Book Review: The Invisible Tether by JP McDonald
The Invisible Tether was an action packed, fast paced, coming of age sci-fi that upped the ante with every chapter. If Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (which focuses on a group of teenagers who go off camping and come back to discover something is terribly, wrong) and the Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz (focuses heavily on cloning and the creating of an elite superior race) had a baby, this would be it.
Throughout The Invisible Tether we follow an ensemble cast of 20 somethings who are ready for a week of debauchery during the university games. Our main character, Cooper is ready to get away and party (and hopefully court his love interest Zoey). Everything is going swimmingly, until their flight gets hijacked by an attended with a fair disdain for humanity, As the plane goes down, she leaves some cryptic and creepy words to the survivors. Our group of new adults need to pick fight or flight in a situation getting more dire by the second.
Cooper and crew need to figure out what the hell just happened, how they are getting home and why there are multiples of the same person coming to clean up the mess as if meaning to hide the traumatic event.
This was a lot of fun; JP McDonald has done a great job of encouraging the reader be entertained while also showing us some horrific events. Our new adults experience, loss, love, friendship, betrayal, and they unbearable weight of new responsibilities that no one should ever have to endure. They do so with an outlook of looking on the bright side even when everything seems like it is going to hell.
The author has also done a fantastic job of capturing the thought patterns of a group of people in their early 20’s. Still living at home, trying to be adults but not quite there yet. These kids were very authentic, as an example our main character things lovingly of his mother’s cooking then skips out on setting the table. He is a little awkward with his love interest not knowing what the signs mean and telling himself off for thinking impure thoughts. Probably wise since you just CRASHED buddy.
The characters were really the heart of this story with the madness going on. We had a huge ensemble cast throughout the story each with their own unique outlook on life and skill set which was interesting to watch unfold as the stakes got higher and decisions had to be made. My personal favourite was Kasey, who on the surface seemed superficial but was the biggest sweetheart in the entire book. Her character also opened up some conversations on how we define beauty in society and what is really important which I thought was lovely.
This book was also super-fast paced and action heavy, but it also gave the reader enough time to settle with each event as it happened. Some of the action sequences in this book happened so fast you had to stop and think “wait did that really just happen” but the consequences would be splattered all over the next page.
Although this was very action heavy, this book was unapologetically Australian. I must admit, I really enjoyed the nostalgic feelings of a childhood home and activities that The Invisible Tether bought up. From the country homes with plenty of land right down to tins of spaghetti on toast. I’ll say it again, this was a lot of fun.
