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It’s about time I read The 13th Reality, A Journal of Curious Letters by James Dashner. First let me tell you the back story on James Dashner.  I mean, we have a back story!  My husband is an aspiring writer and I remember clearly the day he comes home from work and tells me of a guy he met on the train who was reading what looked to be a book manuscript.

Taylor, of course, wants to know what that is all about and introduces himself.  That guy is, of course, James Dashner, and tells Taylor that he is finishing up changes for his new book that would be published with Shadow Mountain (a publishing company local to Utah with a nationwide reach).  Taylor gets super excited and asks all kinds of questions.  James tells him that he approached Shadow Mountain with a different book that they didn’t care for but they liked his writing style so they asked him to write a different one.  The 13th Reality is that different book.  Taylor gets his email address, emails him some more, James is awesome and emails back answering questions.

After his book is released, we went to the Provo Children’s Book Festival and hear James speak on a panel.  Taylor wins the book in a drawing and James recognizes him immediately as the “guy on the train.”  I had yet to meet him and when I introduced myself, he says, “Oh yeah!  The one with the blog!”  So, so nice that he knew that.

I ran into James a second time recently at Rapunzel’s Revenge. As soon as he sees me, he immediately gets up from his book signing table and comes over to say hello.  Let me just tell you that James is one heck of a nice guy!  So not snobbish.  And very, very funny.

And he literally lives like 3 miles away from me.  Yep, same town.

So with all of that said, you can imagine how guilty I was feeling that I still had not actually read the book (Taylor read it months ago).  So about time, huh?

In The 13th Reality, A Journal of Curious Letters, Atticus Higgenbottom, otherwise known as Tick, is a normal thirteen year old boy who is a self-declared nerd.  One day he receives a rather odd letter postmarked from Alaska.  The letter tells him that people’s lives are in danger and if he has the courage to accept “the mission” than he can save them.  But he has no clue what the mission is nor who the people are he’s meant to save or who’s sending the letters.  What follows are twelve more letters full of riddles and clues that Tick must solve to prove himself brave enough to save millions, but with each letter comes more danger, new friends, and new enemies.

I can totally see why all boys everywhere love The 13th Reality, A Journal of Curious Letters, the first in a series.  It’s very fun, engaging, and kept me turning the page for more.   Kids will have tons of fun solving the riddles and clues and I was excited to figure out a few myself before Tick did.  James Dashner cracks a joke seemingly every second, and pokes fun at his author friend J. Scott Savage, which was fun to pick up on.  It was nice to see the adolescent main character actually have a good, honest relationship with his parents.  The book ended with a cliffhanger and I’m sure boys everywhere will want to know how this tale proceeds.  And maybe an almost 30-ish housewife as well.

Want more?  A James Dashner author interview coming right up!  Have you read this book?  Like it?  Do you have any favorite local authors in your area?

Links of interest:  James Dashner’s website and blog.  Edited to add future posts:  Maw Books interview with JamesDashner, book review of the sequel The 13th Reality and the Hunt for Dark Infinity, James at my house!
Genre:  Middle Grade Science Fiction/Fantasy, approx age 9-12
Publisher:  Shadow Mountain.  March 3, 2008
Hardcover, 432 pages ISBN:  1590388313
The 13th Reality, The Journal of Curious Letters is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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