A small rural Australian town grows fearful when a young girl goes missing.
The academic literature has described Jasper Jones as conforming "to the conventions of Australian Gothic, which projects contemporary experience onto … dysfunctional families in small, remote towns.... where young protagonists encounter violence or death, and where outsiders are punished for their difference".
[1] The protagonist Charlie Bucktin is a quiet, book-loving, 13-year-old boy who lives in the fictitious rural town of Corrigan, Western Australia.
Charlie is horrified to find the corpse of a young girl, Laura Wishart, Jasper's only friend, beaten and suspended from a tree.
During this time, tensions rise in the town, while parents fear more disappearances and the townspeople seek someone to blame.
Jeffrey is a cricket enthusiast, but his attempts to join Corrigan's team are thwarted by the racism of the coach and other players.
Eventually, fortune goes his way, and Jeffrey finds himself batting in a game against a rival town, watched by Charlie and Eliza, Laura Wishart's younger sister.
As Jeffrey wins the game on the last ball, Charlie and Eliza's relationship moves from friendship to romance.
Meanwhile, Jasper thinks that Laura's murderer is Mad Jack Lionel, a reclusive old man who is rumored to have done terrible things in the past.
Charlie recognises his mother in the backseat and she is in a compromising situation with the town's police man, and Jasper's determined bully.
Finding Jasper elsewhere, and believing he left town without her, Laura committed suicide, hanging herself from a tree.
Although watching her sister from a nearby hidden spot, Eliza could not reach Laura in time.
He sees her standing by herself and realises that she caused the blaze, and is saddened by the reality that the people of Corrigan will blame Jasper for it.
Charlie goes to Eliza, who continues to watch the fire calmly, and whispers "perfect words" in her ear.
He aspires to become a writer, and reads notable books during the course of the novel, including Pudd'nhead Wilson and To Kill a Mockingbird.
[4] In translation, it has been published by Seix Barral/Grupo Planeta in Spain, Neri Pozza/Giano Editore in Italy, Calmann-Lévy/Hachette in France and Rowohlt in Germany (2012).
Jasper Jones was selected by the American Library Association as 'Best Fiction for Young Adults' in their 2012 list.
In 2014, Barking Gecko Theatre Company premiered the stage adaptation of Jasper Jones in Perth.