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Just In Case

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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 He begins by changing his name to Justin, follows it up by becoming even more quiet and withdrawn than he originally was, and finishes it up with a new way of dressing, walking, and talking.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.

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.

"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!!!

Adolescence is a time in an individual's life where they face many decisions and are put in situations where they have to deal with peer pressure. What if they had to tackle more? The protagonist, David Case, is a teenage boy who is obsessed with his fate. He does not, however, focus on what good things might come of his life, he focuses on the negative. As I was reading this I kept thinking about the film "Final Destination," where death is following the characters, much like David is being followed by his fate. Although I really enjoyed Rosoff's novel, I had to question whether or not young adults would catch all of the important things she is doing with this. I also feel that this whole idea of "doomed fate," and the possiblity of your fate being unlucky, might be something young adults might have a hard time dealing with. This text raises, not only lots of issues, but lots of BIG issues. Besides fate it deals with sexuality and sexual maturation; it deals with relationships; struggles with the inner self; family problems; love; and peer pressure. Overall, this is a real "page turner" and a fast read. I think that young adults will like this, but as I said before, I'm not sure they'll get everything.

One of the first random, bolded "voiceovers" in Meg Rosoff's latest novel, Just In Case, sums up the premise quite nicely: "So that's where we start: One boy on the verge of death. Another on the verge of something rather more complicated." And David Case's situation is fairly complex. First of all, he's changed his name to Justin. He's hormonal. He has an imaginary dog that other people can see. And to top it off, someone keeps violating what would otherwise be a normal novel about teenage angst with ominous nursery-rhymed threats to kill him.
All of the above, of course, makes for a well-paced novel that keeps the reader guessing. Is this another schizophrenic protagonist like Russell Crowe's portrayal of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind? Is the relationship between Justin and Agnes a type of modern-day Pygmalion and Galatea? Is Justin really being dogged by a wicked Force designing his doom, or is he just going through a phase called adolescence?
Ultimately, I think the latter is true. This is more of a Britney Spears "I'm Not a Girl, Not Quite a Woman" situation. The main character is only grappling with the realities of going to high school, dealing with clueless parents, and coping with puberty. Agnes's photography exhibit shows how this "in between" stage can be ugly and beautiful, vulnerable and strong all at the same time. Justin's belief that someone is out to get him, that he has been chosen to be the harbinger of doom, accentuates the "all about me" self-absorption of every teenager. World catastrophe and mangled bodies are mere backdrops when hormones are ripe and a nineteen-year old is near.
But like adolescence itself, this novel is not so simple. Weaving a story built for young adults and fiction-lovers alike, Rosoff subtly taps into society's persistent nervousness about homosexuality, terrorism, and disease outbreak. Agnes's click-click-clicking of everything from Justin to the bloodied body parts of the plane crash shows how suffering can be exploited for art's sake. Every street or store sign in the novel has a larger meaning. And Rosoff's seamless, shifting points of view and narrative echo Jane Austen's use of free indirect speech. Just in Case is an endearing, haunting, and at times surprising portrayal of the universal coming of age story.

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.

"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.

As I tore through the pages of Meg Rosoff's sophomore novel "Just in Case", I was constantly reminded of "Sixty", a poem by Stephen Dunn in which he states, "As Garcia Lorca may have written: some people/ forget to live as if a great arsenic lobster/ could fall on their heads at any moment." David Case, a fifteen-year-old boy from England, definitely thought about the possibility of this poisonous shellfish and every other unlikely disaster that might befall him--on the regular.

From the very moment David saves his baby brother from falling out a window he becomes obsessed with fate and running from it. By changing his name to Justin, re-vamping his wardrobe, and changing his demeanor, the adolescent loses sight of the everyday and becomes ensnared with death, destruction, sorrow, sex, and detachment. He is wary and intolerant of nearly everyone, including his parents. He clings to an older, eccentric girl named Agnes who delights Justin with her peculiarities and the attention she pays to him. Justin also finds comfort in his imaginary Greyhound and his steadfast, focused friend, Peter.

Rosoff entices her readers by detailing the obscurities of her characters. Justin's infant brother Charlie, for example, is a miniature sage who lacks the vocabulary to transmit his brilliant ideas. Justin, too, is so dynamic and complex that readers can't help but identify with some of his fantasies or fears. All adolescents can relate to some facet of Justin's personality, whether they are rational or not. This is surely a book to be recommended to young adults while they get to know themselves and also for adults who recall this precarious stage of life.

David Case wants a life that is just like everyone else's, but Fate just can't seem to leave him alone. In an attempt to outwit Fate, David changes his name to Justin, takes on a new persona and begins to run, quite literally, from what Fate has in store for him next. From causing bicycle accidents to being the target of a plane crash to a deadly disease that nearly kills him, Justin learns that it is not Fate that determines his future but the choices he makes and the people he surrounds himself with that guide his course.

The running dialogue between Justin and Fate can be quite disturbing at times with its intensity, but it helps you see how Justin's mind works. And Rosoff seems to understand that depression/anxiety/borderline schizophrenia can make the mind a dark place to dwell, especially for a teenage who is beginning to deal with it for the first time.

The most exciting aspect of this book actually comes from the cast of supporting characters who all wait in the shadows of Justin's mind to lead him on new paths. With an imaginary dog that the most unexpected people seem to be able to see and an older girl whom Justin thinks is his lucky charm, Justin builds a life that is far from normal, but this book goes on to make you question what normal is in an entirely different way than any other book.

Meg Rosoff's second novel, "Just in Case," is a terrifying read. Why terrifying? Because just one thought changes the hero's life forever--in a way he, his family, his friends, and the reader don't fully understand. Is he depressed? Is he schizophrenic? Is Fate really after him?

Fifteen-year-old David Case was in charge of his toddler brother, Charlie, when it happened. Charlie decided he could fly and was perched on the windowsill about to dive. David just barely rescues his brother from a catastrophic fall. Did David feel relieved, grateful? No. This is what David understands:

"Suddenly, everywhere he looked he saw catastrophe, bloodshed, the demise of the planet, the ruin of the human race, not to mention (to pinpoint the exact source of his anxiety) possible pain and suffering to himself."

David decides Fate is persuing him and, indeed, Fate shows up here in there in the narration, assuring David that this is the case. David resolves to outrun Fate. He changes his name to Justin and buys a whole new wardrobe at a second-hand shop. He meets a nineteen-year-old girl named Agnes, a photographer who sees potential in Justin as a model. For awhile, he escapes Fate and his life improves. He meets a new friend at school, a calm genius named Peter. He begins to run cross country and finds comfort in the rhythm of outrunning Fate. And, an invisible greyhound, Boy, adopts him.

But then Fate's voice comes to him, singing the song of the Gingerbread man during a race, and Justin's life takes a turn for the worst. He stops going to school, he begins living with Agnes and never leaves the apartment. I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, but it involves a plane crash, meningitis, an art exhibit, and some special children able to read minds (a Rosoff trait, it seems).

"Just in Case" is such a powerful novel because, as a reader, you just don't know what to think. Is Justin crazy? Is Fate really out to get him? Why can Charlie read his brother so well and does the toddler really know how to live? All I can tell you is to run out and read "Just in Case." Despite its darkness, the novel's message is, in the end, one of hope and transcendence.