Review: Sleeper

Luke C Jackson is the author of young adult novels The Unclaimed and Summer’s End and the screenwriter/co-director of the low-budget horror feature When Evil Reigns. Sleeper is his third book and is published through John Wiley and Sons.

Sleeper is a fast-paced, action thrill ride for young adults that sees Melbourne based horror author Luke C Jackson spread his wings into the spy thriller genre. The novel tells the story of 16-year-old Sara Gray, a westerner living in India that finds herself hunted by strange men when classified information is stolen during her best friend’s birthday party. Forced on the run, Sara begins to unlock secret abilities within herself - she can easily beat a grown man in hand-to-hand combat, ride a motorbike at high-speed and speak a number of languages. As the mystery deepens, Sara discovers that everything she has known, even about herself is not as it seems.

Set up as a mystery/thriller, the story rockets along for the first 90 pages as Sara finds her world turned upside down. With an adrenaline pumped story line Jackson catapults the reader into the book only letting us come up for air and start to unravel some of the questions at the mid-point of the novel. From there the tone shifts, as Sara – a somewhat helpless protagonist up until this point decides to fight back, unleashing a super agent that sits between a teen James Bond and a Mission Impossible operative.

As a writer, Jackson is becoming more competent with each novel. The prose in Sleeper is sharp, effective and clear and the Indian setting – a country that the author visited in preparation for the book – is rich and authentic. The characters are complex and entertaining, and the story packed full of twists and turns. The author does struggle a little when switching from past to present tense, with three of four shifts in the book jarring the story for the reader.

As a whole, Sleeper is a fun, exciting and thrilling story of lies, secrets, double crossing and manipulations. Jackson’s horror tendencies may be toned down, but he makes up for it with his strongest effort to date.

Sleeper is available from August 19 through Jacaranda Online. Jackson will return to the horror genre with his next novel entitled No Trespass expected for release through John Wiley and Sons in January, 2007. For a synopsis of the new book click here.