The moment that a book is marketed as similar to Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One", I am hooked. Really, it's embarrassing how quickly I requested this book. Although it's not a dystopian novel, and it's not about VR, I can see some similarities such as an abundance of pop culture references and geeky characters obsessed with video games.

The only problem with books about video games is that a reader who enjoys gaming will naturally wish the game existed. After finishing this book, I logged in Jason Rekulak's website and got the play The Impossible Fortress, and this little extra just made the book much more special and it just highlights the connection that a good book can have with a video game, and vice versa.

As for the book itself, I found it really good until about 75% in. It takes a turn I didn't quite expect, and to be perfectly honest, also didn't love. This plateau continued to an ending that was underwhelming considering the great pace throughout the book.

Nonetheless, the themes and characters are well done - these are 14 year old boys from the 80s, through and through. I figure that reading this book with a bit of a motherly outlook can change how you experience the story -- I personally looked past Billy's faults (because at times you'll want to metaphorically strangle the little devil) to see all his endearing qualities. I rooted for him and for Mary through the entire book, and I hope you will too.

So overall, this is a good book! I'll even go as far as saying that if you enjoyed the slower bits of "Ready Player One", you will definitely enjoy this too.

I'd like to thank Simon & Schuster, as well as Netgalley, for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book will hit the shelves on January 7th, 2017... but the game is live on the website right now. Go play it, and see if it piques your interest enough to read the story of its creation! ;)

3 teen boys want to get their hands on the most recent Playboy magazine because it features Vanna White. (No, I did not google to see if she ever did appear in Playboy. For once, I just went with it.) One of these teen boys, Will, also loves computer games and programming. But, it is 1987. That means the only computers are very basic and very slow. While in the process of trying to obtain a copy of the magazine, Will meets Mary, the daughter of the store owner where they are trying to steal the magazine and a fellow computer geek. Let's just say a couple things: teen boys are not the most observant and it was pretty funny that Will and Mary are working on a video game the other 2 boys, Alf and Clark, are planning the heist in an almost computer game fashion, small scale model included. I wish this were a YA book but I fear they wouldn't understand the computer nostalgia. And for the people who are thrilled about all the early computer geekness, the sweet story of Will might be too much for them. But this book is for anyone who has ever stared at a blinking DOS dot, been a teen boy, or known a teen boy. Oh, and the book comes with a nice retro video game!

The Impossible Fortress is a love story to the early days of computer programming, as well as to the hazy days of youth, when the pleasures of adult life remain tantalizingly out of reach. Rekulak brings the '80s to life, from the carefree latchkey kid afternoons to the TV shows to the art of making a mix tape off the radio. The writing is excellent, the characters vivid and small town New Jersey a deep and detailed world of its own.

I really loved this book. I thought the characters were wonderfully written and so funny. As a child of the 80's, I thought the author perfectly captured the time period.

First, and most importantly, The Impossible Fortress, the video game this book is titled after, is available to play on Jason Rekulak's website. It is seriously adorable, I died really hard, and got a rating of "Better Luck Next Time". WTF.

This book is really fun if you don't look too hard at it. It centers around Billy/Will, a high school Freshman, who prefers programming computers to school work. He's your stereotypical 14-year old boy. Sports Illustrated models on his walls, ridiculously moronic pranks and juvenile delinquency. Single mother who he kind of takes advantage of. And his two best friends, who are also stereotypical 14-year olds.

They want Vanna White. The 2D version. And the only way they're going to get her (because they're minors, and also masturbation is embarrassing) is by breaking into the corner store and stealing her Playboy spread. Enter Mary, our fat heroine.

Why do I call her our fat heroine? Because you don't really get the chance to forget that she's our fat heroine.

Mary is smart, and clever, and has kick-ass taste in music. She's a better programmer than Will, and in the midst of trying to scam her for the code to break into the store, they work on his game The Impossible Fortress.

Also, she's fat.

I had to remind myself that fat shaming was heavily normalized in the 80's. I lived in the 80's, and was the fat heroine*. I do know this well. But there are some parts of this book that are nasty, and ugly. And it left a very bad taste in my mouth.

But Billy does manage to see past her enormity, all that maybe 30 pounds of blubber. He realizes she's smart, and pretty, and he maybe kind of sort of likes her. And that could cause a problem with the whole breaking and entering masturbation plan. Damn.

Seriously, this book really was cute. I'm kind of ripping it to shreds, because the unpleasant parts are *so* unpleasant. And sadly, Will really doesn't redeem himself here. He's never held accountable for his actions throughout. And while Mary seems happy in the end, and she's even got new friends, I feel her character didn't get the happy ending she so richly deserved.

I'm disappointed because the parts I love, I really love. It's a simple story, set in a time when wearing clothes reminiscent of Miami Vice was tres chic. There's binary code, and computer language, and Van Halen, and it's just so fun.

I'm really, really sad that the problems taint the rest of this really neat book for me.



* Yes, I was the heroine. Try me. I will cut you.

THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTRESS by Jason Rekulak is a coming of age story of Billy Marvin, who starts out trying to steal a Playboy with his buddies, hijinks, mistakes, and lies ensue and in the end, Billy's secret love of computer programming opens up doors for him he never thought possible. Oh, and he falls in love.
The story is set in 1987, a simpler time, where three young boys, Billy, Alf, and Clark, devise a way to obtain the ultimate male puberty prize, the Playboy with Vanna White in it. Quickly, the plan morphs into stealing it, making copies, and turning it into a business of selling those copies at school. Billy's job is to help the theft from the inside out, by getting to know the owner of the store and his daughter, Mary. Billy is quickly pulled in several directions at once, his friends, this new girl, and a computer programming contest that is he is beyond excited to enter. The story is fun, light and entertaining the whole way through. Maybe some would say its not a very deep or emotionally challenging story, but that's why I liked it, I didn't have to gear myself up to read some, I just found myself getting lost on the book whenever I could and finished it in a couple of days. Funny, great 1980's references, and a little lesson in 1980's computer programming to boot.

Let me just start by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK FROM THE VERY FIRST PAGE.

This was such a cute, coming-of-age, refreshing and stunningly written love story that I had the pleasure and honor of reading.

Billy Marvin loves computers more than anything in the world, that is until he meets Mary Zelinsky who equally (if not more) shares a love of computers in this 1987 coming-of-age beauty.

Billy and his friends are shocked and intrigued when Playboy releases their latest issue featuring the beautiful Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune. The boys are eager to feast their eyes upon her pictures but to do so they conjure up a risky plan to secretly get their hands on a copy for each. Everyone gets to play a part in the heist (which isn't stealing) - Billy's task is to seduce Mary Zelinsky, the daughter of the store's owner and to get access to the security code.
What starts off as the Vanna White mission turns into so much more for young Billy Marvin.

I loved how well written the book was. Yes, there were a few errors here and there but overall the writing style was so clear with strong, vivid descriptions. The main characters felt well-rounded even though we didn't have a whopping history on them.

This was an adventure-filled, fun read that I absolutely adore.

The Impossible Fortress is such an entertaining and fun read. I smiled and chuckled and laughed out loud all the way through. The story of three boys looking to steal a copy of Playboy magazine with Vanna White gracing the cover so they could make copies of said pictures to sell to their buddies, the world of computer programming and games and a very, very sweet love story. This book had it all in terms of a feel-good tale.

Big thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of this great novel in return for my honest opinion.

This was the funnest book. Set in the '80s, fourteen-year-old Will Marvin and his buddies plot to steal the Vanna White issue of Playboy from Zelinsky's, the local office supply store/newsstand. Will is a self-taught programmer on his Commodore 64, and at Zelinsky's he meets Mary, the owner's daughter and a fellow programmer.

The "impossible fortress" is the name of the game they create, as well as a metaphor for Zelinsky's, Mary's convent school, and the whole big business of growing up and managing life.

I think my 15YO son would enjoy it, except he'd find it awkward that I'd read it too, since there are teenage-boy-ish jokes and thought lives, with all that entails...

Highly recommend.

1980’s? Coming of age story? Misfits? Sign me up. I cannot wait to read this novel, The Impossible Fortress, it’s next to be read on my Kindle. I love a good, quirky story that takes place in the eighties, there are far too few out there!

Here’s what you need to know:

The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine…The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune. For three teenage boys—Billy, Alf, and Clark—who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it.

The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—they’ll swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary’s affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends.

This was a really funny, incredibly charming book. The interaction between the three kids is really well done. Rekulak does a tremendous job of capturing that age of life and that era of our country. Really a wonderful book.

Those of us who remember what it was like to use the first home computers and grow up in a small town will find the Impossible Fortress to be a quaint bit of nostalgia. The lead character is a 15 year old mess of a high school freshman who finds playing and creating video games far more important than his studies. He has an affinity for programming in Basic on a Commodore 64. Then the his world changes with issuance of the Playboy issue which featured photographs of Vanna White.
The actual plot of the book ends up involving a young lady who appears to have few friends and helps out in her father's stationary/general office supply shop. It's a good coming of age story that covers some themes that will hit home for many people who attended high school in the Reagan/Bush era. Highly recommended.

As a fan of the 80's and a fan of computers this synopsis hit home. This is a story of some young boys that are just turning into their teenage years and are excited that Vanna White is on the cover of Playboy. Even in the 80's though buying a playboy while under age was forbidden. Thus they started to invent a plan to get them to their coveted Playboy...

This. Was. Great! I enjoyed every second. These boys had me laughing uproariously multiple times. Jason Rekulak either did a lot of research or remembers how great the 80's were. I had Commandore 64 so I understand the feeling of the first games that were played and the coding that it took to make things work on these monsters. He also talks about the songs of those days but weaves all of this into the story in such a way that does not feel like he is just trying to placate those that remember these times but in a way that matches the story line.

When Billy starts to spend time with Mary it is originally because he wants to get to the Playboy but then he learns that she can type code better than he can!

Girls practically invented programming," she said. "Jean Bartik, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas - they all programmed the ENIAC."

Of course he can't tell his friends that he likes Mary because she's smart all they see is a girl that is overweight and they want to know which base he got to with her! This is a story of learning how to maneuver between what your friends think is best for you and what you want out of life but is in a fabulously written package of 80's trivia and fun!

In short: Although YA this is fun for all ages. Definitely an 80's lover delight.

This is also Jason Rekulak's debut novel. I will be standing in the queue waiting for his next!

Really, really enjoyed this one ~ The best part of this book was the amount of action filled pages that the characters get themselves in.

I don't think many people would appreciate this unless they were really into the nostalgia aspect. The writing was decent but the character development was lacking.

The Impossible Fortress turned out to be such a fun and cute story. I enjoyed it immensely and I think it has all the elements that make a story unique and special. It tells the story of a teenager, Billy, who is obsessed with computers and video games. But not video games as we know them now, it's set in 1987, and as you can imagine, computers back then were rare and exotic machines that very few understood and even less knew how to actually create with them.

The story starts with Billy and his two loyal friends scheming a plan to get a Playboy magazine, where you can see the prettiest woman in America naked. They need to see those photos, and they will go any length to get them. Their plans though, are not the most bulletproof ones and they end up in the most strange situations. But in the middle of their planning, executing, more planning and discussing, something happens. Billy meets Mary. Mary turns out to be even better than Billy with computers and video games. From then, we witness Billy and Mary getting closer and a beautiful friendship developing between them, something his friends don't really understand.

I really liked Billy as a character. He was naive and easily influenced, but he had a huge heart and tried really hard to always do the right thing, even if it was kind of uncool. I loved seeing him and Mary getting closer and how they shared their dreams. I also found Mary's father a very interesting character. He just seemed cold and rude at the beginning, but once you knew more and more about Mary and him, you could understand him better.

As I said, I had a lot of fun following Billy and his friends around. I think the story was clever and touching and the writing was good. It's a story you can fly through in a few hours but you will enjoy immensely.

The Impossible Fortress is a coming-of-age tale, following the hi-jinx of teenager Billy Marvin, wannabe video game creator, as he fumbles his way through life, love, and the quest for illicit adult material. Along with his friends Alf and Clark, Billy experiences love at first sight when he lays eyes on a Playboy magazine with Wheel of Fortune human prop Vanna White on the cover. The three pals hatch an elaborate plot to steal copies of the magazine from a local store, copy the pages, and make a little money distributing the adult images to the horny young men at their school. This is what 80s teenagers had to resort to in order to see a boob or two, kids.

In the process of scoping out the potential final crime scene, Billy meets Mary, the daughter of the store-owner, and they quickly find a shared interest in all things tech. So not only does Billy have to navigate an elaborate heist, he now has to deal with an almost unbeatable end-of-level boss; his first crush.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Billy and Mary also embark on designing a video game for a competition that could change their lives forever. While their combined skills surely make for an ideal partnership, Mary seems hesitant. WIth all the other stuff going on in Billy’s life, that’s one mystery that will have to unsolved. For now.

What seems like a simple, heartwarming story is endearingly funny, rich, and constantly surprising. Billy is an immensely character, with all the teenage confusion and conflicting emotion that most of us remember, but would love to forget.

Some aspects of the plot may seem familiar to those who grew up on a steady diet of John Hughes. The unconventional female love interest, the gawky but lovable hero, and the token bad boy. But it contains enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested. It’s a quick read, thanks to the easily-digestible writing style, as well as the consistently engaging plot.

The Impossible Fortress is a gorgeous little YA caper, full of nostalgia, humor, and heart. Although possibly more appropriate for those of us who remember the 80s, rather than those with parents born in that iconic decade, everyone will enjoy the themes of friendship, love, and seemingly impossible challenges.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for their ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

I loved this story about a boy growing up in 1987 North Jersey. 80's nostalgia is always fun and this story had some twists and turns that I did not anticipate. Will/Billy and his friends Clark and Alf are not always likeable-they definitely had some growing up to do in regards to right/wrong, generalizations about people and how to treat women. Mary ended up being a little bit unexpected and I loved her dad Zelinsky.

The Impossible Fortress has been generating a lot of buzz since last summer when the review copies came out, and rightfully so. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, because it’s smoothly designed and hugely original. It’s written with a deftly woven plot that never misses a step; engaging characters that are nearly corporeal, they are so well sculpted; and an utterly captivating voice that unspools the narrative. Best of all, it’s hilarious! I thank Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for my DRC, which I received in exchange for an honest review. This title comes out February 7, 2017.

When this reviewer retired from teaching, I buried myself in books I had long wanted to read, and I promised myself that I would never have to read another young adult novel. That promise to myself still holds true, but now and again I see a premise so tantalizing that I know I want to read it anyway; this was one of those times. It’s a book you can read in a weekend, and once you have it, you won’t want to put it down anyway.

First I’d like to reassure readers that are most comfortable in the liberal arts realm that the programming jokes here are very shallow, and you can easily read this without missing anything even if you aren’t a tech type. I wrinkled my brow at the chapter headings and called my spouse, a network engineer, in to see them. He told me it’s just the chapter numbers written in code. So for those of you that hyperventilate around complicated math and science, it’s okay. Breathe.

Moving on to the story itself, here’s the set-up: it’s 1987, and Vanna White, America’s girl next door who’s seen every weeknight on television’s Wheel of Fortune, has posed nude for Playboy, and no one under the age of 18 can buy that magazine. The only place it’s even for sale in our depressed rustbelt neighborhood is in Zelinsky’s shop, and the man is unhinged when it comes to kids in his store. He’s had problems with crime, and on top of that, he’s grieving his wife’s death, and right at this moment, he’s in the anger, anger, anger stage.

Our 15 year old protagonist is Billy, a ninth grader whose mother works long hours and can’t supervise him effectively. His two longtime friends are Alf and Clark. The threesome is determined to get that Playboy from Zelinsky’s store. Since they can’t buy it from him, and since it’s kept behind the counter which the owner watches feverishly during all store hours, they’re going to have to steal a copy when the store is closed. Sort of steal it. They’ll sneak in; leave money on the counter; then leave with their magazines. They’ll want three, of course, so that each can have his personal copy.

When his hormones aren’t in overdrive, Billy loves computers more than anything. He sneaks a programming manual inside his textbook during class time, because it’s what he wants to learn about. His mother is beside herself when she sees his grades—“You’re failing Rocks and Streams!”—but she has no idea what to do about it. The only thing she can take away that Billy really cares about is his computer, and she does it, telling him he can have it back once his grades are up.

As it happens, our store owner has a daughter that’s about the same age as Billy, and she has a computer too. Billy is better with computers than any of his public school classmates, but Mary, a student at St. Agatha, is brilliant. He talks to her initially as part of the scheme to get into the store at night and filch the magazine, but once he sees what she can do online, he is transfixed, and he spends more and more time in the back of Zelinsky’s store watching what Mary can do on her computer. He notes that his own technical finesse next to Mary’s is “like finger painting next to Picasso.” As the friendship between them develops, Billy is torn between Mary and computers, versus Alf, Clark, and the magazine. He tries to back out of the plan they’ve agreed upon because he doesn’t want to hurt Mary’s feelings, but complications emerge.

Although Rekulak does a fine job developing Billy, the best developed character in this story is unquestionably Mr. Zelinsky. As to setting, I am impressed with how much minutiae is absolutely accurate here. But it’s not the character development, setting, or plot that drives this novel; it’s the voice, which is as authentic in adolescent reasoning , planning, and oh dear heaven, in its impulsiveness as anything I have ever seen.

Whether you are a teen, a parent, a teacher, or a reader that’s just looking for a good laugh, you’ll find it here. Highly recommended.