Friday, November 15, 2013

Book Review - Dancing Jax

Dancing Jax by Robin Jarvis (Harper Collins, 2012)



Leo, 12, Canberra


Dancing Jax starts when a gang of thieves break into an old abandoned house in Felixstowe, Ipswich.

Most of the gang express distaste and even fear in coming to the sinister place; a boy named Bobby Runecliffe visited the place once, and after they found him he was insane; first strangling his pets, then trying to murder his sister. We all know where he is now, locked up in an asylum; his mind destroyed by the house.

The leader of the thieves, a man named Jezza,  seems possessed, daemonic even.  After he leaves the house, he leads them down into the darkened basement where he uncover six wooden crates each filled with copies of one book, called Dancing Jax written by the late Austerly Fellows.

As the gang thankfully leave the house, Jezza takes on the personage of The Ismus, a character from the book of Dancing Jax. He then gives the rest of them a copy of the book.  All in the gang who read the book become possessed; they believe that they are characters from the book, and that this world is but a grey opaque dream.

A shocking disaster occurs and forty one people die, incinerated by fire, but in a way they were the lucky ones, free from the words of Austerly Fellows.

Meanwhile the main protagonist Martin Baxter is teaching his maths class, shocked at the loss of life and unaware that his life, as well as everyone else's, is about to be brought to its knees.

The book Dancing Jax spreads like a pestilence, even a plague, converting all who read it. Be prepared, Dancing Jax is about to be unleashed on the world and it will never be the same again.

To sum up, Dancing Jax is a horror story.  Definitely not recommended for younger children or people who don't like being scared.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds like it would have a sequel? Does it? Is it as scary?

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  2. Yes, its called 'Freax and Rejex', which is followed by 'Fighting Pax'. I wouldn't say scary, more gruesome.

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