Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
I just posted a book review of “Impossible Fortress” by Jason Rekulak on Goodreads.
When I read Addison Moore’s “Melt with You,” I felt she really sold the 1980s setting. It made me fine tune some points and pop culture in the MixTapes series. Addison Moore had a good balance of setting the time and telling the story. Adding more 1980s references would get in the way of the story.
She did make me search the song “Enola Gay” by Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark after reading her work. I remembered the song, but she had a character that loved that song.
“Impossible Fortress caught my eye because of the premise of getting a copy of a Playboy magazine. It sounds small but so relatable. Pre-teens treated a found Playboy like such a treasure. Boys passed around the magazine and treated like it was sacred. Rekulak adds that they are in search of the Vanna White issue. I remember when that came out. As he tells the reader, Vanna White was America’s sweetheart. She never spoke on TV so she had this mystery. She always dressed perfect on TV, but you know she was a sweatshirt and jeans kind of gal.
“Impossible Fortress” involves the creation of a videogame. True to the times, very few in the story understand the work involved. Videogame fad has slowed down by the mid-1980s. All these teens playing games but not actively involved was true to the time.
Once you read the MixTape series, https://www.amazon.com/Mix-Tapes-Stuff-Lair-JJ/dp/1797490702/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Mix+tapes+and+stuff&qid=1579386525&s=books&sr=1-1 a reader should really check the work of these two authors as well.
Addison Moore's book
link to the Impossible Fortress