The Mission by Jason Myers (2009)

Everyone expected Kenny to make it through the war. He’d come back, maybe be a little damaged, but he’d come back. Somehow, he knew he wouldn’t. Out there, in the deserts of Iraq, he planned a visit to get his little brother Kaden out of Dysert, Iowa and visit San Francisco and their cousin, James. Kaden’s fifteen, just barely got his first kiss, and is almost the complete opposite of what golden-boy Kenny used to be. Right after he steps off the plan, Kaden is introduced to a new world where drugs rule the scene, love is taken for granted, and everyone lives the day like it’s their last. Kaden has a week to live it up in San Francisco and it’s up to him where that week takes him.

I found out about The Mission quite organically, which rarely happens anymore because of all the media. I was in my used bookstore, browsing the Young Adult section with a gift card when I found it sitting on top of a stack of books. Judging purely on the back synopsis I bought it and now, five months later, I’ve finally gotten around to reading it. It’s a fairly quick read but one heavy with content that left me a little weirded out by then end.

I love a good coming of age, all-American, contemporary read. Many of my favorite books are in this genre, including some from Andrew Smith. However, this book went a little too far for me. Jason Myers’ writing was like Andrew Smith’s writing on steroids if that’s even possible. Every other word was a swear and the drug use was so profound that it was hard to imagine it was real. I know I have a little bit of a different life than the average American teenage, but I have an idea of what teenagers do in their free time and that was not it. Let alone, when the characters were clearly doing drugs that are extremely dangerous, there was no mention that maybe it’s not such a good idea to take them. It’s almost like Jason Myers was trying so hard to be “cool” and “edgy” that it backfired completely and just made the reader uncomfortable.

The characters- there’s a lot of them and they’re not properly described. At the beginning of the novel, we get one, quick overview of the characters and then nothing. I had to backtrack several times to figure out who was who, especially since there were so many minor characters. Even the main character, Kaden, wasn’t described very well. I did have a clear picture of him in my head, but it was a very different picture than what Jason Myers describe him as, like, one time. The characters also all seemed the same for the most part. They had the same screwed-up views on love, same patterns with drug use, and same ridiculous thinking to make what they were doing all seem okay.

Despite all of its problems, I couldn’t help but enjoy The Mission. I flew through this book, not just because it’s fast paced but because it’s a pretty small book (physically). While there were lots of flawed outlooks on life it does bring up the question: What are the corrects views on life? I don’t know if I would recommend The Mission, but I would say it’s definitely for an older audience that is able to handle graphic, gritty content.

3 Stars