The Jump review by Bj Allanah

 

The book The Jump written by Brittney Morris is based on the motto 'Influence is power, and power creates change.' The book follows four teens, Jax, Yas, Spider, and Han who are the four cornerstones of Team JERICHO. The team was widely regarded as the best digital scavenger-hunting team in all of Seattle. They each have their own specialty that they bring to the group. Jax is the puzzler, Yas is the parkourist, Spider is the hacker, and Han is the cartographer. Issues arise when they learn that an oil refinery is being built right in their backyard. Their families are at risk of losing their jobs, their communities, and their homes. When the Order, a mysterious organization, hijacks the scavenger-hunting forum and creates its own puzzle, promising a reward of power, Team JERICHO sees it as the chance of a lifetime. If they end up winning the game, they could change their families' fates and save the city they live in.  But with an opposing team hot on their backs, Team JERICHO needs more than street smarts to outwit their rivals.

Beginning this, The Jump is an interesting story that I have yet to stumble across. By diving into the first pages of the book, I was greeted with information from a day in the life of Jax, who acted as the narrator for the book. I learn about his family, and his morning routine before school. One thing I liked about this part of the book was that I got to learn about other people's school routines. The book allowed me to look at another perspective of something I do almost every day which I found nice. Getting an intricate biography of the rest of the teens was difficult for me, as they mainly talked about Jax. That was one thing I would say the book lacked as the side characters were seemingly 'pushed' to the side to focus on only one character. It lacked key details on the type of game that the teens were playing. And the book could've gone more in-depth on the consequences of losing. One thing the book does well though is that it gives me details on some of the scavenger hunts they go on.

To conclude, the book had an interesting core, but to me, it wasn't something I'd read again. It lacked remembrance and included key memories that you could look back on in the book. The side characters were pushed to the side and if given more moments in the book could've been better. While it does go in-depth on the type of scavenger hunts they go on, personally I wasn't that interested in the whole idea. In the end, I would give the book a 5.5/10, as it missed many things needed to make it a good books and I personally lacked interest in scavenger hunting.