Review Time — JESUS JACKSON by James Ryan Daley

by Kaley Whittle

On the back cover of Jesus Jackson, a quote from School Library Journal describes the novel as “an engaging, suspenseful read that teens will not be able to put down.” I can personally attest to this fact. It took me a while to start reading James Ryan Daley’s first novel, not because I didn't want to, but because I was focused on passing geometry. When the day of our book club eventually rolled around, I had yet to even open the cover. I worked furiously through my classes, and by lunch I was finally free. I didn't eat that day; I devoured the book instead.

I read non-stop, the pages turning faster and faster. Maybe it was the $5 my friends bet that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time. Maybe I was delirious from hunger. Who knows? I just wanted to know what happened next.

By 3:14 I was $5 richer and and had an hour to spare. Jesus Jackson will not go down in history as a great work of literature. But it was a pretty good book, and that’s saying something.

Jesus Jackson is told from the perspective of Jonathan Stiles. Jonathan is a 14-year-old boy who is trying to come to terms with his brother Ryan’s death, a death that he (with a little nudging from our dear friend Jesus) refuses to believe is accidental. The book details all of Jonathan’s trials and tribulations in his attempt to find his brother’s “killer” and in the process learns a little something about faith. His new friend Henry, who he meets on the day of Ryan’s death, accompanies Jonathan throughout the story, either encouraging or scorning Jonathan’s many schemes to find out what really happened to his brother.

And of course, you have the book’s namesake, the one and only Jesus Jackson: “When I first saw Jesus, he was standing like a statue on the fifty-yard line of the high school football field, one arm pointed at the goalpost and the other cocked back—fingers curled around an imaginary pigskin, locked at the ready for a pantomimed hail-Mary in the final seconds of a make believe bowl game.” This is our first introduction to the famous Mr. Jackson, and it is glorious. James Daley certainly has a way with words, and this becomes apparent the more I read his work. The interesting thing about the character of Jesus, however, is that he can be completely removed from the book and the sequence of events related to the solving the mystery would remain the same. Jesus Jackson is little more than an observer in a white linen leisure suit.

Jesus Jackson has two wonderful stories between its covers, one about a vengeful sibling out for proof of foul play, and the other about a more gentle attempt at trying to cope with a loss by examining and re-examining faith. Throughout the mystery, the reader learns things about the other characters as Jonathan does. Each turn uncovers a twist, and each twist leads to another suspect or another clue. Yet these two stories don’t seem to mesh together like they should; sometimes they clash. There’s simply too much happening at once, and often the two stories are competing instead of harmonizing.

Because so much was happening in this book, a lot of the details, especially those about supporting characters, seemed rushed or overlooked completely. While I do appreciate that a character’s appearance is not all that matters about a character, far from it, I do believe that it is an important part of fleshing them out. Throughout the entire book, I had no complete concept of what any of the character’s looked like, including Jonathan. It bothered me, because it gave them all a sense of falsehood, and as a consequence, they felt unrealistic.

It is a huge accomplishment, however, to write two books with equally interesting plots. If this book had focused on one aspect of the situation instead of multiple ones, I think I would have enjoyed it much more than I already did. Because I did enjoy it, and I look forward to reading Mr. Daley’s next creation.