Meet the Boys of Casper


Fiction - Humor/Comedy
202 Pages
Reviewed on 08/15/2017
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Author Biography

Dallas Jones was born and raised in Casper and is a graduate of the University of Wyoming and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Though currently residing in Colorado, he still loves everything about Wyoming except the wind. Dallas has written professionally about travel, education, and fantasy baseball. MEET THE BOYS OF CASPER is his first novel.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Kayti Nika Raet for Readers' Favorite

The first in a series, The Boys of Casper by Dallas Jones is a coming of age tale of six young boys entering high school and the alien observing them from afar. Set in the seventies, The Boys of Casper has a male tone distinct to the era along with a certain tongue in cheek perspective with the alien aspect. As Jones takes the reader through the boys' daily lives, as well as their hopes and dreams while on the cusp of adulthood, it serves as a metaphor for the country at large during that time period, where America's sense of exceptionalism takes a hit with blows such as Vietnam, Watergate, and the oil crisis. Nonetheless, the boys persevere in their daily struggles, from football, to grief, and girls, while far above them an alien tries to find the cure for irrationality.

The Boys of Casper by Dallas Jones is an unexpected read. I went in thinking I was going to encounter a nostalgic coming of age tale, but the more the lives of the Casper boys drew me in, the more I began to feel that Jones took influence from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Perhaps it was the addition of PUUK, their alien observer, or just the irreverent tone Jones' work occasionally took. Either way, while the element of PUUK provided a humorous aspect, I felt The Boys of Casper was strong enough without it as the lives of the boys alone were interesting enough to keep my attention. I found myself interested in Jerry and Totem the most, and I would love to see more of them in the future. I enjoyed reading The Boys of Casper and look forward to the sequel.

Faridah Nassozi

In Meet the Boys of Casper by Dallas Jones, it is the 1970s in Earth years and, from the aliens' point of view, Earth is just an inconsequential planet years behind civilization with irrational occupants. However, recent concerns have made it necessary to study life on Earth more closely. In an attempt to understand the human race better, aliens send one of their own to pick subjects for close observation. PUUK, the chosen alien, lands in Wyoming in the United States, where he picks his subjects - a group of teenage boys. Follow the lives of the boys as they take on the challenges and shenanigans of teenage life as seen through the observant eyes of PUUK, and his intriguing and sometimes hilarious interpretation of situations as he tries to understand the human way of life.

Meet the Boys of Casper by Dallas Jones is an intriguing read with a fresh take on the concept of the existence of other races, apart from the human race, with a touch of time and space travel. The fact that humans are portrayed as inferior beings under observation by another race was an interesting take on the topic. The chosen boys are each very different from the other and this adds flavor to the story. Dallas Jones allows the persona of each boy to fully come to life so the reader can get to know them and understand their emotions and actions. I also loved the concept of vocal expression versus thought as seen through the eyes of the alien. Meet the Boys of Casper by Dallas Jones is a truly intriguing read.

Dan Seats

I enjoyed this book. It's a quick, light read that struck some nostalgic chords for me. For a short book, the character development is good. I found myself caring enough to want to know what happened to those boys. I thought the space alien aspect detracted from the story, and would rather have used those pages for further exploration into the lives of the boys. What happens next?