Quickie Review: Career Day by Barry Lyga

Career Day (Jasper Dent #0.5) by Barry Lyga
Synopsis (Goodreads):
(Kelly's note: There isn't an actual synopsis anywhere that I could find, so I shall sum things up for you instead. *steeples fingers and laughs maniacally* *pauses* Or, I'll just give you the beginning of the I Hunt Killers synopsis. Dammit.)

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.

My Thoughts: Holy whoa, people! This short story packs a considerable wallop. The ending. THE ENDING. It nearly made me tear up. For all his bravado and the game face he puts on for the world, Jazz is just a sad, sweet, messed up kid underneath. It absolutely kills me how badly he wants to be normal and how much his dad screwed him up.

This is a fantastic look at Jazz and his friends before the events in book 1. Between gangly, irrepressible Howie (his flirting is AWESOME, btw) and cool as a cucumber Connie (I like this girl. I really like her), Jazz is building up defenses against what his dad taught him. Because "People matter" and Howie and Connie are there to remind him of that.

I seriously love this series. Jazz is messed up and his thought process can be downright scary at times but he gets in your head and under your skin. In a good way. Although I have no doubt he could do that in a bad way, too. Thanks, dad, for that.

Books in this series
0.5. Career Day - free download/online read
1. I Hunt Killers
2. Game

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