Jump (edition 2010)

I picked up JUMP on a whim... I had never heard of it and had nothing more to recommend it than the description on the back and the interesting cover. After reading, I have absolutely no idea why no one is discussing this novel.

I'll admit that I was a bit worried about the climbing jargon when I first started reading. I have absolutely no experience with rock climbing or rock climbing lingo, but Carbone writes with ample detail and I had no difficulty deciphering and filling in the blanks. I'm actually thankful that she did include the jargon, even though she could have told the story without, because it made the characters much more real.

JUMP is told from alternating point-of-view by P.K. and the mysterious boy she runs away with, Critter. I may have questioned P.K.'s sanity a bit more if I didn't have the opportunity to see Critter's POV. After all, running away to perform a dangerous activity with a boy (named Critter!) that you've only known for a half hour (at the most) is most definitely insane. Usually, when a novel is told by two or more characters, I favor one voice over the other(s), but this wasn't the case with JUMP. I especially enjoyed Critter and P.K.'s budding romance, as the reader gets to experience it through both characters.

Generally, I have no problem figuring how how a story will end, but Carbone kept me on my toes. I loved that! There are a few heart pounding passages where I honestly had no clue what was going to happen next!

JUMP is rife with action, romance, and humor - the trifecta! I'm not sure how this novel slipped under my radar for so long, but I'm infinitely glad I stumbled upon it! ( )

The characters really pop, they are truly unique. If I had the courage to do anything like what P.K. and Critter have done, I hope I have the ability to ask myself what I would do if I were not afraid. Q4P4 AHS/Kathleen R

Yes,(I would reccomend this book) action packed teams running away from their wories by climbing. Q4P5 AHS/John B

I didn't love it. The summary is a lot different than the actual book. P.K. already knows a lot about Critter's past BEFORE the police show up. She actually knows that the police might show up. He has warned her. So in my opinion, the summary is not very accurate and it is made to make the book much more dramatic.

At times the book was confusing. Critter rambles on and on about how everything is made up of energy and nothing is solid, not even our bodies. Kind of like in The Immortals series, by Alyson Noel, though in Jump it is explained much more complicated. I had a hard time keeping up and I found myself skimming through paragraph after paragraph to get to the story without all the energy theories and stuff going on.

The premise of the story, P.K. running away so she doesn't have to attend boarding school, Critter escaping the psych ward cause he doesn't belong there, was an ok one.
We didn't really get to know P.K. very well. Not much is revealed about her life and her friends before she runs away. All we really learn is that she rock climbs and that she has strict parents. And by the end of the book all we really know is that she rock climbs and that she has strict parents.

Do I recommend it? Not really. It was a fast read, but probably because I skipped a few paragraphs so I could just get to the point of the story. I wouldn't read it again. If the idea of energy and manifesting things intrigues you and you want to read about in a book that is not a fantasy or paranormal book, then maybe you will enjoy this though. ( )

P.K. and Critter are both escaping; one from a trip to boarding school and the other from the psychiatric ward. They meet by fate at a climbing gym and set off the next day for an adventure.

Something about Jump screamed out to me: 'Pick me up! If you don't, this decision will haunt you for the rest of the year'! With that kind of argument, I knew if an opportunity arise for me to pick up Jump, I had to take it. And I did. And I did not regret it...for the first half of the book.

When I picked up Jump, I wanted an escape, something to take the heat out of my mind. The first several chapters provided a chortling good read with one of the most oddness, but entertaining, character I have ever come across. Critter's narration was the key highlight of the novel. He has a call-it-as-he-sees-it attitude (in his mind at least) with a touch of innocent naivety that produced, on more than one occasion, laugh-out-loud statements. Yet it is P.K.'s narration that balanced it out. She had a much somber, regular teen narration that worked well to balance the bubbly cheerfulness of Critter's (because the chapters do alternate). (There are also third-person point of views mixed in as well.)

However, Jump started to falter towards the middle and shot right out of the line at the end. For me, though some opinions will differ, Jump had too much rock climbing. 'This is a rock climbing book'--I understand, but somewhere down the line I got tired of reading about cracks, belays, 5. 9's, 5.lla's, and gah! Every once or so I can deal with, but it was a continuous process that gave me a strong urge to flip through the pages. Many will say that there were dialogues and short scenes in-between the rock climbing, but my mind did not register that as much as the rock climbing.

There is also the argument that the rock climbing frees the mind and helped shaped P.K. and Critter develop in the story as well as being a philosophical stepping stone (because Jump is big on the philosophy of what makes up life: the here and now, the past, or the future). But I looked at Jump as a wholesome, fun, joy-ride read as a means of escape that I did not find.

There is also a big level of unbelieveability in Jump. Do teens nowadays run away from boarding school with a complete stranger to go rock climbing? Substitue rock climbing for anotehr obsession and I still find it hard to beleive. The running away part?--Sure. Teh complete stranger part?--W.T.F. is wrong with you? Is the sensisible reasoning why thsi is okay is because he is hot? And the fact taht he brings deordant, a toothbrush, and a change of shirts convinces you that he is not a criminal escaped from somewhere? And let's not bring a cell phone because if you did, it would only make you feel really guilty.

The ending was a mess in my opinion. There is some closure, but plenty more of what's, how's, and why's.

If you are looking for something different, enjoy adventures (rock climbing), and a different philosophical take than Jump is for you. For everyone else test the water before Jumping in. ( )

P.K. refuses to be sent to a reform boarding school by her parents. Critter escapes from the mental hospital. Together, they decide to live it up and hitchhike out west to in order to find some great rock-climbing sites, a hobby they’re both passionate about. Throughout their adventures, P.K. realizes the unique soul that Critter is, and the two misfits begin to fall for one another. But can their connection survive obstacles in the real world that threaten to tear them apart?

From Elisa Carbone comes a book that will take you to unexpected places…and not just in terms of the rock-climbing. JUMP is a beautifully written, marvelously well researched, and soulful story that is reminiscent of genre-defining books like Stargirl.

Elisa Carbone’s prose is poetry in motion. The chapters alternate between P.K. and Critter’s points of view, and the words follow the rhythm of their thoughts and actions: if they’re moving, the words are uncluttered, efficient, one after the other, and if they’re more contemplative, the words meander almost ethereally. Woven between this intricate prose is a confidence in subject detail that is rarely matched in YA lit: it’s clear that Carbone knows her rock-climbing lingo inside out. The rock-climbing language that P.K. and Critter speak may be unfamiliar to most of us, but its value is, once again, in its rhythm, of putting us right there on that rock face alongside the main characters.

Critter reminds me a lot of Stargirl in Jerry Spinelli’s classic eponymous novel. Both are people who seem to “get” the truth about living and this world a little more than the rest of us think we know best. As a result, it’s fascinating to read about Critter, to see him from both his eyes and P.K.’s. Regardless of whether or not you can relate to the characters, the two of them together make for an eye-opening reading experience, and Critter’s explanations of how the world works in particular should linger on your mind, maybe even become embedded in your own personal philosophy.

The plot I felt was perhaps a little uneven at times, in that it was too easy for me to put the book down and go do something else, because nothing altogether tangible really connects the golden strands of these characters’ developments together. However, JUMP was still a worthy read, and I’ve found passages of the book still turning in my head even now, weeks after I read it. Read this if you, like P.K. and Critter, think you’re ready to make that jump into another level of YA lit, one that forces you to reevaluate your life philosophies and priorities. ( )