The Impossible Fortress
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
It's 1987. Billy Marvin, the tallest boy in ninth grade, has just witnessed history.
Wheel of Fortune presenter Vanna White is on the cover of Playboy.
Billy and his friends, Alf and Clark, know that if they can get hold of the magazine, their world will change. For ever.
But as Billy says, 'No shopkeeper in America was going to sell Playboy to a fourteen-year-old boy.'
As they set out on their mission to find the most wanted images in America, they're blissfully unaware of the dangers, dramas and garbage dumpsters that lie ahead. And of how a girl called Mary might just change one of their lives. For ever.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This joyous thrill ride of a novel follows three 14-year-old boys in 1987 as they embark on a daring quest to steal a copy of Playboy. And not just any copy: the issue featuring Wheel of Fortune goddess Vanna White. The Impossible Fortress is a giddy coming-of-age tale about teen friendships, coding and crushes—and a love letter to an age just before the Internet changed our lives. There’s plenty to enjoy here no matter when you were a teenager.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Infused with 1980s music, pop culture, and plenty of the BASIC computer programming language, Rekulak's debut offers a charmingly vintage take on geek love, circa 1987 in New Jersey. Fourteen-year-old Billy Marvin's aspiration is to be a premier video game designer. When Billy and his friends' plans to obtain the desirable Vanna White issue of Playboy from a local stationery shop backfire, Billy meets his match in the owner's daughter, Mary, a brilliant computer programmer. She and Billy join forces to improve Billy's flawed game designs in the hopes of winning a contest. Billy's embarrassed to admit his attraction to somewhat chubby Mary, instead allowing his friends to believe he's just using her to get close to Vanna. The interplay between Billy and his loser friends is amusing, and Mary's character quietly excelling at what's viewed as a boy's pastime is sympathetically drawn. A late-in-the-game caper to penetrate an Impossible Fortress ups the ante. Rekulak's novel will have readers of a certain age waxing nostalgic about Space Invaders and humming Hall and Oates, but it's still a fun ride that will appeal to all.
