This was a fun read about first loves and trouble makers. A quick, enjoyable read about the early days of computers and programming. Gives you an insight into the world at the time.

This book is charming and does a wonderful job of capturing the magic and beauty of childhood. It's refreshing to be brought back to a time when computers are new and yet there are still people who are obsessed and find joy and a sense of completion out of them. I thought there were some twists and turns that seemed a bit surprising or nonsensical but the story overall is sweet and enjoyable.

Dreams and schemes and falling in love in a 1980s setting that glows with nostalgia, The Impossible Fortress chronicles the exploits of 14 year old Billy as he and his friends obsess over getting their hands on a Playboy magazine featuring Vanna White. Seizing the opportunity to make a buck, best friend Alf starts "pre-selling" the pictures before the boys even have the issue at hand, leaving it to Billy to woo the security code from Mary, whose father owns the office supply/typewriter repair shop that stocks this precious magazine. Surprisingly, Mary shares Billy's passion for computers and coding, being the only person he knows (besides himself) who even has access to a personal computer. Mary encourages him to enter a game design competition and offers her knowledgable assistance. But as the weeks go by, Billy finds himself in a no-win situation: disappoint his best friends and leave Alf at the mercy of an angry boy mob or destroy the trust of the first girl Billy's ever loved. Told with humor and heart and wide-eyed innocence, this coming-of-age story at the dawn of personal computing will have readers chuckling and wincing, usually at the same time.

Though it took me a bit to get into the book once I did I couldn't stop! Fun read with a lot of heart! Will definitely be recommending this one to friends and family!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1960220659?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I really wanted to like this book, but perhaps I'm simply the wrong audience. The book takes place in 1987 with a group of 16 year old boys. I happen to remember that time, having been 30 at the time. Of course, I lived in a nice suburb of Chicago and these boys come from a less than affluent part of New Jersey, I don't think that they could have been as different as this book makes out. Some of the chronological/historical errors bothered me, and a few other details just didn't make sense (for example, would a single mother, forced to work night shifts for the extra dollar an hour, really have cable TV so her son could watch MTV? Personally, I doubt it). More importantly, the idea of petty crime and (even soft core) porn just didn't sit well with this nearly 60 year old mother, especially if 16 year old boys today might think it cool!

Sorry, but no... not for me!

Greetings Bookworms!

I know I’ve been slacking in my book reviewing and I’m trying to catch up. Today I thought it would be a good time to take a trip into the not so distant past with all the glory of the 1980s and Jason Rekulak’s The Impossible Fortress. *I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. That said, a free book does not buy my integrity and I’ll give you my honest opinion. I have no manners. Every once in a while, that’s a useful trait.*

Who doesn’t love a super nerdy teen not quite romance featuring troubled youth in the 80s? I mean, there’s computer programming involved, yo! (I don’t necessarily find computer programming sexy, but shared nerdy interests as a possible romantic foundation is totally my jam.)

Let me rewind. It’s 1987, and a crew of 14 year old boys have set their obsessive teenage eyes upon acquiring a copy of the Playboy magazine that features Vanna White’s scandalous nude photos. They go to great lengths to attempt to procure a copy (or several) of said magazine, and their elaborate heist includes one of the boys pretending to seduce the daughter of a local merchant in order to gain access to the store’s security code. Needless to say, Billy, our unlikely Casanova, soon develops real feelings for one Mary Zelinsky as they program computer games together. Predictably, mayhem ensues.

The Impossible Fortress had some serious marketing push behind it, all the publicity dropping comparisons to Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One right and left (review). And, while I found it enjoyable (and I really did, it was a fun read) this book appeared to get way more attention than many of the other debut novels I’ve seen of late, particularly for a novel that’s based in nostalgia and not a literary heavy hitter. I think this led to me expecting more from it than it could realistically deliver. It also left me feeling a bit squidgy seeing how many female and minority authors have to hustle hardcore to promote their debut novels while this white dude seemed to get a ginormous budget. Like I said, The Impossible Fortress was good, it just didn’t seem SO AMAZING that it deserved all the dollars.

Alright Bookworms, talk to me. What time period is your personal nostalgia favorite?

For all those computer geeks born in the 70's. For parents of ridiculous 14 year old boys. For 14 year old boys. A wonderful read.

An authentic, fun romp through yesteryear. As a child of the 80's, I was, like, totally enthralled! The characters were well developed and the pacing of the story was spot on. My only complaint: things were tied up quite neatly. Sal Zelinsky doesn't feel like the type to budge so easily.

I am not nostalgic for the 1980s, I am not a 14 year old boy, I'm not obsessed with video games and I do not have a burning desire to see a picture of Vanna White's butt. Accordingly, I am not the target audience for this book. I quickly realized that I didn't want to spend any time in the head of this adolescent boy. Definitely not the right book for me. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher however I wound up listening to the audiobook borrowed from the library.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review, this has not altered my opinion.

This is a story with a pretty original idea in my opinion. As soon as I saw it was about video games in the 1980s, I was pretty much sold on at least giving it a try. I'm very glad that I did. Basically, let's take some middle school boys and add in the first edition of Playboy and then add in a scheme for them to try and get their hands on a copy. We were all teenagers at one point, and while I was not personally one who went after a copy of Playboy, we were all guilty of giving in to peer pressure. That seems to be the basic premise of this book as giving into peer pressure as well as trying to stay true to your own heart.

The characters were well-developed and so very real, the main three were very much your teenaged boys of the time, wrestling with the desire to fit in but simultaneously doing something completely different. Billy is probably the best example as he struggles between staying loyal to his friends and attempting to achieve his own personal goals of becoming a big time game designer. I loved that Mary wasn't typical and even her whole story is so unique and different that toucan't help but enjoy the banter between the two.

I would highly recommend this book, for fans of young adult fiction and any sort of computer or programing. It's fun, unique, and a total feel good story. The writing was well done and the characters were interesting and captivating. 4.5 beans from me!

The Impossible Fortress. a nostalgic comedy, opens with 14-year-old Billy and his buddies trying to get a hold of the latest copy of Playboy magazine, which features nudes of Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White. After several failed attempts to steal it from Zelinsky's Office Supply store, they cook up a scheme for Billy to befriend the owner's daughter Mary, who is a whiz at computer programming. Billy, who dreams of being a computer game designer, has been trying create a game on his Commodore 64 computer. He enlists Mary's help and they develop a game called The Impossible Fortress to enter into a contest for young programmers. As Billy is falling love with Mary, his buddies are cooking up a money-making scheme, selling copies of the pictures, before they have them. Filled with period details and pop-culture references, this is a delightful comedy-filled caper.

Oh my goodness! I loved this book! The author's website has the actual game too! That's so cool. I love reading about the 80's even though I wasn't around to experience it. Great job!

I loved everything about this book-the story, the characters, and pop culture 80s references. This is, by far, the best book I have read so far this year. I am definitely recommending it to everyone. I am going to have my husband read it as soon as possible.

This was a fun read. The book is a trip down memory lane with coding on the Commodore 64, the music and movies that are discussed and there is a high Stand By Me level in the boys riding around town on their bikes. I loved the mix tape poetry!
Billy is 14 years old and smart though not really in those things school needs him to be smart in. He is a very thoughtful boy with a bit to much freedom on his hand for his age. I really enjoyed reading the adventures he had with his friends. Their conversations are often hilarious.
The story is told from Billy's perspective. I did miss other points of view. I would have loved to know more about Mary and what she was thinking. The two friends of Billy were hilarious too.
There is a lot of talk about coding but in dummy language so easy to follow for everyone. I loved the extra addition of the game being available on the authors website.
There are some fun plot twists and the book is really entertaining. If you are looking for a readathon read this is for sure a great pick.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a charming little read! The outcome of how much a person likes a book is sometimes predicated on time and place. This book was absolutely the right time and place for me. I had just completed 2 books with fairly serious reading material and 1 book that was for book club that was just not enjoyable. I'm happy to say this refreshing little read was just what I needed! I'm not going to lie, the teenage boy obsession with women's bodies (and their objectification of them) made me a tidge uncomfortable in the beginning so I was absolutely delighted when the resulting relationship is borne of a cerebral attachment. Billy grows to like Mary due to her skills, her intelligence and who she ultimately is as a person. The references to 80's lore are fondly sentimental and the story unfolds in an easy and pleasurable way. Interesting characters who are vividly imagined and jump off the pages and exciting plot points add to this endearing gem of a book. This misses a perfect score only for the "out" that Billy is given with the twist at the end, I was a bit let down with the reveal but for once a highly touted comparison is legit. Fans of Ready Player One will devour this book and rightly so. Favorite quote: "These girls didn't look anything like the bikini models on my bedroom walls; none of them would ever make the pages of the Sports Illustrated issue. They were too short or too tall or too freckled, too sweaty and too flushed and too imperfect. But they were real, they were gloriously alive . . . these were the most beautiful girls I'd ever seen."

See my review at goodreads.com below...

Combine Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One with Ellen Wittlinger’s Hard Love, add just a dash of Milk Money, and what do you get? The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak, a light read about teenage programmers in late-20th-century New Jersey that proved to be unputdownable.

On its surface, the plot of The Impossible Fortress is one that any ’80s or ’90s kid will recognize. It’s 1987 and 14-year-old Billy Marvin wants two things in life: 1) to make video games for a living, and 2) to see Vanna White naked in Playboy magazine. He and his friends hatch a number of harebrained schemes in their pursuit of Wheel of Fortune nudity, before deciding that the best way to get copies of the magazine would be to woo the security code of the local typewriter shop out of the proprietor’s daughter, Mary: a young woman of size, who has a reputation for promiscuity.

Billy takes on the challenge of teasing out the door code, but, like any good hero, he doesn’t want to manipulate Mary. With her love of computers, she’s a kindred spirit, and he feels genuine affection for her. Together, the two teens collaborate on a Commodore 64 game to win a contest for young programmers. They have just under a month to get The Impossible Fortress into the hands of Billy’s beloved gaming idol, who happens to be the contest judge. Along the way, there’s a lot of will-they-or-won’t-they going on, as readers watch Rekulak’s young hero falling in love with his smart and funny new friend.

The twists in Rekulak’s debut novel won’t surprise many readers, but that’s beside the point. The Impossible Fortress is a fun read that’s peppered heavily with nostalgia, but never weighed down by its own jokes.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

When Vanna White graces the cover of Playboy in 1987, all of Billy's dreams come true. He considers her the perfect woman, so Billy and his two best friends, Alf and Clark, decide that they have to get copies of the magazine. At 14, they're too young to make the purchase on their own, so they enlist the help of a senior boy with a bad reputation. But instead of walking in and getting a magazine, he helps them set up the ultimate magazine heist. The first step: one of the boys has to flirt with the store owner's daughter until she gives up the alarm code. Billy volunteers for this job, but not only to get the code. He also wants knows that this girl is the only one who can help him design a computer game that might one day get him out of his dumpy little town so he can pursue his goal of being a game designer. All of the teenage boys in this novel are idiots. Which is perfect, because most teenage boys are idiots, so they're all believable. The adults are portrayed as competent, caring, and overworked, and the cops actually do their jobs. It's a young adult novel that breaks the tropes of "the kids are too smart for their own good, and the parents don't know anything," and I am here for it. The setting was described in a way that made me feel I was a true computer nerd in the late 1980s, even though I actually know almost nothing about computers, and I wasn't born until the 90s. I loved almost everything about The Impossible Fortress. Almost everything. There is a big surprise plot point that I absolutely did not see coming, because there was exactly one sentence in the 200 pages preceding that might have provided the most subtle hint in the history of literature. Rekulak then spends about five pages hinting at the consequences of this plot twist, and then it's never mentioned again for the remaining 50 pages. That annoyed me, as I believe if you're going to include something that important, you need to give it a little more attention. Other than that, I really enjoyed this novel, and I highly recommend it.

Look, I'll be completely honest with you straight off the bat. I went into this book not sure if I was going to make it the whole way through. Billy, Alf and Clark started out as this misfit group of boys that, despite the fact that I'm sure teenage boys actually do act exactly as they did, drove me to the brink of madness. I honestly wasn't certain I was going to be able to follow them through the entirety of the story.

Then, something magical happened. Video games came into play! 80's nostalgia blossomed, and suddenly Billy was more than just a typical teenage boy to me. He was a video game obsessed, extremely talented, passionate young man. He was a character who wasn't afraid to put his heart, soul, and ample amounts of his time into doing something that he really loved. After that, I felt so much more connected to this story. I wanted Billy to succeed, and I so hoped he'd learn how amazing he really was.

Things picked up from there. Mary was introduced, and I instantly fell in love with her character. I adored that she was intelligent, unafraid to show her passion for coding, and full of the kind of wit that I can only wish for. She screamed "future girl boss" to me, and I ate it up. Her banter with Billy was perfection, her no nonsense look at the world was intoxicating, and I was hooked. If this book had simply revolved around Mary, I would have been smitten from the beginning. As it stands though, Mary was the part of this story that made Billy whole. Their little romance, even the rough parts of it, gave me life.

Jason Rekulak showed me that I really shouldn't give up on characters after the first few pages. Billy, Alf, and Clark turned into boys that I actually fell head over heels for. I didn't always agree with their thoughts, or their actions, but it didn't change the fact that they were realistically flawed human beings. They were just teenage boys, obsessed with Vanna White, intent on getting girls, and learning to navigate this crazy world we all live in. We'd all love to pretend that our teenage years weren't peppered with bad decisions, and mistakes. That's just life though, and Rekulak shows that in a way that is equal parts funny and honest.