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Death of Jayson Porter, The (Hardcover)

by Jaime Adoff (Author)
Key Phrases: sunny gardens, Our House, Fourth of July, Hank Carter (more...)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Jayson Porter’s life is miserable. His relationship with his alcoholic mother wavers between abuse and neglect, his father is a downwardly spiraling crack addict, and he literally has to dodge bullets in the projects just to stay alive long enough to escape in the only way he sees possible. He daydreams about throwing himself off his building, and when he finally does, he has a split-second realization on the way to oblivion that no matter how grim, life is too precious to abandon hope. Miraculously, he is given a second chance at life. Adoff, whose verse-novel Jimi & Me won a 2006 Coretta Scott King Award, captures the inner-city voice of drug-strangled poverty from Jayson’s point of view, in stark prose that crumbles into haunting blank verse, effectively using both white and black space to convey Jayson’s anguished mentality as he crawls ever closer to the edge. This forceful story will appeal to the many readers, some in despair, who will find Jayson a character they can cling to. It’s a hard book to read, and even harder to put down. Grades 10-12. --Ian Chipman

Product Description

Sixteen-year-old Jayson Porter wants to believe things will get better. But the harsh realities of his life never seem to change. Living in the inland-Florida projects with his abusive mother, he tries unsuccessfully to fit in at his predominately white school, while struggling to maintain even a thread of a relationship with his drug-addicted father. As the pressure mounts, there's only one thing Jayson feels he has control over-the choice of whether to live or die.

In this powerful, gripping novel, Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Jaime Adoff explores the harsh reality of a teenager's life, giving hope even in the bleakest of hours.

Product Details

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (April 29, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423106911
  • ISBN-13: 978-1423106913
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Urban Fiction Realistically Portrayed, June 13, 2008
By Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Although the title of the book seems to give away the ending, THE DEATH OF JAYSON PORTER surges to a new life after that bleak moment. I'm not familiar with Jaime Adoff's work, but the premise of this novel caught my attention. Judging from a quick survey of the other books he's written, Adoff spends time presenting tales about urban, biracial boys trapped in harsh worlds. This book is actually bigger than that, though.

Jayson Porter is a young teen who has a black father hooked on crack and a mother that spends her time with an avalanche of boyfriends and alcohol. Given the terrible neighborhood he's in, Jayson doesn't stand a chance at a decent life. His mother is a Jekyll and Hyde that loves him one moment and physically abuses him the next. Unable to depend on his mother, he works at a car lot detailing vehicles under an abusive boss that taunts him with firing him nearly every day. The bus Jayson has to take to go to work crosses gang territory and his light skin marks him as a target. He spends every day trying to gather the courage to leap from the 18th floor balcony and end it all.

I don't usually go for bleak novels filled with despair, but I have to admit that Adoff kept me turning pages on this one. The prose is short and punchy, paragraphs separated by a lot of space, and headers in heavy black font throughout that beckon the eye.

The narrative style (first-person) lends itself to constant introspection and allows Adoff to bring his readers up to speed regarding situations and other characters. Reading the book is almost like eating potato chips: I didn't get really engrossed in the narrative, but continuing to read was just too easy. Adoff also discloses Jayson's life in a random manner as well, going back and forth in time, and even stepping sideways to bring in additional story material.

I enjoyed the book overall because Adoff definitely has a grip on his characters and the urban landscape. I've never lived in an inner city environment, or with the troubles that Jayson has, but I got a distinct taste of all of those with this book. Adoff wields his prose wickedly, constantly smashing the reader between the eyes with his vision of reality (which is all too real for a lot of people).

The language in the book his harsh and from the street. The adult situations around Jayson fill his days with sex and drugs, but Adoff never portrays those things in a positive manner. They're landmines that Jayson has to constantly avoid while other people fall prey to them.
Ultimately, as bleak as the tale is, there is a brief respite of redemption and hope. But the reader has to wade through an ocean of despair to get there.

I recommend the book to aggressive inner city school libraries and to ones that want to show a harsher life to suburban high school readers that are interested in seeing what else is out there. The prose is written on a low reading level (RL), but the interest level (IL) is high.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, Intense, Must-Read, January 4, 2009
Jayson is sick of living in a run-down apartment, in the middle of his very own war zone of violence and drugs. He soon begins holding onto the rail, imagining what it would be like to simply jump off and end all of his suffering: the mom who drinks all the time and beats him, with a dad who is strung out on cocaine most of the time. Though he has his best friend Trax and eventually finds himself with a girlfriend, nothing can ever cheer Jayson up quite enough for him to believe that life is worth living. After all, as soon as things look a little brighter, another tragedy strikes Jayson's life until he simply can't take it anymore.

The Death of Jayson Porter is an amazing, emotional, and sincere novel. It's the type of book you have to read for yourself to fully process and enjoy, with the use of italicizing, bold letters, and the often poetic form of writing that helps bring you in and relate to Jayson. As you read, you'll feel the thoughts and emotions of Jayson as if he was personally telling you his story.

An intense read that will stay with you after you finish.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This book is a great read!, June 17, 2008
I am currently reading this book to my summer school classes and it is a bona fide hit! I read a chapter a day to them and they do not want me to put it down. They love that the voice (Jayson/first person)sounds like a true and genuine teenager. I love the fact that the story line has something or someone that each student can relate to. This book should be on every parent's teen summer read list. I would love to hear this as a book on tape!
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