The Marbury Lens (Marbury, 1)

Okay. So this is how it all started. One day I saw Marbury up for grabs in a Goodreads contest. I was enthralled with the cover! I knew I just HAD to read that book. I entered. I did not win. Still driven to read this novel, I pre-ordered THE MARBURY LENS from Amazon. I read TML the day it arrived and as I did I felt an instant connection to the characters and the storyline itself.I feel very strongly about this book, something grabbed on to me, swallowing me whole, sucking me in deeper and deeper into this strange place called MARBURY. I was prisoner but didn't want to escape. That being said, I'm going to do my best and try to justify the book by telling you my thoughts and feelings concerning THE MARBURY LENS."Roll. Tap. Tap. Tap."Jack is a sixteen year old boy. Normal. As normal as any other teenage boy I suppose. Conner is Jack's best friend and has been for years. .. since they were very young. Jack and Conner have a great friendship. They would do anything for each other. Seriously! ANYTHING. Jack is more reserved, quiet and shy. Almost like he's just hanging back watching everything from the sidelines. Whereas Conner, he is all up in the action. All the time. Everywhere. Conner loves attention and is adventurous. Conner does give Jack a hard time because he isn't the same, but he's always just joking around and would always be there if Jack needed him.Jack's birth parents bailed when he was super young. Yeah, that sucks and at times I think Jack has a shitty outlook on life because of it. I would. I have. I've been there. Jack was raised by his maternal grandparents; Wynn and Stella. Both love him deeply but this isn't enough for Jack, he still resents the fact that he was left behind. He hides his feelings and keeps them bottled up inside. He's a loner and doesn't let anyone in except for Conner.School is over for the summer and Jack has planned a trip to London with Conner to check out a private school. This is a good thing and Jack is excited. During a party (end of school? going away? just a party?) at Conner's house a few days before leaving both boys get extremely drunk. (As do the rest of the guests) Jack stumbles upstairs to Conner's bedroom to escape and what he finds is not at all what he expected. In the frazzled state of mind Jack was in, he hurriedly left the room, went outside and after contemplating his options he decided to walk home. He didn't make it home though. Jack woke on a park bench to find Freddie. Freddie is one character that is sick, manipulative, psychotic and absolutely plain evil. He does things unimaginable to Jack. After a few days of enduring what felt like hell only 1000 times worse, Jack escapes Freddie's house, only to see him again when he and Conner have been out shopping one night before their trip. Conner is the only person Jack really trusts completely and is the only person that Jack told about Freddie. So, when they see his car parked hidden in the alley exactly where it had probably been when he abducted Jack, Conner decided to get revenge. A plan to kidnap and set Freddie up to be found by police in his own home with all of the evidence of what he'd done to Jack and the others goes all awry. Jack feels guilty and blames himself for all that went wrong."You haven't gotten away with anything."Jack finally goes on the trip to London. His emotions are raw, enhanced even. He is paranoid, feeling like everyone out there must know, that they are watching him. Maybe they are even after him. Jack tries to relax and enjoy his time away until he is confronted by a man who says he knows him. Freaky right? Well, dude gives him a pair of glasses that when worn take you on a literal trip to hell. Marbury. This is Jack's hell. At first he is confused and doesn't know what's going on. Slowly Jack realizes he knows Marbury and every horrifying thing about it. After each escapade to Marbury; an alternate world full of murder, inhuman warriors that hunt him and desolation, Jack slips back to reality and learns that some time has gone by. A lot of it. He gets physically sick. However, now Jack is addicted and like any drug this addiction attacks your body making you want more. So, Marbury calls Jack back. Repeatedly.During his stay in London Jack meets a lovely English girl who is everything he's dreamed of. He doesn't want to share his secrets with her but soon enough she can tell that something is amiss. She tries to help him but doesn't want to push too hard, knowing that would push him away. The more Jack goes to Marbury the more he can't help himself. The more he wants to be there. Then one day he finds out his best friend Conner is there also. Only in MARBURY Conner is not the boy Jack knows and loves, in MARBURY Connor wants to kill Jack. This turns into a battle for Jack both in and out of Marbury. He begins to think he's losing his mind, can't tell the difference between reality and MARBURY. He experiences shocking events, things like maybe his worst nightmares and fears might conjure up. Taking this ride with Jack from beginning to end was an amazing journey. Watching him learn to trust and fall in love with a wonderful girl was an experience in it's own. Experiencing first hand all of the horrid trials and events that took place in MARBURY and being in his head while he was feeling totally lost and out of control. All of this was just... WOW.Jack finally manned up, stood up to the evil and haunting events happening in MARBURY. He grew up from a lost and scared boy to a strong-willed young man knowing the best things to do and helping others. I felt compelled to stick with him on this journey, throughout every despicable turn of event. And believe me, there are plenty of those. So, will I go back for more? You bet your ass I will. I can't wait for the sequel to The Marbury Lens to release on October 2.I think Andrew Smith has done a brilliant job by writing a novel so intense and so frightening while at the same time bordering on reality. Some will shy away from it but in my opinion this story isn't so off base. It defines everyday life for some people in several ways. Marbury haunts all of our minds who have been traumatized in some form or another. It's called Hell. Your own personal hell. We all have one.

"I was thinking. What if the world was like one of those Russian nesting dolls? What if we only saw one surface of it, the outside, but there was all kinds of other stuff going on, too? All the time. Underneath. But we just don't see it, even if we're part of it? Even if we're in it? And what if you had a chance to see a different layer, like flipping a channel or something? Would you want to look? Even if what you saw looked like hell? Or worse?"MY THOUGHTSIn the beginning of this novel, Jack attends a party at his best friend, Conner's house. Parents are out of town so mayhem is sure to follow. Jack stumbles, drunk, into Conner's bedroom, where he is being pleasured by a lady friend. Conner's such a nice friend that he invites Jack to the private party, but Jack ain't having it. He finds his way to the street, and eventually wakes up on a park bench. A nice man offers help, and as our parents have dutifully pounded into our brains, Jack should not have talked to this stranger.Jack finds himself in a very serious situation. He's been kidnapped by one Freddie Horvath, whose idea of a fun time is the stuff of nightmares. Jack narrowly escapes this maniac, only to find himself still stuck in his own personal hell. Jack confides in Conner, who swears to help Jack get revenge. One more tragedy later, and Jack arrives in London, where he will be attending school a la study abroad. Jack is paranoid and cannot seem to keep a firm grip on reality. One night he ends up in a bar and meets Henry Hewitt, who tells Jack a very confusing message and disappears. Henry doesn't leave Jack empty handed, however. On the table is a pair of glasses, which eventually lead Jack to Marbury. And now the fun begins. Or should I say, the chaos ensues.I refuse to go into details about Marbury. It is a place that you must discover on your own in order to really appreciate the post-apocalyptic, maniacal, twisted, horrific landscape. As Jack visits Marbury time and time again, you see his sanity slowly unravel like a tattered old blanket. It's surreal and creepy as hell. And as the reader, you are left wondering if your sanity is in tact, as well. Jack has endured trauma, and for those unaware, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is very real. The intensity of the trauma is not what is important. It's how the person perceives the trauma that is the deciding factor for the mind to say "Hasta La Vista, Baby." One of the main symptoms of PTSD is reliving the event. Does Jack do this? Yes, in his recurring distressing memories about Freddie among other hallucinations. He's emotionally numb, feels completely detached from reality, has no interest in life, and has difficulty sleeping. More importantly, after visiting Marbury, he `comes to' with gaps in his memory. I'm talking days, people. And his addiction for Marbury is insatiable.I really enjoyed the friendship Jack and Conner shared, and throughout the book you really felt how much love, dedication and loyalty existed between them. Conner never faltered in his friendship and stood by Jack through his dark times. One thing that did irk me, however, was the ugly homophobic undertones of the book. For one, Conner constantly harassed Jack about his disinterest in girls, when Jack made it pretty clear that he's heterosexual. I get that some heterosexual men tease their friends about being "gay." I don't find it funny but homophobia is one of those ugly issues prevalent in society. Conner seems to go a bit over the top on this topic, however, and it gets to a point where I really wish Jack would've either decked him in the face or kissed him, just to get him to shut the BLEEP up about it. The constant bombardment of homophobia felt a tad distasteful.I got way more than I bargained for when I picked up this book. It is definitely a challenging read, and one I won't soon forget. This psychological thriller fantasy is a lot to take in, and I really admire Smith for dishing out the ugly parts of life (violence, kidnapping, rape, mental health, etc.). There's a ton of cursing. The story is dark, gritty, intense, creepy, violent, offensive and might make you a bit ill. The writing is very disjointed, but it only added to the mindBLEEP of a book that is The Marbury Lens.In the end, the real question is: Has Jack slipped into the deepest, darkest part of his psyche, or Is Marbury really real? We are given various tips along the way, but to be honest, I haven't a dang clue. I won't spoil, but to me, the ending made this deranged journey stick with you that much more. All I know is that when I closed the book and left Jack's world, I had to take a moment to get my bearings and ensure I, too, wasn't wearing a pair of magical spectacles. To me, that is great writing.

Riveting and wild, The Marbury Lens is a fantastic fantasy thriller where friendship becomes blurred and more than one world is at stake.Would highly recommend this to someone looking for something that little bit different!

I won’t lie: The Marbury Lens, by Andrew Smith, is one of those books I had on my to-read list for a long time before I read it. I don’t even know why it took me so long; every time I saw the book, my desire to read it was renewed. I just never seemed to get to it, for some reason.That changed recently. I was looking for something a little bit dark, a little bit literary, and a little bit fantasy. The Marbury Lens fit that perfectly.True, that can be a bit of an odd combination, but it works for this book.It’s that “not entirely sure” concept that had me hooked. Are the goggles taking Jack into a new world? Or is he experiencing a form of PTSD, an aftereffect of his recent kidnapping? In the early parts of the novel, Smith certainly provides evidence of both scenarios, and it’s not until later that we start to become more sure of one answer over the other.I’ll admit, those first couple of chapters can be a little bit confusing, but that’s part of the appeal. That was the case for me, at least. The confusion had me asking questions, and it made me want to keep reading so that I could get the answers.

Bought for teenage son with fairly grown up reading tastes, based on summary of plot and a 'suggested for teenagers' recommendation that I'd found somewhere. It turns out to be deeply unsettling and needs some kind of health warning. It's one of the few books he hasn't persevered with and I'm embarrassed to have made such a bad choice.