The Book Jumper

The American edition of The Book Jumper has gorgeous, frame-worthy cover art, so it is a huge disappointment that the story inside is just as flimsy as the paper-crafted characters in the art.

I should have expected to not be the right reader for this book due to my utter loathing of the similar plot device in The Eyre Affair, but for whatever reason, I either didn't clue into the similarity or I thought it would be different and novel. Sadly, this book has an enormous "Not Like The Other Girls" Hollywood Ugly problem that only exacerbates the giant plotholes and lack of logic that is part-and-parcel with the way Gläser uses the "book jumping" concept.

The hardcover edition I borrowed from the library (and I am exceedingly grateful that show more I did not commit myself to owning a copy that I would need to dispose of) is 371 numbered pages. I finally convinced myself to stop hoping for any kind of plot-hole resolution at page 130. By that point, I had deduced that the main character Amy's father is probably a book character, which is why her mom suddenly left the island and family magic at such a young age while pregnant. Part of the reason I read so long was to find confirmation of it, but honestly I don't care that much. It's signposted and gives me a tidy explanation for why Amy's characterization is so tediously annoying (afterall, if she's half-fictional then being Not Like The Other Girls and Hollywood Ugly would be quite natural).

By the time I stopped, though, I had not figured out why the Lennox and Macalister families must "jump" into books to monitor them. Amy is sent to Book Jumping lessons under the Scottish island the two families share, which could have been a great primer for both her and the reader, but at least as far as I can tell, the whole purpose of the jumping to protect the books is to solve problems created because they are jumping into the books.

I also hadn't figured out any of the logic behind the book world. The jumpers can jump into a specific page, which is also a point in time - but a single page can span decades and have multiple scenes. The book world also has a concept of multiple days, but that really doesn't make sense to me, because entire books exist at once and are timeless. Characters can apparently go off and do their own thing when they aren't on the page...except if a book exists all at once and a jumper can go to any page, then aren't they always in the scene?

I tried to think of the book world as being an alternate universe instead of actually going into the books, but I still had trouble suspending my disbelief because the characters talk about the actual books, and books shrinking in size, and so on. It just doesn't make sense.

Another part that I found fairly stupid is that when Amy is told to jump into a safe children's book as her first experience, she chooses The Jungle Book. A of all, that doesn't strike me as a safe children's book unless you're talking specifically of Disney adaptations. For another thing, this is a Scottish family - why wouldn't they send Amy to the Chalet School or the 100 Acre Wood? The answer probably has to do with copyrights, but I can still think of a dozen books that would strike me as a safe children's book over Kipling's jungles.

I suppose if nothing else, the prose is lovely and has nice descriptions, and many of the original ideas in The Book Jumper could have led to an interesting story. (If it were Alternate Universe instead of Literally Books, if Amy weren't so thoroughly Not Like The Other Girls, etc.)

Maybe my questions about the logic of the bookjumping and book-world are answered later in the book, but I did a bit of spot-check skimming and nothing stood out. I'm not willing to put up with the failure to suspend disbelief that should have been helped out long before my quitting point. show less

This was a lot of fun. If Kerstin Gier and Jasper Fforde had a book baby, this would be it! Amy and her mother Alexis, after suffering varying emotional events near the end of the school year, decide to go 'home' for the summer, to Stormsay, in Scotland. No one is expecting them, Alexis had left the island when she was young and pregnant. Amy, already a voracious reader, quickly learns of the family gift from her grandmother Mairead. Book jumping classes commence, and it's not long before Amy learns something is wrong in the Book World. With her faithful companion Werther (wonder how many American teens will be googling Goethe?), she starts jumping more and eventually enlists the help of fellow jumper Will, in the outside world too. show more While the ending was a little rushed for me, I really liked the journey in this unique, young adult book. show less

When I needed a book to get me happily reading again in early December, I spotted Mechthild Gläser's The Book Jumper on my review stack and couldn't resist the beautiful cover and intriguing title. Well, the premise is exactly what you might think it would be. Amy Lennox and her mother have had some tough times in Germany and so they retreat to the family estate on the island of Stormsay, a fictional Shetland Island off the coast of Scotland. What Amy doesn't know before going is that both the Lennox family and the other ancient family on the island, the Macalisters, while teens, can enter the book world and they have charged themselves with maintaining order and the integrity of the stories. Amy's grandmother sends her right off to show more book jumping lessons which she takes to immediately. At these lessons, she meets Betsy and Will Macalister and they all get involved in a mystery that is emerging both on the island and in the world of fiction. Who is stealing ideas and items from stories and why did the thief kill Sherlock Holmes?

Though you might be familiar with the idea of book jumping from Jasper Fforde's stellar Thursday Next series, its use in this story still feels fresh and unique. Amy is a girl damaged by bullying and she is more than ready to escape into fiction. The book world is fun for her but quickly becomes dangerous, just as the happenings in the real world become more mysterious and unexpected. It's a fantasy YA that still explores some very real issues. I enjoyed just about everything about this book even though parts were bittersweet. I hope that more readers fall in love with it the way I have!

http://webereading.com/2017/01/new-release-book-jumper.html show less

The Germans really seem to like the idea of people being able to manipulate text. . . at least. . . if one only read this and the Inheart series that's what they'd think. I would have enjoyed this book more if the ending hadn't been so oddly contrived. . . it was as though the author felt the need to shoehorn in 8 different motifs. However. . . . because this is a work in translation, the awkwardness of the resolution might be attributed to the work of the translator. I found Amy's character to be fairly well done but her mother's character was a bit flat.

Translated into English as The Book Jumper.

Meet Amy: 16-year-old, book-loving, smart, so-called "giraffe-child", with low self-esteem. She is currently on 'the run', following the disastrous end of her mother's latest relationship. We have to give the girl credit for her packing motto: "Better a cardigan too few, than doing without one of my favorite [books]."

Mother dearest chooses the absolute best hiding place for the summer: a forgotten Shetland island. It's remote enough that no one is likely to find them there, plus grandma lives there, so lodging's free. Yay for finally meeting long estranged family, right?

It turns out that lodging is not quite free: Amy will have to earn her right to stay there... by reading. Being a complete show more bookworm, that's hardly a chore for our heroine. Finding out that she's a 'book jumper' (roll credits) deters our heroine even less so. Well sure, there seems to be something rotten afoot in Den- erm... the literary world, but that just makes everything even more interesting, right?

You know that book that everyone seems to love? The one you decided to actually buy because your favorite reviewers are praising it to high heavens? That's Die Buchspringer for me.

I love the idea of readers entering books, heck if it were possible for real I'd definitely be... among the first 50 in line. Unlike in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, I actually read/heard of the books being mentioned. I even liked the mysterious little fairy tale that gets told in bits and pieces at the beginning of each chapter. The creepy anticipation that it created was excellent.

The characters on the other hand, were a mess. And I don't mean that in a "maaaaaaaaaan these people need a shrink" manner, but rather "maaaaaaan this author sucks at writing character development".

1) We have special snowflake Amy: perpetually self-esteem challenged, while basking in her amazing book jumping talents.

2) Then there's Betsy the make-up addicted, mini-skirt-wearing fellow book jumper, whose instant dislike of the heroine marks her as persona non-grata for all eternity.

3) And we can't forget Will, the handsome, constantly bored, fellow co-star book jumper, whose first inner thought we witness is his insta-love for Amy.

If you thought the adults were better off, you're sadly mistaken. They're hardly present, and even then, they're either classic soap-opera villains, or more irresponsible than the children.

And the ending... was just lazy. While I found the general idea refreshing, I just can't reconcile with not finding out the answer to why book jumping only last until the reader turns 26... for example.

While some people may enjoy a bit of mystery with their conclusion, my most pressing questions went unanswered.

Score: 2/5 stars

I really and truly wanted to like this book, if for no other reason than to justify the $15 I spent on it. Unfortunately, the utterly cheesy and predictable characters ended up annoying me so much, that by the last few chapters I could hardly wait to finish the book. show less

This weeks book has to be one of my favorite reads in recent memory. In part because it involves a girl who is able to jump inside of books and hang out. Yes, pretty much every bookworms dream come true right? But also for the beautiful way in which Glaser is able to deliver.

Seventeen year old Amy Lennox lives in Germany with her young mother Alexis. She has never known her father or extended family, only that her mother left young, when she was pregnant with Amy, and has refused to return ever since. When her mother experiences a particularly hard breakup, and Amy battles her own issues with peers in school, the two drop everything to take off to Alexis' childhood home on the island of Stormsay in Scotland. Shortly after arriving at show more Stormsay, Amy finds out she is from an ancient line of book jumpers. One of two clans tasked with protecting the world of literature by ensuring all stories remain intact, doing so, by actually entering the story itself. But something is happening within the stories, ideas are being stolen from the books, irreparably damaging the plot and thus the stories themselves. With the help of Will, fellow book jumper from the McAlister clan, Amy must find out who is stealing from the stories, and why, before countless classics are damaged forever.

I'm sure anyone can see why I was drawn to this book from just reading the blurb online. I had it on my Amazon wishlist and my kids picked it out to gift me for Mothers Day this year. I was immediately sucked into Amy's book jumping world with pure fascination and if I'm being honest, a smidgen of jealousy. To actually be able to enter my favorite book world and talk to beloved characters well I can't imagine a much better dream come true. Glaser writes such a uniquely magical story that any book lover will fall in love with. The island of Stormsay itself is a lovely backdrop to the story. Secluded, with beautiful marshes and centuries old castles, it was breathtaking. The book had a nice flow that was paced well with plenty of intrigue and action. The budding relationship between Amy and Will made my heart pitter patter in only that way that a good teen romance can do. There were some things I figured out myself along the way, and many others that I did not see coming. The ending was much different than I had anticipated but was perfect in a way you'll understand once you read it. This book will certainly hold a little piece of my heart and will be one that I will most definitely revisit again. show less

Alexis had Amy when she was a teenager and immediately left home to make her own way and told Amy very little about her past. So when they arrive at Alexis’ family home, Amy is very surprised to learn how wealthy her family is. If this sounds a bit like Gilmore Girls, well it does, but with fewer quips and a lot less coffee. The names Alexis and Amy also seem to be a nod to the TV show (Alexis Bledel played Rory Gilmore and Amy Sherman-Pallidino created Gilmore Girls.) So the premise is: What if Rory had the ability to jump into books and interact with the characters. Alexis and Amy are of the Lennox family who shares the Scottish island of Stormsay with the Macalister clan. There is quite a lot of tension between the two clans, but show more they both take their ability to enter the book world very seriously, for it is their job to protect it. So when Sherlock Homes goes missing for The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Alice fails to meet the White Rabbit, Amy and the other book jumpers Betsy and Will know that something has truly gone wrong in the book world.

I love the concept of the story. As an avid reader, I would relish the opportunity to visit the worlds I read about. Who wouldn’t want to spend a day auditing classes at Hogwarts, or taking in the sights of the Emerald City with Dorothy? I wasn’t too happy with how the ending played out in this book, but on the whole it was fun and excited my imagination. show less