Reviewed by Mrs. Foley
Convinced that fate is out to get him, fifteen-year-old David Case assumes a new identity in the hope of avoiding what he believes is certain doom. - Summary from library catalog

Although this is a unique story, I'm just not that impressed. I don't know why, but I don't seem to enjoy this author's books (this is the second I have read from her). She gets great reviews, but I just can't seem to make myself care about her characters. See below for a more glowing review. :)

Review from School Library Journal:
Fifteen-year-old David Case, scared out of his acceptance of dailiness by his baby brother's near calamity at an open window, changes his name to Justin and allows several new people into his life. He is befriended by a somewhat older-and definitely more worldly-girl when he enters a thrift shop to remake his sartorial presentation. Angela is easy to fall in love with, but frustrating for Justin and suspicious for readers. Peter Prince, on the other hand, a new friend who urges Justin to discover how very good he is as a distance runner, lives up to his surname. Justin's baby brother, Charlie, knowing and telepathic since birth, worries that Justin won't ever recover from the shock of having to haul him back from his experiment with flight. Justin's other companions on the journey through the six months between that momentous occasion and Christmas include an invisible dog, Peter's psychologically perceptive sisters, and their male rabbit, Alice. The crisis that flings Justin and Angela literally into bed together is a horrific plane crash at the local airport. As he runs from her gallery show of photos of him in shock in the disaster's aftermath, he collides with a woman from whom he contracts meningitis, nearly allowing Fate to talk him into dying. Only Charlie's visit to the hospital pulls Justin back from the existential abyss at which he has perched for six months. Rosoff writes of these characters and Justin's interior and exterior adventures with beautiful grace and wit. Even sensitive teens usually have more psychological armor than Justin, but Rosoff's made him a compelling hero, not a nerd. ( )

I was a little disappointed by this - although I've heard great things about How I Live Now. The premise had promise. A teenager, David Case, just manages to save his younger brother from trying to fly out an open window, and becomes petrified by all the scary things that might await him in the world. He assumes the name Justin, in an attempt to conceal himself from fate. The sections where his younger brother and fate narrate are quite good, but I couldn't really get into Justin or the events of the story itself. ( )

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Now that I've finished reading JUST IN CASE and it's time for me to write my review, I'm having a hard time thinking of how to describe it. I've had the pleasure of reading HOW I LIVE NOW, Ms. Rosoff's Michael L. Printz award-winning book, so I began reading JUST IN CASE with high expectations. I wasn't disappointed, not in the least, and have high hopes for the awards this book will garner over the coming year. It's just that, now that I need to put it in words, it's difficult to describe just who, exactly, the main character in this story is--David Case, now known as Justin, or Fate? I guess the book could be summed up, quite easily, by the words (actually, by the alphabet blocks) of eighteen-month-old Charlie Case: "JUST IN CASE WHAT?" Or, possibly, by the photograph of Agnes, the style-maven with the pink hair, entitled "ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH."

Regardless of how you describe the story, you'll find yourself quickly immersed in the life and times of Justin Case. A teen on the verge of sixteen, David Case is irrevocably changed on the day he saves his baby brother from falling out of an open window. For those of us who are privy to his story, we would see two lucky brothers, one narrowly avoiding a long fall to his death, and one heroic for his quick thinking. For David, though, this break isn't a lucky one. No, this is just one more example of how Fate has it in for him. How can he get away, escape, allude Fate, trick it? He begins by changing his name to Justin, follows it up by becoming even more quiet and withdrawn than he originally was, and finishes it up with a new way of dressing, walking, and talking.

When Justin meets Agnes, she immediately takes him under her wing--and uses him for her own purposes, although Justin doesn't realize it at first. Justin is too busy dodging Fate, avoiding certain death, worrying about the ways that Fate can trick him into an early grave. As Justin survives day to day, with the help of Boy, his imaginary dog, and Peter, his not imaginary friend and fellow runner, Justin is unable to see that Fate is still following him, hot on his heels.

JUST IN CASE is the story of David, who becomes Justin, who melds into a boy that simply wants to make his own choices in life, rather than having it mapped out for him in advance. It's the story of Agnes, who wants to fix Justin, but in the end doesn't even truly understand the ways in which he's broken. It's the story of Charlie, an abnormally bright child who wishes his brother could forgive himself. It is, most of all, the story of Fate, and Fate's wicked sense of humor.

Although it's hard to put JUST IN CASE neatly into a category, I can highly recommend it nevertheless. Once I started this story, I was unable to put it down until the very last word--and even then I was still entranced by Justin Case and his battle with Fate. This book is definitely one worth reading. ( )

Not nearly as good as her previous book, in my opinion. Creative concept and interesting characters but the story never really adds up to much in the end.

David Case is a normal teenager. That is until the day his brother tries to fly. David catches him just in time, but he wonders what would have happened if he were just a few seconds too late. David thinks fate is out to get him now, so he trys to escape it. With a new name and new clothes Justin Case thinks he can escape fate. He joins the track team and learns to push himself to run as fast as he can. But can you really outrun fate?

This book was wonderful. After i read How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (if you haven't read that book you really need to!) i new i had to read more of her work. It took me a while, but i finally bought this book and it was just as great as i was expecting. The characters are all very zany and lovable, all except for Fate. He presents himself as a being in this book, not necissarily a person, but always watching and speaking up at the worst possible times. It was spooky how fate was set in this book. The one thing i didn't like about this book was how the ending was all wrapped up, i like some closure, but sometimes they give a little too much. ( )