Jimmy by William Malmborg (Book Review)

Jimmy by William Malmborg is a disturbing psychological thriller. Jimmy Hawthorn is in his last few months of high school and decides to act on an overwhelming urge to kidnap a girl and hold her captive in a fallout shelter. Before the week is over, he has two girls hanging from their wrists in the shelter.

I really liked a number of things about this book. First, it was well-researched. Jimmy is pretty demented in my opinion and the underlying cause of his urge to take these girls would have to be researched from a few different angles to understand what both Jimmy and the girls would be experiencing. I've read many books where the research was lacking and was pleased that this author really knew what he was talking about.

I also liked the change of perspective that happened, showing the same sequence of events twice. I thought it put a really interesting twist to the story and allowed me to understand the characters a little better.

I read all 267 pages in one sitting because I was so disturbed by what was happening, I had to know how it was all going to come to an end.


I feel like the ending was a bit rushed. There could have been a little more detail there I think. I also think there was a hugely missed opportunity to tell part of the story from one of the girl's perspective. It would have added to the twistedness of the novel and pulled more emotion for the ending.

I also think another run-through for the grammar/spelling would be beneficial. There were quite a few instances where one word was written instead of the correct word. (Scrapped/Scraped and Liter/Litter) to name a couple.

Overall, I really thought this was a great book and I will be picking up the other books Malmborg has written. I rate Jimmy 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to any adult looking for a really twisted read.