Blog Tour: The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser

Rating: 3.5 stars

Pub Date: January 3, 2017

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: young adult contemporary romance

Format/Source: ARC, from the publisher

Status: standalone (I think)

Summary:

Amy Lennox doesn't know quite what to expect when she and her mother pick up and leave Germany for Scotland, heading to her mother's childhood home of Lennox House on the island of Stormsay.

Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House—but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy's new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts—at whatever cost.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of The Book Jumper from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect the contents of my review in any way.

Review:

I wanted to read The Book Jumper as soon as I saw that cover because seriously, it is gorgeous. And the summary is intriguing as well: a little bit fantasy, a little bit mystery, a whole lot of bookish nerdiness. And I'm happy to say that The Book Jumper delivered!

One of best things about The Book Jumper, for me, was the language. Oh, Mechthild's use of language is lovely, particularly in regards to the setting! The descriptions of Stormsay are completely beautiful, sometimes dark and atmospheric as a Brontë's moor and sometimes clear and summery. And then when Amy starts jumping and wanders between book worlds—the wild jungle of The Jungle Book, the quirky literary town in the Margin (which I LOVED! More on that in a second), the desert and planets in The Little Prince, the fairies' forest of A Midsummer Night's Dream, etc—oh my gosh, I felt like I was there every bit as in each of those works, sometimes more (because, let's be real, Shakespeare wrote wonderful characters and dialog but rarely gave much attention to the setting past "this is where the play takes place"). The details are poetic and inviting. I really appreciate when authors play with language to make a book feel real, and I felt like Mechtild really did that.

I would have liked to have gotten to know all the characters even more. It's a large-ish cast, but it feels rather intimate: Amy, her mother Alexis, grandmother Lady Mairead, Will, his cousin and uncle, several well-known book characters, and three special literary characters Glenn, Clyde, and Desmond,. The Book Jumper gives lots of large details regarding many of the characters such as Amy's and Alexis's reasons for leaving Germany, their family drama, the history of the feuding clans, Will and Sherlock's friendship, etc, but I should have liked the book to have dug deeper into each character and gone further in the development. It's very much a plot-based book (literally. The plot is about book plots :D), but I think at times it was plot-heavy and more attention could have been given to the characters. ESPECIALLY because Amy has a very unique ancestry that was glanced on, but not truly explored.

I do like the dynamic between Amy and Alexis. It reminded me of Lorelei and Rory on The Gilmore Girls, and I like that their relationship evolved throughout the story. Will and Amy are also an interesting pair. Yes, it's a bit insta-lovey, but like, come on. They're the only two non-related boy and girl on the island and they have cool powers and have to save their world and all the fictional ones. That forms a bond so I'll allow it.

Okay, back to another thing I LOVED: the fictional worlds. The cool thing about these is that they aren't just cookie cutter book worlds pulled from their source material. They truly come alive in The Book Jumper, and it was so cool to see how the literary characters acted outside their plots. I thought it was cool that one of the biggest literary characters in the story was Werther from Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. That's not a work taught regularly in American schools, but I think it's fantastic that Mechthild pulled a German work to be prominent in the story. Shere Khan was definitely a surprise as well. I always think of characters in books having more complete lives, but it was actually on the page of The Book Jumper, and I loved seeing the characters even more complete than they are in their stories. And the Margin, THE MARGIN. I absolutely fell in love with this little fictional place on the edges of all the books. There's a marketplace where you can buy punctuation marks and a Hero Outfitters and a chemist's shop that has a cure for "weak verbs" and all other delightful sundries, and all the fictional characters hang out together, regardless of genre or time period. This is one of those amazing extra touches that really energizes a story. And the scenes where Amy and Werther (sometimes Will too) jump between stories or jump between scenes in a single work were really cool. It was like fast-forwarding or rewinding the story, and it was utterly magical.

The Book Jumper is a lot of fun to read. Yes, at times it's predictable, but...come on, some of the stories are already well-known and there's definitely a formula to this story. But there were some delightful twists as well, and I am 100% on board with the ending. It's a real risk that paid off with this reader. There's a happily ever after in an unexpected way, and I like that it was daring and NOT true to formula. I've seen several reviewers mention a sequel, and yeah, I do still have some questions (TELL ME MORE ABOUT AMY'S FAMILY!!!) so I would be glad for another, but I'm also okay with The Book Jumper standing on its own.

Which world would I jump into?

Each blogger on the tour stop was given the opportunity to pick a fictional world to jump into. I had a hard time picking between one of Shakespeare's works (he is my favorite!!) or Peter Pan, but I eventually went with Peter, Wendy, Tink, the Lost Boys and the pirates, and Neverland, and I'm really glad I did. I had no idea the role Peter Pan had to play in the book, but WOW. Super cool. The thing about Peter Pan is that it's one of those books without a definitive HEA. Whether Peter stays in Neverland or joins Wendy in the real world or if Wendy stays with Peter or leaves him and returns home, it's quite sad... but it's REAL. I love how bittersweet it is. No one wants to grow up... but the alternative is not growing up ever, and you would miss out on so many wonderful things. I think it's wonderful how the original Peter Pan and its many adaptations (minus the Disney version) capture that bittersweetness. And then there are the many sequels that seek to finish J.M. Barrie's story and give Peter his HEA.

Come away to Neverland

So here are a few gifs that capture the magic of Neverland as I believe in it (if you can't tell, I ADORE the 2003 live action remake and Hook too, obviously) as well as a couple of my favorite songs from the soundtrack (the whole thing is brilliant and one of the best works composer extraordinaire James Newton Howard has ever created!).

Never have to worry about grown-up things again

Oh... THERE you are Peter

The Lost Boys with their lost leader... now found!

fairy dance

Wendy & Peter

Wendy & Peter dance

^not a gif, but I adore this picture of Hook with Tink

I do believe in fairies!

"To live would be an awfully big adventure."

By the way, there's another reason to want to jump into Peter Pan, but you'll 

have to read The Book Jumper to find out why! Purchase your copy today 

(or enter to win a copy below), and jump into The Book Jumper!

Purchase Links:

   

Tour Schedule:

Be sure to check out all the posts on this blog tour. All the hosts

have picked a companion story to go along with our reviews!

Jan 3: Take Me Away To a Great Read

Jan 4: Mundie Moms

Jan 5: Stamps & Scraps with Yapha

Jan 6: Reading Nook Reviews

Jan 7: Mary Had a Little Book Blog

Jan 8: Stories & Sweeties

Jan 9: Quite the Novel Idea

About the Author:

Mechthild Gläser is an award-winning author in her native Germany. The Book Jumper is her first book to be translated into English.

Author Links:

 

Giveaway: 

Enter to win a finished copy of The Book Jumper. Open to US. Entrants must be 13+ with parents' permission Giveaway is open until 12 AM CST January 16. Please enter via Rafflecopter below; winner will be chosen at random, and odds are determined by number of entries. I reserve the right to disqualify any entries that are not in accordance with my giveaway policies as stated in the Review & Site Policies tab at the top of the page. Prize will be supplied by publisher, and the winner will need to give written permission to share address with the publisher. Mary Had a Little Book Blog is not responsible for lost prizes. Good luck!

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