Josh Anvil and the Cypress Door

Josh Anvil is a typical teenager until a not-so-typical encounter with aliens gifts him with superpowers. Cue a roller-coaster ride of a story as Josh is yanked out of his typical school life into unwanted limelight.

What worked in this story is that for me, the author succeeds in getting inside the mind of a 14-year old protagonist and making him totally believable. His actions are authentic, and sometimes frustrating and illogical to the adult reader - but hey, that's not quite the target audience for this book. I appreciated the courageous introduction of Josh's dyslexia. At one point I thought, 'the author is really having fun here' as his imagination stretches and fizzes and pops off in unexpected directions, and that for me is a strong recommendation for this story. The opening scene is especially memorable and the book picks up pace throughout. The superpowers are explored and played with; I also enjoyed the treatment of family/friends, they certainly don't always get on, but they add to the story.

I felt the plot suffered in two respects - firstly, I found some of the high school material too lengthy. I found myself wanting to skip those sections to get to the good bits, of which there are plenty, but they made the high school material seem bland in comparison. Secondly, it is hard I think to generate and sustain tension when the main protagonist has apparently unbridled power. Crisis situations are too easily raised and resolved and I fear some readers might feel the lack of a driving tension in the story. The analogy might be of swimming in many small waves, but no huge ones.

However, all told, a fun story and one I am glad I got to read. I received this book in exchange for for a non-reciprocal, honest review.

Before we all start, I’d like to take the time to thank the author, Bruce Arrington for providing me a free copy of his book in exchange for a review. Also, I’d like to thank our crappy electric company for causing, without fail, hours of electricity failures every day to ensure that I can tear myself from my video games long enough to read this book. I appreciate the sentiment OMECO, but I would’ve read the book with or without your power failures.
Now that I’m done thanking the author and airing my dirty laundry, let’s get to business shall we?

Review:
In my humble opinion, if Josh Anvil and the Cypress Tree was a movie, it would be a Disney movie. You know, the type of movie that Disney would have made back when Disney was cool and it churned out those ‘filled-with-magic-and-wonder’ movies of Land Before Time and Fern Gully—and yes, I still have the VHS copies of those movies.

Bruce Arrington’s book has the same whimsical appeal to it as the movies of old, but at the same time, it is also able to address present-day issues that our dear hero, Josh Anvil, struggles with.
The characters in the book are the sort of people I could root for, Josh Anvil most of all. The thing that particularly pleased me about this book is that the author does not fall into stereotypes in an attempt to portray both the minor and major characters.

I cannot begin to tell you how sick I am of all the ‘slutty-blonde-cheerleader’ and the ‘muscle-headed-bully-jock’ stereotypes that so populate books about high school these days. The care that the author put into making his characters come to life is both refreshing and exhilarating.

For example, at first glance, Josh’s little sister, Candace seems to fall into the ‘annoying-little-sister’ gig but she is shown to have a liking to Hannah Montana and loves cooking pancakes for her big brother and a whole lot of other quirks and odd habits—I always think that it’s the little details that matter when it comes to creating a solid, believable character.

Josh himself is a sweet kid. He’s got his faults and his quirks. At the beginning he was horribly irresponsible with his powers, he was more worried about his popularity in his local high school than he was about his ‘creations’ and how they might harm his friends and family. I loved the character interactions between him and all the other characters: when Josh makes a wrong decision, he is often called for it by his parents, whenever someone is out to get him, his friends have got his back. Josh quite literally feels like the sort of person you would meet on the street, someone you might even make small talk with; an ordinary person who has been dropped in the middle of an extraordinary situation. That’s how real the protagonist feels to the reader and I love how he develops as a character throughout the book.

The powers that Josh is bestowed with and how he handles these new-found abilities is well-done, the author’s creativity shines through the story. Everything from the storytelling aspect of Josh’s life to the dragons and all the problems and joys they come with is highly original. I enjoyed all the bumbles that Josh makes as he discovers his new powers, all the things he has to do to make up for his irresponsible decisions.

Something I noticed with the plot though, was that there was no permanent source of conflict. Yes, there were the arson fires that have been happening in Josh’s town, but it’s sometimes put in the back burner in favor of the current conflict. Said current conflict is usually resolved within the chapter, with all the loose ends tied to boot.

However, I’m willing to overlook most of the odd ends of this book and give it a high rating.

Why?

Because it’s a fun book, that’s why. It’s the sort of book I would (and did) bring with me on a long trip to make sure that I had something entertaining to read. As someone who likes to read books for fun, I’d be willing to overlook a book’s faults if it promises a really fun ride and this book has certainly delivered that.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good, solid read.