The Twelve-Fingered Boy (Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy Series #1)

by John Hornor Jacobs

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon doesn't mind juvie. He's got a good business dealing contraband candy, and three meals a day are more than his drunk mother managed to provide. In juvie, the rules never change and everyone is the same. In juvie, Shreve has life figured out. Then the new fish shows up.

Jack's a quiet kid. Small. Cries himself to sleep too. He's no standard-issue titty-baby, though. There's his hands—more specifically his fingers, all twelve of 'em. And when he gets angry, something weird happens. The air wavers. You feel a slight pressure in your chest. And then…well, best take cover.

Jack isn't the only new face in juvie. There's Mr. Quincrux. Quincrux has an unusual interest in Jack and Shreve, and it quickly becomes clear that innocent bystanders aren't going to get in his way. So Jack and Shreve bust out.

On the lam, they quickly discover that Jack has abilities—hell, superpowers—that might just give them a fighting chance against Quincrux, if they can stay alive long enough to figure them out.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467731300
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/01/2013
Series:	Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy Series , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
Lexile:	650L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

John Hornor Jacobs is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including The Twelve-Fingered Boy 

and The Shibboleth. He lives in Arkansas with his family. 

Editorial Reviews

It’s a little bit Shawshank Redemption, a little bit X-Men, as adult author Jacobs (This Dark Earth) launches a promising trilogy about superhuman teens. Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon is passing the time in Pulaski Juvenile Detention Center, selling candy to his fellow inmates, when he’s assigned a new roommate: Jack Graves, a small, quiet 13-year-old with 12 fingers and uncontrollable telekinetic abilities. When a stranger named Mr. Quincrux shows up, sporting nasty mental powers and an uncomfortable interest in Jack, the boys have no choice but to break out of juvie and go on the run. Attempting to stay one step ahead of Quincrux, they master Jack’s telekinesis and Shreve’s newfound telepathy, and eventually must choose between freedom and justice. While the story spins its wheels at times (parts of Jack and Shreve’s day-to-day life in juvie and on the road can drag, even with superpowers involved), and a number of questions are left to later books, the premise is sound, Shreve’s hard-edged narrative voice is strong, and Jacobs skillfully builds tension and mystery throughout. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"At long last, here is a superhero story for the rest of us. Streetwise Shreve, 15, is serving a two-year stint in juvie, but at least his sideline—dealing candy—keeps things interesting. Enter new roommate Jack, a haunted 13-year-old (a 'titty-baby' in juvie terms) rumored to have killed his parents and put five kids into the hospital. Jack has 12 fingers. That's weird. Even weirder? When angered, he can 'go explodey'—psychically hurl people across the room. No wonder other parties are, shall we say, interested. Mr. Quincrux, an ominously bland fellow in a black suit, arrives to mentally invade the minds of Jack and Shreve and in the process accidentally lends Shreve a similar ability. What follows is miles away from the superhero battles you're expecting. After the two boys bust out, they live the desperate existence of itinerate thieves as they struggle to control superpowers fueled by pain. Jacobs' storytelling has the effortless velocity of early Dean Koontz, and his prose is textured with hard-boiled grit: each kid's supernatural flexing causes nosebleeds and vomiting, not to mention the realistic mangling of innocent people. An expertly spiced stew of attitude, humor, horror, and grief—and with a movie-ready plot to boot. Sequels? Probably. Let's make that hopefully. —starred, Booklist

From the Publisher

Jacobs serves up a juvenile-detention story flavored with weirdness. Shreveport Justice Cannon, know within the Casimir Pulaski Juvenile Detention Center for Boys as Shreve, is happy to deal candy and wait until his sentence is up. When Jack Graves arrives and is assigned to Shreve's cell, Casimir Juvie starts receiving visits from the mysterious Mr. Quincrux and Ilsa. They are curious about Jack's polydactyly--he is the titular 12-fingered boy--and the strange circumstances that brought Jack to Casimir. Shreve and Jack are forced to flee from Quincrux and his creepy ability to invade people's minds, even as Shreve seems to develop a talent for mind hijacking as well. While both teens are perfectly likable, there's nothing new about them either. Shreve's back story of neglect and self-sacrifice and Jack's outcast status based on physical appearance are all too familiar. Quincrux's power adds a dash of paranormal horror, but a potentially intriguing exploration of moral relativism through Shreve's possessions becomes more lecture than narrative. A string of seemingly random encounters provides action but works against narrative cohesion. Against the plethora of mutant and superhuman narratives, this effort just feels shopworn. (Paranormal adventure. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews