The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith

"I was thinking, what if the world was like that?  What if we only saw one surface of it, the outside, but there was all kinds of other stuff going on, too?  All the time.  Underneath.  But we just don't see it, even if we're part of it?  Even if we're in it?  And what if you had a chance to see a different layer, like flipping a channel or something?  Would you want to look?  Even if what you saw looked like hell?  Or worse?" 


I think this passage from The Marbury Lens sums it all up pretty perfectly.  It was a wild journey from beginning to end.  It was a story that not only makes the main character question what is real, but will make the reader do the same as well. 

This was the first novel of Andrew Smith's that I have read that was written before Winger.  Much like everything else I have read by him, this one is going to stick with me for a while.  It was haunting and beautiful all at once.

From Amazon:

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.

There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys.

Conner is there, too. But he's trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he's losing his mind.


Conner tells Jack it's going to be okay.

But it's not.

Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.