The Journeys of John and Julia in Chapter One: Genesis by Aurelia

The Journeys of John and Julia in Chapter One: Genesis

By Aurelia

Published by Gerber Rigler, June 29, 2012

264 pages (paperback)

Source: NetGalley

The Journeys of John and Julia begin.

The Twenty-Two are watching.

Reality is about to change.

It all starts when Julia's parents totally mess with her summer. First Julia's dad takes off to start a whole new family. Then Julia's mom yanks Julia from cheerleader camp to spend the summer with her grandmother in the land of no signal, no mall, no best friend Kellie. Julia's only hope for human contact is geeky John Freeman, who is six months younger than she and about a million years behind her idea of cool.

If only Julia knew that her mom plans to dump her at Grandma's not just for the summer, but for a whole year. If only Julia knew that a collective of wondrous beings called The Twenty-Two are watching over her and trying to make contact. If only Julia knew that they could tell Julia every thought she never knew she had and bend her reality in any way they choose. And that she'd be with John Freeman when it happened. He'd think that was way cool. And that is just the beginning. For this seemingly mismatched pair have cracked open the door to another reality. And their enemy-to-be, the beyond evil Niem Vidalgo Oten, is about to enter the picture. (from NetGalley)

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I started out really confused as the Twenty-Two gathered. I felt like there was too much description of their outfits then action/plot progression. Plus, with 22 fantastical beings, I couldn’t keep track of who could do what, etc. But then the story moved on to Julia and then John. While not particularly endearing, I never disliked either of them. However, I did wonder why the Twenty-Two were helping Julia instead of someone else in much more need. I mean, yes, her father left and her grandpa died, but there are kids and adults in much more need of guidance. In fact, I think Julia’s mom was more in need of guidance then her.

The book continued to flip back and forth between the Twenty-Two and John & Julia. Then I couldn’t read any more. In a flashback to a conversation with her best friend, Julia remembers calling her friend a “psychitard”. Really? The author couldn’t come up with anything better than distorting the R-word? Then, later on, the author actually uses the R-word.

WHAT?!?!?

Now, I can handle cussing in books if that fits the situation/character, but derogatory terms about people used flippantly and ignorantly to sound cool is not ok. And in 2012 the R-word should not be used in a book. Or, if it is used in a book, it should be Character A saying the word and Character B educating A on how not-cool it is to use the R-word. If you want more information on how to Spread the Word to End the Word just follow the link and educate your friends!

So I had to stop the book. I know it was intended to show Julia’s immaturity or something like that, but there are a lot of other words/phrases that could have been used. The book was already so-so but I didn’t really want to read any more completely ridiculous sentences that are offensive to so many wonderful people around the world.

Hopefully future adventures of John & Julia will result in more mature conversations and actions. Hopefully.