READ-A-THON! X-It by Jane George: Chapter 1-3 “This is how we tell a story, folks.”

*THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK

Welcome everyone, to the first day of our Read-A-Thon on X-It by Jane George! To find more about this Read-A-Thon, you can check out the intro post here!

Here's a refresher about what X-It is about:

Genre: Young Adult

Pages: 210
Publication Date: Mar 26, 2012
Website: Jane George | X-It on Goodreads

Synopsis:

LOVE IS A DRUG.

In 1980 NYC, eighteen-year-old J.J. Buckingham is an uptight trendoid. Working as a mannequin painter and a counter girl, she moonlights as a creature of the nightclubs. J.J. falls for aloof, crazy-talented artist and bicycle messenger X-It. In order to win his love, she succumbs to the dark machinations of drug dealer Marko Voodoo. X-It will love her if she’s the queen of underground Manhattan, right? Her plan backfires with horrendous consequences. Can J.J. find her way out of a maze of drugs, clubs, and danger?

In Chapter 1-3...

Our main character, J.J. Buckingham is introduced. She just moved from San Francisco to New York, and there she met X-It, who became her roommate. We learn more about their characters after a party at a popular club.

My thoughts

It would be an understatement to say I savored every word and line of the book. (The fact that I just recently finished 2 books which are… mediocre, at best, probably helped, though.)

Just from the first chapters, the story-telling of this book seems perfect. Many authors make the mistake of telling the audience exactly what they want us to think. Well, Stephen King wrote “Don’t treat your audience like idiots.” (Or some words to the same effect). Jane George followed the “show, don’t tell” rule to a T, and even though the book is told from JJ’s point of view, there is still freedom for me to interpret the details the way I want.

The characterization - amazing. I love finding out about the many different aspects in JJ’s character, especially through her thoughts, comments and world-views. JJ is also the one who provides us with a description of X-It, who plays the role of the-best-friend-who-never-knows. I’m enjoying the dynamics between them so far – it’s not just the stereotypical best-friend-or-boyfriend we usually see, and would love to see where this “relationship” go!

I want to scream at X-It, “Look at me! I’m beautiful! And I’m just your size!”

One more thing I have to comment on is the beautiful language. Jane is probably one of the most creative authors I’ve ever read when it comes to the choice of words and metaphors and similes and the likes. I could go on and on about this, but let me just show you some examples:

His face arrests all preconceptions, captures my heart and aesthetics sensibilities on the spot.

Glorious, autumn-gilded Manhattan unfolds before me as I gaze north up Madison Avenue.

His laughter trails behind him like amused exhaust.

As I read this book, I was thinking about the song The One That Got Away by Katy Perry. Of course, the story line has not developed enough for me to tell if it’s the same or not, but I think the atmosphere is pretty similar. I’m looking forward to seeing whether my intuition is right!

Until tomorrow!Did you read X-It? What do you think about it so far? Please comment!