JUMPER

Jumper. Isn’t that a depressing title? I mean, honestly, what’s the first thing you think of when you hear/read it? Personally, when I read the title it makes me think of some poor, suicidal nut-job climbing over the railing of a balcony of some building and jumping to a death not unlike that of a bug going splat! against a car’s windshield. When you actually open the book and read it, though, you will pleasantly surprised to find out that isn’t what the story is about at all. It’s actually about a young boy, Davy, whose mother left him with his abusive father. He finds out he has the ability to travel anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye--as long as he has already been there before. He can travel the world in the blink of an eye. Conveniently, he discovers this power during one of his father’s more aggressive moments. It saved his life.
Steven Gould’s Jumper is a really good read if you ask me. It has a lot of action to keep guys interested with just a touch of romance to satisfy the ladies reading it. It definitely isn’t boring. But why should you as a teenager, a college student, a young adult, read this book? Well, of course, you should read it because it is a really good book, a great story, but that is not the only thing that makes it desirable. For one, it is full of things people our age can relate to. Sure, not all of us ran away from home because of an abusive home life like Davy did, but now that we are becoming adults, we are finding out what it is like to branch out on our own, to move to new places and fend for ourselves without parents to buy everything for us anymore. College

in particular is a time where people find themselves and explore new things, just like Davy does throughout the story. He experiences life, just like we are doing now, though his life has a bit of a twist to it. I mean, I know I can’t rob a bank just by picturing myself inside the vault and simply ‘jumping’ there like Davy does. And as you can probably guess, Davy gets into some trouble, makes mistakes, just like real life people do. This book is pretty realistic for how unrealistic it is, if you know what I mean. In a review, Greg Kim even says “I can imagine the setting in modern time although it was written in 1992” (Goodreads.com). I find it much more enjoyable to read something that sounds like it comes from today’s world, and I can easily see this story taking place in today’s society.
To the people who have already read this book: read it again. If you are currently in between books and do not know a good book to read next, this is a good book to fall back on and read over. Sure, you know what is going to happen, but maybe you missed something. Every time I reread a book, i find some detail that I overlooked before, and it makes me think “I don’t remember that!”. So read it again. If nothing else, reread it because you loved it the first time, and you know it will still be a good book just like it was before.

         Jumper was actually made into a movie, starring Hayden Christensen as Davy. It first came out in 2008. Maybe you’ve seen it? Reviews of the movie will tell you things like ‘it’s a terrible show with a crazy story line’. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 16% saying it “[Features] uninvolving characters and [a] loose narrative, Jumper is an erratic action pic with little coherence and lackluster special effects” (rottentomatoes.com). I for one, though, didn’t think the movie was half as bad as they say it is. I actually liked the special effects and the story line was not all that confusing to me. While I thought the movie was good, the book is definitely better. Aren’t the books always better than their movie counterparts? Half of it is because, with a book, you get to escape into another world where you decide things like what the people look like and where it takes place. You can even imagine yourself as the main character. Anything is possible with a book.
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          "The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best-- and therefore never scrutinize or question."
          --Steven Gould