Review – The Fixer

Item: The Fixer
Rating: 4
Author: Emily

Posted July 31, 2020 by Emily in review / 0 Comments

TITLE: The Fixer
AUTHOR: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
SERIES: The Fixer #1
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
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RATING:

This thriller YA is Scandal meets Veronica Mars.

Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather's ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems.

And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess's classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.

Perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars and Heist Society, readers will be clamoring for this compelling teen drama with a political twist.

Review:

The Fixer is a political science novel dealing with the inner workings of the politics that take place in Washington, D.C. It’s centered around Tess, who is uprooted from her grandfather’s ranch and forced to live with her sister, Ivy in D.C. Ivy is a fixer, someone who fixes problems of high ranking politicians. The Fixer focuses on how Tess follows in her sister’s footsteps.

I really enjoyed reading The Fixer. Since I read it back in 2015 when it first came out, I’ve reread it many times, and my opinion of it is still the same. The Fixer is a book worth buying.

I liked its take on political science and how the interworkings of the disaster that is the American government are sprinkled across the novel. You don’t need to have an extensive understanding of American politics to understand what’s going on in the book. Still, if you do, you’ll be able to understand just how essential or damaging certain events can be. You can also get a better grasp of some of the foreshadowing that sprinkled throughout the novel.

Speaking of foreshadowing, I think one of the reasons why I love this book so much is its ability to blindside me. I’m usually good at picking up hints and predicting the future (in a book), but this is one thriller that managed to catch me off-guard. Multiple times. There were just so many twists and turns I didn’t see coming.

Another aspect of The Fixer that made me love it so much is perhaps its characters. I love how Tess is pretty average – she’s not overly smart or athletic. It makes her easy to connect to and more natural to experience her story with her. I love how the reader was able to make connections as she was and that she wasn’t just pulling things out of nowhere (cough cough Sherlock).