JACK: SECRET CIRCLES, the second book in the young Repairmen Jack trilogy, picks up a month after the events of SECRET HISTORIES. And F. Paul Wilson goes full-tilt from page one. This time, Jack and his friends still go through the Pine Barrens, even though they should know better, since in the previous novel, they found a dead body that suggested a ritual-type killing and a strange box with a mysterious pyramid inside.
Here, they discover a much larger problem in the middle of the barrens: a full-size pyramid that’s a larger version of the one they found in the box. But that is only one thread going through this plot. The major one concerns a missing boy named Cody, whose bike has been found at the outset of the barrens, while he has disappeared without a trace.
How this ties into Jack’s new discovery helps lay the groundwork for what Jack will come up against later in his life. So we get Jack and his friend Weeze coming up against the strange lodge to which members of the town belong, while Jack tries to fix a problem dealing with family abuse.
Unlike the first book, the story takes place while Jack has entered high school, and his brother and sister are away at law school and med school, so CIRCLES doesn’t focus on his own family life as much. It does tie up a few loose strands, however; we again encounter the old woman and her dog that are central to the larger series, while also witnessing the powers of the Otherness via a Vietnam vet nicknamed “Weird Walt.”
People who have read the Repairman Jack series probably will figure out what Jack is most likely going to face in the final book, whereas the teenage set these books are aimed at will patiently wait the final tale before jumping into the main series. I really need to stress that this series has to be read in order, because if you don’t, you truly will be lost.
Wilson never talks down his young audience. He captures life as an odd teen perfectly, especially as we see Jack getting closer to what is probably going to be his first taste of young love. So if you know some middle schooler looking for a book that doesn’t involve some emo vampires or a school of wizards, this series is an starting point to set them off on a new set of adventures. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• AFTERSHOCK & OTHERS: 19 ODDITIES by F. Paul Wilson
• ALL THE RAGE by F. Paul Wilson
• BLOODLINE by F. Paul Wilson
• CONSPIRACIES by F. Paul Wilson
• F. PAUL WILSON’S THE KEEP by F. Paul Wilson and Matthew Smith
• GROUND ZERO by F. Paul Wilson
• HOSTS by F. Paul Wilson
• JACK: SECRET HISTORIES by F. Paul Wilson
• LEGACIES by F. Paul Wilson
Related posts:
- Jack of Fables: Jack of Hearts
- Tor reopens Wilson’s TOMB
- The Name of This Book Is Secret
- Ground Zero
- Bloodline
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
And they’re also must-reading for adults who are caught up in the whole Repairman Jack mythos. Not only do they not talk down to teens, they aren’t “too light” for adults, either.