Jasper Jones is a crime-thriller novel written by Craig Silvey. It has Charlie Bucktin, a 14-year old boy as its narrator and the main protagonist. It is summer in the village of Corrigan and the children are having their vacations. It is all calm until one night, Charlie has a visitor at his window, Jasper Jones, an outcast who is blamed for everything that happens at the village. Jasper leads Charlie to a place where he makes a discovery, which changed his life ever since.
The next day, Laura Wishart, the shire's eldest daughter is missing. The town is in a panic and the missing teams have come to search for her. But only Charlie and Jasper knows the fact that Laura was killed. The rest of the story mainly covers how Charlie and Jasper solves the mystery of her murder.
The story also covers Charlie's other experiences with people like Jeffrey Lu, his best friend and Eliza Wishart, daughter of Laura, also his crush. The story actively talks about how Jeffrey's family is treated in many cases as they are migrants from another country.
Hardless to say, Mad Jack Lionel plays a big role here. Casted as a madman among the people based on myths, it is really surprising and interesting to know about his truth which is later on potrayed in the story.
What I like about the story:
- The twists and plots introduced into the story, especially at the last, is just mind-boggling
- The story creates a suspense in the reader's mind until the end about what actually happened to Laura
- A clean picture could be formed of the story based on the explanations given
- An ideal philosophy is given in a conversation between Charlie and Jasper where they talk about many controversial topics like the existence of God and the thinking of people.
- The author has tried to include some humane facts that good people do remain in a city and that skill and hardwork can escalate a person's status.
- Most of the questions that are formed for the reader along the story is well answered for by by the end, this phenomenon is not followed in all books. Getting the answers wanted for duly makes the reader satisfied.
What I don't like about the story:
- Eliza Wishart's actions at times are not properly explained
- Laura Wishart's emotions are also not well described.
- Laura Wishart when dying from a tree does not show any disturbance or pain whatsover, not even any movement or action according to the story, which brings a little bit of suspesion and doubtfulness.
- It would have been useful if some more basic facts about people would have been described, like their structure, height, age, manner, etc.
- The increased no. of twists at the end of course makes the reader in awe, however it also makes it a little oversaturated. It makes for a good movie to include them in this manner, however for a book, I do not think the same.
- Why Eliza didn't call the police when she witnessed the scene doesn't make much sense and the author himself hasn't explained it.
Overall Jasper Jones is a book I extensively enjoyed while reading and which I would recommend to read.Not only does it thoroughly describe the plot and the main point of the story, but also it is successful in bringing out the life of Corrigan. The story described about how people could get wrong, and how people condemned of bad things could actually be good. It also describes how people are spontaneous in their judgement of actions they have not witnessed. Sometimes people get discriminated from others, this story brings out the feelings of such a situation as we feel sympathy for Jeffrey's family; and makes us feel the same way they would. I would suggest reading this book if you want to truly experience the Australian culture or if you want to read a good crime-thriller.