"How lucky that you've found my message!. Reality is in danger of splitting at the seams and I hope you have the courage of heart to help. You will soon receive twelve clues: solve them and face an important destiny; don't and many lives will be at risk." The First Clue
The Journal of Curious Letters is the first novel in The 13th Reality series written by James Dashner. The book was published in 2008 by Shadow Mountain Publishing.
Synopsis[]
What if every time you made a choice that had a significant consequence, a new, alternate reality was created–the life that would’ve been had you made the other choice? What if those new realities were in danger? What if it fell to you to save all the realities? Atticus Higginbottom, a.k.a. Tick, is an average thirteen-year-old teenager until the day a strange letter arrives in his mailbox. Postmarked from Alaska and cryptically signed with the initials “M.G.,” the letter informs Tick that dangerous–perhaps even deadly–events have been set in motion that could result in the destruction of reality itself. M.G. promises to send Tick twelve riddles that will reveal on a certain day, at a certain time, at a certain place, something extraordinary will happen. Will Tick have the courage to follow the twelve clues M.G. sends to him? Will he be able to solve the riddles in time? Will Tick discover the life he was meant to live?
Plotline[]
In Alaska, postal worker Norbert Johnson is visited by a man named Master George. He is ordered to send out a bunch of letters. When Master George leaves, a person named Mistress Jane appears, demanding George's whereabouts. Norbert lies to her and says he has never met anyone by that name. When she leaves, Norbert sends out George's letters.
Meanwhile, Atticus "Tick" Higginbottom (after getting picked on by bullies) goes home and finds a letter waiting for him. The letter tells him that if he does not dispose of it within a week then he will receive clues leading to an important task. Curious, he decides to keep it. Tick receives the First Clue but he is attacked by a Tingle Wraith. While running from the creature, he encounters Mothball who is extremely tall. She gives him the Second Clue which hints at magic words and finds out that he must say them on 6th May next year. He is attacked by a Gnat Rat, leaving him hospitalized. After recovering, he is almost tempted to burn the First Clue, but decides against it. Master George senses this.
Tick decides to keep the letters in a journal which he decides to call his "Journal of Curious Letters". The Third Clue turns out to be a recording created by Master George. Quickly, he finds out that there are more like him out there including a girl named Sofia. At midnight, he meets a short, fat man named Rutger who gives him the Fourth Clue. Tick's dad, Edgar sees all of this happening and agrees to help him out.
Tick gets the Fifth Clue in the form of a Christmas present. Tick and Edgar decide to check for more letters in Alaska, home to Tick's great-aunt, Mabel. In Alaska, they find the now retired postal worker, Norbert Johnson. Following his encounter with Jane, he has been living in fear that she would find out that he lied about not knowing George. He gives Tick and Edgar the Sixth Clue. They get him to confront his fear of Jane. After leaving, he realizes that Tick and Edgar are in danger and with the help of some strangers, he goes to help them.
The car is compromised by Frazier Gunn, but Norbert and the strangers are able to save Tick and his father. After escaping, Tick learns that the strangers are in fact Sofia and her butler, Frupey. Sofia wins a bet to and has to visit Tick's house later. With a bit of luck, they manage to crack the clues. Later, Tick and Edgar are dropped off at home where they receive the Seventh Clue, Eighth Clue, Ninth Clue and Tenth Clue. Tick finds another person like him: a boy named Paul. Tick learns that his science teacher Mr. Chu shares the same name as Reginald Chu, a man Rutger and Mothball had said has done terrible things. Paul figures out what to say on May 6th while Frazier is put in prison. They obtain the Eleventh Clue after Rutger smashes a window. They receive the Twelfth Clue the next day.
Tick finds out that the magic words are in fact MASTER GEORGE. However, when Tick leaves the journal unattended, Kayla burns the First Clue. The weirdest thing is that the letter reappears. Tick goes to the cemetery and after saying the magic words, he is taken to George's headquarters in the Bermuda Triangle. There, he meets Sofia, Paul and a boy named Sato who refuses to trust anyone. George tells them about the different Realities and about Mistress Jane. He reveals that they must steal her Barrier Wand to trap her in the 13th Reality. They must meet up with a Realitant spy, Annika to steal the Wand. However, through a now freed Frazier, Jane learns of this, tears out her Wand's Chi'karda Drive (without which a Barrier Wand can no longer function) and attacks the base, forcing the Realitants to flee.
Mothball, Sato, Sofia, Paul and Tick are winked to the 13th Reality. There, they enact their plan to obtain the Wand. Before setting off, Sato makes everyone promise not to betray him (which is why he does not trust anyone) and they do. They fly to Jane's fortress on Windbikes. Annika is chased outside by fangen and sacrifices her life to give them the Wand. The fangen attack the group but they flee to the inside of the castle where Tick harnesses the Chi'karda to wink them to New Headquarters at the Grand Canyon. An angry Jane refuses to speak to Frazier for a long time while George and Rutger fix George's Barrier Wand which was damaged during another attack coordinated by Mistress Jane. George realizes what Tick can do and sends him home, where he is reunited with his family but not before promoting him to a Second Class Realitant.
Meanwhile, Reginald Chu of the Fourth Reality receives a business proposition from a now trapped Mistress Jane. Frustrated that she has not come (and as a result is wasting his time), he throws the piece of paper away and walks back to his mountain palace, Chu Industries.