A love letter to the 1980s and to nerds everywhere–The Impossible Fortress will make you remember what it feels like to love someone–or something–for the first time. Billy Marvin’s first love was his computer. Then he met Mary Zelinsky. Do you remember your first love? It’s May 1987. Fourteen-year-old Billy Marvin of Wetbridge, New Jersey, is a nerd, but a decidedly happy nerd. Afternoons are … but a decidedly happy nerd. Afternoons are spent with his buddies, watching copious amounts of television, gorging on Pop-Tarts, debating who would win in a brawl (Rocky Balboa or Freddy Krueger? Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel? Magnum P.I. or T.J. Hooker?), and programming video games on his Commodore 64 late into the night. Then Playboy magazine publishes photos of their idol, Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White, Billy meets expert computer programmer Mary Zelinsky, and everything changes.
“A sweet and surprising story about young love” (A.V. Club), and a “quirky, endearing, full embrace of the late eighties” (USA TODAY), The Impossible Fortress will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you remember in exquisite detail what it feels like to love for the very first time. Heralded as one of the most anticipated novels of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, and InStyle.com, The Impossible Fortress is a surefire “unexpected retro delight” (Booklist, starred review).more
Jason Rekulak’s The Impossible Fortress is as 1980s as John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, and Aqua Net, and I really enjoyed it.
Billy is a good kid but a poor student, focusing on teaching himself computer programming instead of on his school work at a time when programming is a laughable job prospect. He has been making games for his C64 such as “Strip Poker with Christie Brinkley” and, as an inexperienced teenage boy, is preoccupied with boobs.
When Vanna White appears on the cover of Playboy, Billy and two of his friends decide they have to get their hands on a copy. The problem is that the only place that carries it is Mr. Zelinsky’s typewriter repair shop and general store.
Enter Mr. Zelinsky’s daughter, Mary, who, like Billy, is learning programming, but who, unlike Billy, has ivy-league college plans. She tells Billy about a contest for a game company—the prize being a far faster and newer computer than the C64. He wants to participate but needs Mary’s help because the graphics in his game, The Impossible Fortress, are too slow to play. The two dedicate themselves to learning ML (machine language) and to ironing out the bugs in Billy’s game in time to enter the competition. Billy and his friends, meanwhile, have not forgotten Vanna White. Not only is she an obsession, but the photographs of her have become a business opportunity. This is where the meet-cute between boy and girl begins to unravel…
I commend the author’s effort to recapture the nostalgia of a decade I grew up in (and am excited to report that there is a version of this game on the author’s website). I remember C64 programming in the computer lab at my school, and it was fun to think about something I haven’t thought of in decades. The characters are absolutely compelling—Billy’s in particular—and I’m thrilled that Jason Rekulak left political correctness at the curb. Some of what is said or done in the book is typical 1980s before bullying was a “thing,” and when shaming of any sort (in this case mostly weight-shaming) wasn’t only common but sort of a given among kids and their peers. If you’re not of this generation, perhaps you’re going to make a bigger deal of these finer points, but know they are absolutely authentic.
I am not normally a reader of YA fiction, and I’m not sure The Impossible Fortress is really meant for millennial young adults. I expect most of the references would be lost on anyone who didn’t experience the 80s firsthand. As a throwback, this book is every bit as enjoyable as watching The Goonies or Stand by Me (totally different generation, I know, but equally coming of age) in that it is a story about a wacky young adult caper with deeper subtext about choices and consequences. I wasn’t wild about Mary’s side story *no spoilers* but I wasn’t put off by it enough to downgrade to four stars. I just think that whole thing, and the scene with Billy and the others headed to the convent, could have been stripped out and the book would have been stronger for it. Still, I loved it. I haven’t wanted to binge-read so badly in a long time, and I’m sad to see The Impossible Fortress end. 5-stars and highly recommended.