[( Rush )] [by: Jonathan Friesen] [Jun-2010] Paperback

Adrenaline junkie and daredevil, Jake's stunts have caused others to get hurt, get himself expelled from school, and earn himself the title of the town's pariah.When the opportunity presents itself to join an elite team of forest firefighters who call themselves the Immortals, he jumps at the chance - despite the fact that these men who rappel into forest fires tend to die young. As he goes through the group leader's dangerous training and unorthodox ways of initiation, he begins to realize that there's more to life than the next adrenaline high.Will Jake continue to be a firefighter, or will his sense of right and wrong change his mind?A great, fast-paced book that will give you an adrenaline rush just by reading it. The characters are well-developed, the plot is gripping, and the stakes in the book are high. Readers who are adrenaline junkies themselves or who like adventure and survival stories will enjoy reading RUSH.Reviewed by: Kira M

This was a fast-paced read, which had me turning the pages at a speedy rate. It's a nice mix of action, mystery and a tiny bit of romance.Jake comes across as an adrenaline junkie, and he is, but I also suspect there is a touch of ADHD in the character as well, although I don't remember if this was explicitly mentioned. He seems to do dangerous things without really knowing why other than the fact that the rush he gets helps to clear his head. So, the fact he gets the chance to become a rappelling firefighter is perfect for him, he's getting paid to be an adrenaline junkie. Unfortunately, the scenes which should have been the best, i.e. the adrenaline inducing parts, kind of fell flat as they were described quickly and sort of overlooked, which is a shame as it could have almost been a perfect book otherwise.The mystery aspect comes in when he is asked to become a member of "The Immortals", sort of like a secret extreme firefighting club with ridiculous dares, complete with leather jackets (it's been a while since I read this, don't mock my description). The thing is though, members of The Immortals die every year and no one knows why. Jake's brother was once a member of The Immortals before he quit. Now no one in town will talk to him and Jake is also further ostracised. By joining The Immortals, Jake intends to uncover their secrets. The mystery was well handled, although I did want to shake Jake for being so oblivious to what was under his nose. However, there was some great tension building in these particular sections which helped to add to the fast pace of the book. A minor niggle is the fact that, like mentioned above, the firefighting training scenes were also under developed, they were over with too quickly.Finally, the romance. Romance in YA is often poorly handled. All YA reader have their pet peeves regarding this aspect of a story. My own pet peeve is why there has to always be romance. It's often poorly written and tacked on as an afterthought. I'm glad to say this was not the case in this novel. It felt natural because Jake and Salome had been friends for so long.It's not perfect, it had a few issues with just jumping into back story as if the reader knew what had happened in the past and the aforementioned poorly described action scenes, but it was a good read.