive scripting for Disney Interactive and other multimedia companies. He, along with Matthew J. Costello, created and scripted FTL Newsfeed which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992-1996.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulw...

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second book in the Young Repairman Jack series has the protagonist and friends finding a weird monument in the woods, getting involved with a weirder fraternal organization, and hunting for the Jersey Devil.

Sort of like It, only without clowns.

[tonya_with_an_o · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as engaging and fun as the first, but quite a bit shorter. We are introduced to an intriguing new Lodge member, a small child goes missing, the circus comes to town, and much more. I'm jumping right in to the next book, because I'm hooked!

[David B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A missing five-year-old, a mysterious artifact, a secretive lodge, and a dangerous creature occupy a young Repairman Jack as he and his friends investigate strange goings-on in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

F. Paul Wilson tells a good story. Following the adventures of Jack and his friends gave me pleasant flashbacks to reading series like Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators when I was a kid. Exposing adolescents to the mysteries of the supernatural is a reliable metaphor for confronting the mysteries of the adult world. We also get to see Jack’s developing penchant for finding his own unique solutions to injustices that society seems ill-equipped to solve.

https://thericochetreviewer.blogspot.com

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun summer coming-of-age book with a hint of magic and mystery.

[James Reyome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly entertaining second installment in the "young Repairman Jack" books, a prequel to the Repairman Jack/Secret History of the World/Adversary Cycle Wilson has been creating for the past thirty years or so. Again, this tale is aimed mainly at teens/pre-teens, but like the Harry Potter books it gets just a little more intense as you go along, and by the third book it's as much an adult tale. If you're reading the Repairman Jack saga, you must read the Jack books to get the full story. Excellently done and very gripping, Wilson should've done this series years ago…but I'm glad he did it now regardless!

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the first novel in the trilogy as Wilson avoids the 80s references and focuses more on the story.

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secret Circles is the 2nd book in the Repairman Jack Young Adult series. I’m going back and reading these after completing the main adult series so some of the mystery of what’s going on is gone but I can spot all the Easter eggs hidden for the readers. This book picks up shortly after the first book in the series but is self contained enough that it could be read on its own. The main plot point that carries over from the two books is a missing artifact that Jack and Weezy found in the Pines that had odd symbols on it. Weezy blames the mysterious Lodge in town with stealing the artifact. This plot point drives much of the action in the book, but Wilson summarizes what happens enough to catch everybody up on the situation.

Each book in this series features some mystery components, along with a situation that Jack must “fix.” In his adult life, Jack takes care of these situations for a living, but as a youth he is driven by his moral compass. In Secret Circles, Jack is faced with a missing five year old, a neighbor abusing his family, and recovering Weezy’s stolen pyramid. Along the way, he’ll deal with a Circus in town, mysterious creatures out in the Pines, and confront Ernst Drexler, the Lodge’s actuator who will have a major role later in the series.

In addition to serving as prequel fan service for fans of the series, Wilson tries to cater this book more to young readers but I worry he overdoes it on his character’s naiveté. While Jack and Weezy (and her brother Eddie) all still ride around town in bikes, Weezy’s love interest has a driver’s license and Jack is running a business while the owner is out of town. The characters make intelligent plans and deal with life and death issues, but seem pretty clueless about whether or not they’re interested in dating or not.

The climax of this book pulls a major concept from the Adversary Cycle book The Touch, and makes it much more questionable why Jack is such a skeptic at the start of The Tomb. With FOUR more prequels still to go (one more as a youth, and three after Jack moves to New York) my worry about the continuity of this series not holding up is feeling more justified. While the individual stories can be fun, if they don’t fit with the rest of the series or actively contradict what we know later on, I’d rather they not exist. That’s just my two cents, and Wilson is skirting the line but he’s not there yet. What’s wrong with just telling some good “Fix-it” stories and more about how Jack became so skilled? Not everything that happens to him should tie into the Secret History of the World saga.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes! What happened between book one and two? I really liked the first of this YA Jack trilogy, but this second one has nearly 75 pages of 'hey, remember when this happened in book one?' It's infodumpy, clunky, and annoying.

It certainly gets better, but so much of it is off kilter here that it plays out pretty rough.

As usual, there are a fair number of plates spinning, so the plot is difficult to pin down, but ESSENTIALLY this revolves around a missing child, a boy who Jack saw the morning he disappeared. Also we learn some more about the Lodge, and of course there's a new discovery in the Pine Barrens. And Weezy flirts with Carson Tolliver some more.

Nothing amazing, but as per usual, extremely readable.

[Doug Sundseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

In this second volume of the series, we get a minor plot of a missing young boy and continue the overarching plot of strange things in the pine barrents.

Again, the characters are well realized and draw a believable picture of typical small town life in the early '80s. The minor plot is introduced early on, then mostly abandoned, then picked up rather too conveniently near the end of the book. With this plot, we definitely get some unambiguous evidence of abnormal goings on.a

The overarching plot gets more detail as well, but the details don't add up to anything even resembling answers to major questions.

Like the first book, this is much better on character and setting than on plot.

[John Michael Strubhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure - F Paul Wilson is my current favorite author. That said, I must add that this is a very good YA book! I'm no YA, but this is the kind of thing I would have loved reading as a YA. Even as a 64-year-old adult, I found it extraordinarily engaging. This is part 2 of Jack's secret circles, and in it, Jack continues developing that skill for which he will become known - repairing things (actually, more like repairing situations and balancing the scales of justice, because no one else is doing it). Read anything that FPW writes and if you don't enjoy it, you're just not like me.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read the Repairman Jack books, then there are many places in this prequel book where you get the 'wink' from the author about something that is going to happen to Jack when he is older. Most cases are not at all subtle, and the lack of flashbacks or past references in the original books make most of these past events feel really forced. As stand-alones, this is a good series. As a prequel, not as good. If you start with these books, then I think the transition to the regular series would eliminate most of the (post) foreshadowing issues that I felt existed.

[Brett Grossmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a fan of the prequels. I can’t make any sense out of the fact that all of this happened and jack didn’t remember any of it till very late in the series of repairman books. That said this reads like a real old classic repairman book. Missed those. Once the adversary cycle took over the jack series the “repairman “ side of his stories took a back seat. Trying to horn all of his work into the adversary story line weakened the individual narratives of his books.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, pretty solid.
Although (in my opinion) it doesn't compare with the Repairman Jack series (more of a YA, less complex Jack) this was a big step up from the first Young Repairman Jack novel.

I thought this book was great and when you thought it was over, surprise there's still about 20% to go which was some of the most interesting parts of the book!

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved all the young repairman jack series. They told the basics of his start, I would like to have seen more of these. They were spooky without being creepy you really got a good feeling for the character Jack will become.

[Jean Jessup · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little boring, but with exciting parts interspersed. I'm Inspired to read The Touch now.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good bridging second novel in the young Jack trilogy. Highly recommended.

[Scott Greenough]

Love the young Jack series! Fun and an easy romp

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book (#2) in the young Repairman Jack books. I just wish narrator voiced the characters better, not like high-pitched characters from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book in Repairman Jack's life as a teen has he and Weezy still going on adventures. Jack showing an early inclination to do what he can to help people,

[Ian Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading 40ish in this over all series, Weezy never really clicked with me. This book turned her around and I get the character now. Very fun read, I'd be open to more in this time period.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Things are not always what they seem in this place: you can't take anything for granted." This sentiment, spoken by the worm to Sarah as she searches for the path to the center of the Labyrinth, underpins the stories in Wilson's TSHOTW, but perhaps in no other story as much as in the Young Repairman Jack Trilogy, particularly Secret Circles. YRJ, though labeled a "young adult" trilogy, is a coming of age story like Boy's Life or IT: kids exploring the world and their relationship to it, with incessant curiosity, the need to question, and the reluctance to accept anything at face value providing a constant backdrop to the shifting currents of their everyday lives. Jack's relationship with Weezy most clearly represents this "wonder of childhood," while I see his growing relationship with Karina as the move most of us make into the complacent acceptance of adulthood. (We know that Jack isn't "most of us," while Karina... just might be.) Those who maintain the childlike wonder are the Jacks, Weezys, and Walts of the world.

If you've read the other RJ novels then you might really be thinking nothing in this book is as it first seems. I went through most of the book thinking "rakosh" every time the characters smelled that sickly sweet stench; yet given the creature who's been caring for Cody, I'm not sure that the rakoshi will appear in this trilogy. Now I'm dying to know who or what the bear "might have been," as Drexler says, and I hope we find out in Secret Vengeance. I also thought that Drexler would've had a much harsher reaction to Jack and Weezy's break-in: is he a different man at this point in his actuarial career, or is he just softer here because this is supposed to be YA? There may be details about him that I don't remember from the Adversary Cycle or RJs, so I'll have to revisit him there. But overall I think the characterization of each player that develops in this novel is true to the way we see these people depicted in other stories of TSHOTW, especially Walt. The Touch has always been one of my favorite novels ever, not just in the AC, so I was excited to see Walt appear in this book, but I think if the reader didn't already know about this character, they might not think his character is developed or explained enough in this book. That could be a pitfall of the novel: readers coming to it with knowledge of all the other RJ novels and the AC, even stories like "Dat Tay Vao," will likely be excited to see their favorite people again, but those who are starting out with YRJ may be confused or think that the character building is thin.

[Randy]

The second volume in the young adult series that shows the development of the adult Repairman Jack.

Fifteen year old Jack was the last one to see five year old Cody Bockman before he disappeared. Jack was his hero and he'd followed him on his bicycle, with Jack shooing him home. Now he wishes he'd followed him all the way.

The Pine Barrens, a huge tract of forest is where he'd gone missing and strange things happened in there. Jack and his friends explored there regularly and had found a big mound, later dug up and gone. In this volume, they found a six sided pyramid fifteen feet high, with a glyph on each side, that matched a small version found in the mound. And later stolen.

Some sort of creature roamed the woods as well. Jack had smelled it and spotted it out of the corner of one eye, fleeing on his bike with it in hot pursuit. This wa the area of the legends of the "Jersey Devil."

His other problem was his best friend's family. Tony had died in the first book. Jack has discovered abuse and wonders if he should report it. And how.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very similar in style to the first Jack book and not quite as exciting, nevertheless it's still a solidly written book and fun to read. Secret Circles starts after the events of the first book and Jack is with his pals Weezy and Eddie (although Eddie gets kinda left out in this book) getting into trouble again. This time a local boy named Cody has gone missing, who lives down the street from Jack. Jack and Weezy find a new pyramid made out of stone in the Pines that seems connected to the one they found in the first book in this series. And Jack and Weezy think it's the very secret Septimus Lodge that is somehow behind it. And the tale follows Jack and Weezy's adventure to figure out what happened to Cody.

Secret Circle was very similar in style and substance to the first book (Secret Histories), and the Lodge, the pyramid, and Weezy's secret history of the world were all rehashed again in this book, so it did not feel as fresh as Secret Histories, nor was it as fun. Nevertheless I had a good time reading it, and recommend it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any good thriller sequel, Book 2 of the Repairkid Jack trilogy ups the ante in mystery and suspense. In SECRET CIRCLES, not only do things get a whole lot darker and scarier; Jack also learns that not everyone appreciates being the beneficiary of his special brand of help.
This is the kind of book I would have flipped over in my pre-teens: a lost underground city, a secret door opened only by a pyramid-shaped key, a brain-eating monster, a secret fraternity in possession of hidden knowledge, and a drunk Vietnam vet with mystical healing powers...and that's just the beginning! The main drawback here for adults is that much of the story feels very contrived. Young Adults, on the other hand, aren't likely to think twice about it. SECRET CIRCLES is the perfect book for readers too old for HARDY BOYS but too young for Stephen King.

[Veronika Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

IT seems lately that all the good books I read are YA and the second repairman Jack Secret Circles is just wonderful. I have to admit I am beginning to enjoy this series almost more than the adult jack books. Key word there is almost. This was a great scary kid read, I actually had to put it down right before bed time and I am dying for someone else to read it so I can discuss how cool it is! Lots of good mysteries that I'm sure will appear in the last YA book and future adult jack books. And if you've never read anything by F Paul Wilson, start with The Tomb and get the full Repairman Jack treatment.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of F Paul Wilson fans recommend reading the Secret History of the World books in chronological order, and I tried that strictly at first which meant reading the first young Repairman Jack book (Secret Histories) before reading any of the RJ series. I sensed in Secret Histories that I was missing some details that would be more obvious to someone at least passingly familiar with the adult Repairman Jack. Therefore, I read The Tomb before reading this second young Jack book, and it made much difference. Knowing the man he becomes really adds more perspective to his experiences as a boy. Overall, another satisfying YA novel.

[Bryan457 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack and Weezy find a stone pyramid shaped cage in the pine barrens that is definitely related to the pyramid stolen from them in the 1st book. Weezy is still obsessed over the stolen pyramid. A 5 year old boy who is Jack's neighbor goes missing. A monster seems to be loose near the town.

This was a good story, but it lacked the little touches that I liked in the 1st one, namely fixing his brother with the pistachios. He does do a little fixing and outs a man who is abusing his family, but it's not really a fun fix.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? F. Paul Wilson is just a great storyteller and this is another example of why I like him so much. This is his 2nd young adult "Jack" book they are every bit as readable and enjoyable as the adult books. Just a great character and a very satisfying read. I can't wait for the next one!

If you have never read F. Paul Wilson, do yourself a favor and start. You won't be disappointed.

Check out his website: www.repairmanjack.com

[Sara Tarasenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Repairman Jack series is one of my favorite series. Now as the series is drawing to an end, F. Paul Wilson has started writing a few young adult novels based on Jack. The writing style is as good as his adult books. What I love about these books is that it gives insight to the future world of Jack in the adult books. We see how he slowly became a 'fix-it' guy and how his life has been pre-determined from the very beginning.