Review Detail

The Free State of Jax was a delightful mix of civics and taking autonomy of your situation. Our main character has had a tough life. When the book starts, he’s already lost his parents at age three and has endured a hateful stay with his aunt and uncle, once his loving grandmother enters a care facility for dementia. On his twelfth birthday, he combines what he has read about government and enacts a bold plan to use eminent domain to take control of his neighbor’s hot spring lake and form his own micronation, The Free State of Jax, for which he is the President.
Jax’s character is a delight. Not quite as audacious as Nielsen’s Prince Jaron from the False Prince series, but there are glimmers of his mischievous brilliance and earnestness that remind me of Jaron. I love that Jax is well-read and continues to navigate his situation by utilizing knowledge and civic awareness, which subtly teaches as well as underlines the importance of understanding government and our rights to affect change.
Jax’s journey to ridding himself of the Grimmitzes allows his character room to learn to accept help, make real friendships, change his community, and solve a nine-year missing persons and theft case. The showdown between the Grimmitzes and Jax makes for fun reading that earned several chortles of laughter at the shenanigans.
This book was overall well-received by the student I was reading with. However, both of us agreed that there are decisions Jax makes to tie up the plot in a nice, neat surprise that introduced moments that were frustrating to the reader. There were many simpler and much more likely ways it would be done in real life to solve the mystery than the way Jax acted to make for an exciting reveal that, instead of enhancing the adventure, undermined it.
Overall, this story is a fun read and shows young readers that they don’t have to stand by and let things happen to them, that they do have the ability to make changes.