Just in Case

"A doomed youth" is a reoccuring sentiment in this book, is that what youth is? Are we all just struggling with the possiblities of life? Is it impossible to concieve all the limitless choices and coincidences that make us who we are? Does it scare you to think how much your life affects the life of others? Do you feel lonely around many, or wish you could get away from it all? And most importantly, do you need help realizing that maybe you can control the life you lead and the word you see? "Just in Case" a book by Meg Rosoff, helps to consider these questions through the experience of an adolescent boy. It's a trying journey filled to the brim with insecurity, sadness, failure to reach potential, and most of all love, both genuine and insincere. The characters bring back memories for the older reader, and are very pertinent for the younger reader. This book is filled with the idea of fate, what it is, what it means to us, and how we cope with it? This story is enjoyable, influential, and also quite usefull for the classroom. Enjoy!!!

"Just in Case" by Megan Rosoff caught me off guard and made me realize why I enjoy reading all over again. The novel involves a teenager in search of himself and fearful of the many obstacles that life entails. He finds an eccentric friend named Agnes who he decides to love and doesn't accept that love not being returned. He goes on a continuous quest for perfection in an imperfect world, a connection between Justin and his audience since, at some point in our lives, we strive for the exact same thing. Love, fate, loss, confusion,luck and consequence mark Justin's existence, and Rosoff not only allows her readers to enter Justin's world but wander around it if we must. Justin and his inner voice speaks for any and every individual in search for that something, that someone, and/or that event that will change their lives forever. "Just in Case" is an excellent read that doesn't cookie-cut "happily ever after" and draws you in from the first line where one receives a bird's eye view of life before swooping the reader in.

Does fate control us or do we control our own fate? Does the universe chase its own predestined tail? And where does fantasy end and reality begin? These questions are constants in Meg Rosoff's "Just In Case." After saving his infant brother from a possibly fatal fall, David Case, a 15-year-old boy growing up in England, lives in constant fear that fate has it in for him. In his attempt to hide from his supposed cursed fate, he changes his name to Justin, buys a new wardrobe, and develops an overall new persona. Despite his best efforts, Justin (David) fears that fate is an adversary he cannot easily outrun. The lines between reality and fantasy further blur with each person who claims to see Justin's imaginary dog, Boy. Death and disaster seem to follow him everywhere. Fatal accidents surround Justin. People are struck and killed by cars in his presence and he just narrowly escapes being crushed by a plane that crashes where he was standing moments before. These events further convince him that he must hide from the world. The supernatural aspects of Meg Rosoff's novel run parallel with the themes of teenage insecurity. The struggle with newfound popularity amongst High School girls and his crush on Agnes, a 19-year-old girl who takes interest in photographing him, are difficult for Justin. As the chapters progress, one must wonder if Justin is crazy at all or if he is a normal 15-year-old boy who is struggling with his own identity. Are these fears really about physical death or about the death of childhood? As Justin is consumed by his new, fear-filled life, so does this novel consume the reader.

Do we really want to resign ourselves to the fact that a pre-existing, ubiquitous force (ok let's call it Fate with a capital "F") is shaping our lives? Do we then possess any control over our futures? Thinking this way can leave us stranded in our tracks, unable to move, and questioning each decision as if it's not ours to make. David Case, or more appropriately Justin Case, decides to take his life into his own hands and fight whatever force lies beyond the world's edge playing him like a puppet on very tight strings. He moves away from his family members, who are surprisingly distant and accepting of Justin's decisions despite the pleading of his younger brother Charlie, a precocious and insightful toddler. He embarks on a journey to escape the gruesome hand of Fate, a menacing and pervasive voice that resonates throughout the text, and find himself among the company of friends. Teen angst, coupled with a fatalistic attitude puts Justin on the path for disaster. The anxieties of adolescence, including depression, sexuality, love, rejection, and defeat mark his existence, but his obsession with dodging Fate complicates his life to an immense degree, so much so that he becomes the poster boy of "Doomed Youth." But what about the rest of us, going through adolescence or looking back on those years? I can't say Rosoff's protagonist mirrors my experiences completely, but somehow Justin has wondered into my own thinking about what it felt like at that age- the confusion, the desire to belong, and the realization that our parents can't promise us eternal safety from the perils that lie ahead. Strewn along a beach in one part of the novel, Peter, Agnes, and Justin move in search of different directions, both in their lives and during this brief excursion. After dipping into a warm pool of water and discovering the remains of glistening amber at dusk, Justin derives some understanding from the experience: "Chance. A series of events, combined to make coincidence. Leading to a revelation." Is Fate really life's mastermind afterall? Rosoff's endearing and enduring character is a relatable spirit. Justin captures the transforming changes that happen at this age. I consider him in some ways a modern day Holden Caulfield.

Now that I've finished reading JUST IN CASE and it's time for me to write my review, I'm having a hard time thinking of how to describe it. I've had the pleasure of reading How I Live Now, Ms. Rosoff's Michael L. Printz award-winning book, so I began reading JUST IN CASE with high expectations. I wasn't disappointed, not in the least, and have high hopes for the awards this book will garner over the coming year. It's just that, now that I need to put it in words, it's difficult to describe just who, exactly, the main character in this story is--David Case, now known as Justin, or Fate? I guess the book could be summed up, quite easily, by the words (actually, by the alphabet blocks) of eighteen-month-old Charlie Case: "JUST IN CASE WHAT?" Or, possibly, by the photograph of Agnes, the style-maven with the pink hair, entitled "ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH." Regardless of how you describe the story, you'll find yourself quickly immersed in the life and times of Justin Case. A teen on the verge of sixteen, David Case is irrevocably changed on the day he saves his baby brother from falling out of an open window. For those of us who are privy to his story, we would see two lucky brothers, one narrowly avoiding a long fall to his death, and one heroic for his quick thinking. For David, though, this break isn't a lucky one. No, this is just one more example of how Fate has it in for him. How can he get away, escape, allude Fate, trick it? He begins by changing his name to Justin, follows it up by becoming even more quiet and withdrawn than he originally was, and finishes it up with a new way of dressing, walking, and talking. When Justin meets Agnes, she immediately takes him under her wing--and uses him for her own purposes, although Justin doesn't realize it at first. Justin is too busy dodging Fate, avoiding certain death, worrying about the ways that Fate can trick him into an early grave. As Justin survives day to day, with the help of Boy, his imaginary dog, and Peter, his not imaginary friend and fellow runner, Justin is unable to see that Fate is still following him, hot on his heels. JUST IN CASE is the story of David, who becomes Justin, who melds into a boy that simply wants to make his own choices in life, rather than having it mapped out for him in advance. It's the story of Agnes, who wants to fix Justin, but in the end doesn't even truly understand the ways in which he's broken. It's the story of Charlie, an abnormally bright child who wishes his brother could forgive himself. It is, most of all, the story of Fate, and Fate's wicked sense of humor. Although it's hard to put JUST IN CASE neatly into a category, I can highly recommend it nevertheless. Once I started this story, I was unable to put it down until the very last word--and even then I was still entranced by Justin Case and his battle with Fate. This book is definitely one worth reading.