The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak

 

This is not a novel I would have expected from Rekulak, the fact it's his first might be connected to that (though causality might point any possible direction). It's not really a thriller or crime novel, it's a pretty straightforward bildungsroman set in 1987 New Jersey, where the main characters (and his ... I guess they're his friends) live the hellish lives of high school freshmen--high school freshmen who for various reasons don't really fit in anywhere than each other's company. There's some relatively minor crime, and some awkward early love, but the primary story is the main character realizing he's good with computers, even though he's tanking in all his classes. (He seems to have maybe something like ADHD, but that's never mentioned--and it wouldn't have been in 1987.) It's not a horrible novel, but it really didn't do a whole lot for me. I guess the disjunction between the main character's knack for computers and his failure to thrive in school just didn't work for me, and though my high school years were various kinds of unpleasant they weren't the same kinds as happen to the characters here. I don't feel as though I wasted my evening, but oh comma well.