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tinytrashqueen's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
Moderate: Gun violence
kelly_e's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Title: The Jump
Author: Brittney Morris
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: March 7, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Adventurous • Cinematic • Dynamic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Influence is power. Power creates change. And change is exactly what Team Jericho needs.
Jax, Yas, Spider, and Han are the four cornerstones of Team Jericho, the best scavenger hunting team in all of Seattle. Each has their own specialty: Jax, the puzzler; Yas, the parkourist; Spider, the hacker; and Han, the cartographer. But now with an oil refinery being built right in their backyard, each also has their own problems. Their families are at risk of losing their jobs, their communities, and their homes.
So when The Order, a mysterious vigilante organization, hijacks the scavenger hunting forum and concocts a puzzle of its own, promising a reward of influence, Team Jericho sees it as the chance of a lifetime. If they win this game, they could change their families’ fates and save the city they love so much. But with an opposing team hot on their heels, it’s going to take more than street smarts to outwit their rivals.
💭 T H O U G H T S
The Jump was recommended by a trusted Booktuber, so I added it to my TBR. Recently I was really looking for something a little different from what I typically read, and this title stood out. YA and I don't always jive well, but the concept really intrigued me.
I found this novel started out really good. Told in multiple POVs, the cast is quite diverse. There are many characters with different backgrounds and life experiences. And many young readers will see themselves within these pages, which is a win itself. I also loved the challenge. The game and clues were clever, but I found the pacing was so fast that there was just too much happening all at once. With so much going on, unfortunately the backstory was lacking, which left me disappointed.
At the end of the day, this one sounded better than it actually was. I appreciated the diversity and sensitivity. Yet at some points I was left wanting more. Readers looking for an adventure will be satisficed. But it's the cinematic nature that makes me think The Jump would be better on screen than on the page.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• scavenger hunt enthusiasts
• young readers
Author: Brittney Morris
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: March 7, 2023
T H R E E • W O R D S
Adventurous • Cinematic • Dynamic
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Influence is power. Power creates change. And change is exactly what Team Jericho needs.
Jax, Yas, Spider, and Han are the four cornerstones of Team Jericho, the best scavenger hunting team in all of Seattle. Each has their own specialty: Jax, the puzzler; Yas, the parkourist; Spider, the hacker; and Han, the cartographer. But now with an oil refinery being built right in their backyard, each also has their own problems. Their families are at risk of losing their jobs, their communities, and their homes.
So when The Order, a mysterious vigilante organization, hijacks the scavenger hunting forum and concocts a puzzle of its own, promising a reward of influence, Team Jericho sees it as the chance of a lifetime. If they win this game, they could change their families’ fates and save the city they love so much. But with an opposing team hot on their heels, it’s going to take more than street smarts to outwit their rivals.
💭 T H O U G H T S
The Jump was recommended by a trusted Booktuber, so I added it to my TBR. Recently I was really looking for something a little different from what I typically read, and this title stood out. YA and I don't always jive well, but the concept really intrigued me.
I found this novel started out really good. Told in multiple POVs, the cast is quite diverse. There are many characters with different backgrounds and life experiences. And many young readers will see themselves within these pages, which is a win itself. I also loved the challenge. The game and clues were clever, but I found the pacing was so fast that there was just too much happening all at once. With so much going on, unfortunately the backstory was lacking, which left me disappointed.
At the end of the day, this one sounded better than it actually was. I appreciated the diversity and sensitivity. Yet at some points I was left wanting more. Readers looking for an adventure will be satisficed. But it's the cinematic nature that makes me think The Jump would be better on screen than on the page.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• scavenger hunt enthusiasts
• young readers
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism
skylarkblue1's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings: Racism, Police Brutality, Trapped in a Burning Building , Sensory overstimulation/overload
So this is less of a normal review and more half-a-rant.
To start, I think it's a great book. However it's a horrible portrayal of ARGs and clearly shows a severe lack of even a surface level understanding of them. For one, it's constantly mentioned that just phoning any random number you find is fair game when in reality that's the number 1 rule for any solving group that you really REALLY shouldn't do..
I should have known something was fishy when the 2 "scavenger hunts" for this book were just "Go to page. Click link. Yey you won" and "read the embossed link that's mirrored on the front cover. Grats you solved it"
Which.. if you're going through the effort of physically putting a hidden trailhead on your book cover.. it needs some amount of effort gone into it :/
Were the characters great? Yes, I loved them all so much. Was the diversity great? Yes, so much good representation scattered throughout in a good way.
It's just the portrayal of ARGs and our community with that. ARGs are not mentioned by name, it's just "cryptology" which… while not entirely wrong isn't also not correct. What's portrayed in this book is ARGs (Alternative Reality Games), cryptology is a part of these but it's not the whole thing.
ARGs are generally not competitive like this with prizes, 99% of the time they're heavily community focused with a goal of bringing people together.
The author's note mentioning this was heavily inspired by Cicada 3301 was concerning but made everything make sense suddenly. Cicada is known within the ARG community as a joke. It's horrendously made, an absolute clusterfuck and it's a meme. Using that as your basis to what seemed to be an attempt at serious representation of our community is… disappointing honestly.
I would love a book around ARGs and such. If you’re even slightly interested in the concepts of this book, please join us in solving some! Currently there’s an ARG going on for Watsky - the rapper - which is incredibly high quality. Just look up the Watsky subreddit and look for the ARG posts! Bungie’s newly announced game - Marathon - also has a fantastic ARG but that’s currently on hiatus.
I would still recommend this book, but please if you wish to join in with solving ARGs look up ARG etiquette and join a group. r/ARG isn’t the best source for ARG information either - they’ve got a very bad rep in the overall community. Game Detectives has a whole wiki’s worth of information on multiple past and current ARGs, an FAQ detailing a lot of ARG information - and they’ve even created the “Academy” which serves you teach you basic cryptology skills and more that’s commonly used in ARGs. Just keep in mind that we’re not nearly as competitive as what’s shown in this book, even for the competitions where it *is* everyone competing against each other, we’re still a community at the end of the day and people still work together! Newbies are very much welcome as well as they learn the ropes and can even just watch what happens ^^
So this is less of a normal review and more half-a-rant.
To start, I think it's a great book. However it's a horrible portrayal of ARGs and clearly shows a severe lack of even a surface level understanding of them. For one, it's constantly mentioned that just phoning any random number you find is fair game when in reality that's the number 1 rule for any solving group that you really REALLY shouldn't do..
I should have known something was fishy when the 2 "scavenger hunts" for this book were just "Go to page. Click link. Yey you won" and "read the embossed link that's mirrored on the front cover. Grats you solved it"
Which.. if you're going through the effort of physically putting a hidden trailhead on your book cover.. it needs some amount of effort gone into it :/
Were the characters great? Yes, I loved them all so much. Was the diversity great? Yes, so much good representation scattered throughout in a good way.
It's just the portrayal of ARGs and our community with that. ARGs are not mentioned by name, it's just "cryptology" which… while not entirely wrong isn't also not correct. What's portrayed in this book is ARGs (Alternative Reality Games), cryptology is a part of these but it's not the whole thing.
ARGs are generally not competitive like this with prizes, 99% of the time they're heavily community focused with a goal of bringing people together.
The author's note mentioning this was heavily inspired by Cicada 3301 was concerning but made everything make sense suddenly. Cicada is known within the ARG community as a joke. It's horrendously made, an absolute clusterfuck and it's a meme. Using that as your basis to what seemed to be an attempt at serious representation of our community is… disappointing honestly.
I would love a book around ARGs and such. If you’re even slightly interested in the concepts of this book, please join us in solving some! Currently there’s an ARG going on for Watsky - the rapper - which is incredibly high quality. Just look up the Watsky subreddit and look for the ARG posts! Bungie’s newly announced game - Marathon - also has a fantastic ARG but that’s currently on hiatus.
I would still recommend this book, but please if you wish to join in with solving ARGs look up ARG etiquette and join a group. r/ARG isn’t the best source for ARG information either - they’ve got a very bad rep in the overall community. Game Detectives has a whole wiki’s worth of information on multiple past and current ARGs, an FAQ detailing a lot of ARG information - and they’ve even created the “Academy” which serves you teach you basic cryptology skills and more that’s commonly used in ARGs. Just keep in mind that we’re not nearly as competitive as what’s shown in this book, even for the competitions where it *is* everyone competing against each other, we’re still a community at the end of the day and people still work together! Newbies are very much welcome as well as they learn the ropes and can even just watch what happens ^^
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism and Gun violence
sarah984's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This started out kind of standard YA mystery for me, fun enough, but as things escalated the character conflicts didn't feel realistic and the plot got extremely silly. The final confrontation was ridiculous.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, and Deportation
starrysteph's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The Jump was an exciting, dynamic read that launched me right into an enjoyable adventure.
We follow four rockstar teenage puzzle solvers (with four rotating POVs) that make up the Seattle scavenger hunting group Team Jericho. Jax is the analyzer, Yas is the parkourist, Spider is the tech hacker, and Han is the cartographer with intimate knowledge of all the underground nooks and crannies of the city.
When a secretive vigilante group called The Order creates a puzzle with the promise of power as a reward, Team Jericho sees it as their only chance to combat the oil refinery that puts their community at risk. But they’re not the only competitors, and there’s a lot at stake …
The plot moves quickly and cinematically. The action was (more than a little) unrealistic as well as the tech elements, but it was playful and cheeky and fun and I was ROOTING for these kids. The descriptions of clues and solves were also quite clever.
The cast of characters was both creative and diverse: these are kids with vastly different backgrounds and life experiences. There are Black characters, Muslim characters, a trans character, a nonbinary parent character, a character who is sometimes nonverbal, lesbian characters, and so on. I think so many young readers will see themselves in these pages.
I really loved the depictions of families - and different kinds of families. There was also SO much love shown and valued here. Sibling love, new romance, trust & care from parents even when they don’t ‘get’ it, friends really supporting each other & taking time to understand each other’s needs, and a community coming together to support and defend each other.
At several points there were just TOO many things crammed into such a short book, especially since we only get a short amount of time with each POV. And I would have loved some more clarity around the ending (there were a lot of questions - some of them a bit bleak). I would be interested in reading more in this world.
CW: racism, violence, police brutality & corruption, fire, classism, gun violence, hate crime
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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
antonique_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, and Police brutality
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