Camp Hell

**Dawes seems to be a theme for me with this series though I seriously doubt Vic would even like them. He strikes me more as a Ramones, Depeche Mode or Smiths kind of guy but maybe Jacob would like them. ;-) and this lyric was going thru my head as I read this book:Cause some people were just meant to be a memoryTo be called upon to remind us how we've changedThe way the scattered ever-busy bright lights of a cityMight look off to a distant mountain rangeOh this floored me. I felt like running to my photo albums and looking up me & the people I knew in high school and college and see the physical evidence of who I was and “see how far I've come” (another gratuitous Dawes quote).This novel falls sits proudly in one of my favorite genres which is the memory novel. The passage of time, what and how we remember and what time has wrought of our lives.Vic comes to realize that he quite literally can't remember much of his time in Camp Hell and that curiously the internet is no help as he doesn't exist on line. With some help from Zig he locates a former lover/classmate from Heliotrope Station, Stefan, and begins a trip down memory lane. Those scenes almost had me in tears. To see a still very young Vic already beaten down by society and the system but still capable of feeling hope and having dreams and watching them be crushed. On a personal note remembering when I too affected a slightly punk look, wearing clothes from Screaming Mimi's and wearing safety pin earrings. *sigh

Stefan is that person that we all idealize from our past and their present reality doesn't exactly disappoint but doesn't match up to who we and they have become and that's the day when you realize that you have left your past behind and that perhaps it's not a bad thing. This realization also leads Vic to clear up in his head his feelings about Crash and that gave me a huge smile, to see him puzzle that out and come out okay about it.

The background story of the FPMP is almost window dressing for what else do we expect from the government? Vic is just sometimes naive perhaps because he has spent some much time trying not to be noticed. However in this book he takes giant leaps to become a fully realized version of himself not only in relation to his psychic powers but also being fully engaged with Jacob and those in the world who may not be his enemies or pose a danger.

What to say about Jacob but that we all want to be loved like that by someone like that and I was so happy that he got no spoilers something he's always longed for.

Again Gomez Pugh a master of his craft. Every voice distinctive and dead on point. Bravo.