the marbury lens

Remember April and the a-z blogfest? Remember U for unreliable narrator? Well that’s what Jack, the narrator of The Marbury Lens, is. And he makes no bones about it. He constantly says things like,

Quit it, Jack. You’re just drunk, Jack. Fuck you, Jack. You deserve this. What the fuck is happening to me? Freddie Horvath did something to my brain.

See, at the very beginning, something awful happens to Jack and he tells us all about it. Every ugly detail. So when he’s given the glasses (the marbury lenses) that allow him entry into another world, we can’t help but wonder if he is completely sane.

But because he wonders, too, it’s easy to believe him when he describes this other world in perfect detail, tells us all about the two boys who depend upon him and the devils that are after them. Among them is a particular devil Jack knows all too well; his best friend Connor. And Connor wants to kill him.



I have to say I loved this book. I thought it felt very real and I commend the author, Andrew Smith, for talking about a subject that doesn’t get talked about and writing such brutally honest yet beautiful prose. For more about this book, including a few comments from Andrew Smith, check out this post. Her review is actually better than mine but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to promote this book. It's that good.