Bunny's Reviews: The Legend of Black Jack Review Spotlight

Welcome to my stop on the tour for The Legend of Black Jack by A.R. Witham! Read on for more details!

The Legend of Black Jack by A.R. Witham is a YA Fantasy coming-of-age novel that once you pick it up, you're not going to want to put it down. Young Jack is a boy of high intelligence. Tragedy has already struck once in his life, but unfortunately, it's going to strike again. In doing so, Jack will take refuge in books. He plans his future, but the longer that things go on, the more he begins to question...will he actually make it? Or will his new situation cost him his dreams? Well, when a mysterious creature appears in his bedroom - everything changes.

The Legend of Black Jack is an engaging story that will have you page-turning before you know it. Jack is a special boy and the author makes a point of indicating that from the very beginning. He's curious as all children are, but when tragedy strikes, it really affects him. There are some moments in this story of where I was literally heartbroken for the boy. He didn't ask for the things that happened to him, but it's just the way that "the cookie crumbles" unfortunately.

There are moments in this story early on where I literally reared back because of certain off-page characters. I couldn't believe that they would do the things that they choose to do, but they do. But I'm happy that Jack never complains and just keeps his head down. He does what he feels he needs to do and stays "strong" in his own way.

When the story shifts, I ate it up. I couldn't get enough of the new characters that the author introduces me to. I loved the variety that is introduced throughout the story. The majik, the "animals" and the new friends that Jack begins to make. The twists in this story are well done as well. I may or may not have snorted a couple times from trying to hold in a laugh, because of "accidents" that transpire in the book. The full-page illustrations scattered throughout the book, while black and white, are still gorgeous. They also do a fantastic job emphasizing certain scenes and the impact of them. It really helped drive home the various situations that Jack and the other characters find themselves in.

Jack is an interesting character. We get to watch him grow up a little bit at a time in this book and face an evil that threatens his new friends. I love reading about him coming into his confidence a piece at a time. It's fun watching Jack grow and interact with the other characters throughout this book. He goes from being isolated and alone to developing friendships and fighting for something bigger than him.

This book is a really fun story to read and I'd love to read more about these characters and by this author in the future. If you love coming of age books, YA fantasy, and all that jazz then this book is a must-read. I'm rating this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to the author and R&R Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book! I look forward to more in the future!

The Legend of Black Jack

Publication Date: May 17th, 2022

Genre: YA Fantasy, Action Adventure, Coming-of-Age, Portal Fantasy (Full Page Illustrations)

Jack Swift can tell you every element on the periodic table, recite Treasure Island verbatim, and would remember in perfect detail every word you’d ever say to him. He has been alone for a long time, so he has buried himself in books, using them to plan his escape.

But no textbook could ever prepare him for the land of Keymark.

At 3:33 a.m. on his fourteenth birthday, Jack is kidnapped by a hideous monster to another sphere of existence. Now there are two moons in the sky, and he is surrounded by grotesque creatures and magical warriors training for battle. They want the impossible: Jack must use his abilities to save a life or be trapped in this bizarre world with no chance of rescue.

Jack doesn’t have secret magic, a great destiny, or any experience.

So why do they all expect him to become a legend?

Content/Trigger Warnings:

Shown on Page: Child Abuse (foster mom hits main character), Child Abduction (main character kidnapped by monster)

Alluded to: Child Neglect (foster mom ignores her wards)

Add to Goodreads

Blood

The operating room was anything but sterile. The floor was pounded-down dirt, the walls were splintered wood that collected dust by the handful, and the smoking fire in the corner exhaled nearly as much soot into the room as up the chimney. It was dark, it was dirty, and it put the odds against Jack Swift before he even began.

Jack had two concerns, other than the obvious: that Xiang-lo would die the moment he touched him. The first worry was the anesthesia. Dr. Richards had told him repeatedly that in almost any surgery, the drugs used to put the patient to sleep were by far the most dangerous part of a procedure; more men had been killed by a tiny slip in the amount of medication used than from any mistake a surgeon made. The gas passers, as Richards called them, were the background heroes of the operating room, and kept their patients walking the thin line between sleep and death.

Jack had made the calculations for the correct amount of anesthesia, but in the end, it proved unnecessary. Memphis would keep Xiang-lo asleep. Such majik was well within the monster’s mastery, said Valerian, and keeping Xiang-lo out of consciousness and out of pain would be the rhino’s task during the procedure.

The second concern was more personal. “I don’t want to see his face.”

Valerian nodded as if he had been expecting the request. “That has been arranged.”

Good. So the knight understood. “Not just his face,” continued Jack. “I don’t want to see any part of him other than his belly on the right side. There are medical sheets in Memphis’s bag; cover him with those. His chest, his legs, but especially his face. I don’t want to see it.”

Surgery was just like carpentry. Jack had to remember that. But the only way to treat a man like a block of wood was to remove his face, remove his personality, remove any trace of humanity from him…and even then, he would still be a Pinocchio.

If everything went well, Jack would love to hear about Xiang-lo, about who he was, what his dreams were, and how he’d lived his life. But right now, all Jack wanted to know, all he could know, was where to cut.

Besides, some darker part of his mind chided. You don’t want another face haunting your dreams when you kill him.

Available on Amazon

About the Author

A.R. Witham is a three-time Emmy-winning writer-producer and a great lover of adventure. He is the world’s foremost expert on the history of Keymark. He loves to talk with young people and adults who remember what young people know. He has written for film and television, canoed to the Arctic Circle, hiked the Appalachian Trail and been inside his house while it burned down. He lives in Indianapolis.

If you would like a sneak peek at his upcoming work or upcoming events, please reach out to him.

A.R. Witham | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram