Jayden Jelso reads his latest book.
Courtesy | K. C. Gaudet

In a culture where popular young adult books are praised for explicit content and ambiguous morals, junior Jayden Jelso’s newly self-published book is just the opposite.

“I often say, ‘Let’s bring art back to literature,’” Jelso said. “I want to be part of a movement that brings truth and exploration of humanity back to literature, in particular, back to mainstream literature.”

“Magistrate,” which became available for orders on Amazon Feb. 9, is a sequel to Jelso’s first self-published novel, “Talon,” and follows a 15-year-old orphan named Talon who faces secret assassins and unravels government conspiracies in a futuristic New York City.

Just like his protagonist, Jelso says he hopes to use his novel to also stand up to the forces of evil in the young adult genre — explicit content, bad literature, and uncompelling Christian writing. Jelso, an English major, said he set out to write a quality book series for teens that would make them think — not just cater to self-gratification.

“Literature, at least, modern literature, has become a means of self-gratification, as opposed to something that helps you thoughtfully explore the world around you and challenge yourself,” Jelso said. “Books should have you wrestle with ideas that you would instinctually not agree with, or you would instinctually push away, but I think that’s the purpose of literature.” 

Jelso said the idea for his first book began when his distress at the 2020 political climate fused with his love of sci-fi stories.

“I read ‘1984’ that year, and I became interested in dystopian science fiction novels,” Jelso said. “The political happenings of the day, as well as my love for fiction, kind of collided in my head, and I was suddenly inspired to write my own dystopian novel.”

After he had the idea, his younger brother Tanner, a current freshman and another aspiring author, challenged him to a competition to see who could finish writing a book first. Jayden Jelso self-published “Talon” in 2023, while Tanner Jelso’s first epic fantasy book, “Alavi,” will be published in April.

“I was writing a book with my friend, so we were going to compete against Jayden to see who could finish first and who could write the better book,” Tanner Jelso said. “Of course, he finished before us, and he actually ended up publishing his book, but I think he still has an acknowledgment in the beginning of his book toward me and my friend.”

Jayden Jelso’s first book was met with positive reviews, garnering 130 four-star average reviews on Amazon. His friend, junior Isaiah Joiner ,said he loved how the book portrays male characters.

“I really liked that he tried to incorporate strong Christian themes and a positive male role model for young boys,” Joiner said. “In the dystopian genre, that is really rare, and that’s what made it stand out so much for me when I read it.”

Only a few months after publication, Jelso jumped into writing the sequel — the same year he started as a freshman at Hillsdale.

Jelso said writing a book while in college was challenging. He worked on most of “Magistrate” during summer and winter breaks, taking three years to finish.

“Being in college, and especially a college like Hillsdale, which is very rigorous and a difficult place to be academically, the second book had to be put on the back burner,” Jelso said. “It has been three years since I started the second book till now, and it’s very rewarding to finally have it come out.”

Last year, Jelso began using Instagram to promote his book series and speak out against explicit content in YA and fantasy novels, which is called “spice” in the internet world. He quickly gained followers — today, he has more than 39,000 — as well as many haters.

“I discovered I am very good at rage-baiting people on the internet,” Jelso said. “I speak out against a lot of the debauchery on what’s known as BookTok, which is the TikTok book community. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s wrong. And if you’re reading that consistently, then that can be classified as a porn addiction.”

According to Tanner Jelso, the hateful comments almost pushed Jayden to stop writing his sequel, but through Tanner and his mother’s encouragement, Jayden continued on.

“Me and my mom were like, ‘No, you’ve got to finish this because you’re almost done with it, and there are so many people who want to read it,’” Tanner Jelso said. “Thankfully, he continued on and he finished it, and he’s very excited now, much more than he was at that time.”

For Jayden Jelso, “Magistrate” is a chance to revisit the themes of his first book with a more mature mind and better writing.

“With the first book I was immature in my political worldview at the time, and I didn’t really understand the true inner workings of a lot of politics,” Jelso said. “When I came to Hillsdale, I started experiencing a lot more different ideas. The second book still has themes of  governmental oppression, but really it explores how people in power, no matter what side of the political spectrum they’re on, don’t really care about goodness and morality.”

Joiner said he is excited to see how the ideas Jelso has told him about play out in his new book.

“I’ve watched him test a lot of ideas by saying them to me and just talking about them,” Joiner said. “It’s been really fun to give feedback on different possibilities.”

Jelso said the second book also attempts to weave Christian themes into his plot and characters without being “preachy.”

“I’m trying to, as best I can, rope in people who are not Christian and hopefully help them see the truth of Christianity in a way that maybe they haven’t seen before,” Jelso said.

Tanner Jelso, an avid fiction reader, said the genre needs more books like Jelso’s.

“I definitely see a need for a book like this in this genre, especially since it’s like clean fiction, just with all of the crap that’s been coming out recently,” Tanner Jelso said. “I think it’s also valuable to put biblical themes in your book, even if it’s not upfront in your face.”

Joiner recommended Jelso’s book to everyone.

“Jayden Jelso is a great guy, and everyone should read his book,” Joiner said.

According to Jayden Jelso, “Magistrate” ends with a twist — which means Jelso will begin working on the third installment to his trilogy later this year.

“In book two, my editor described the multiple plot twists as ‘giving her whiplash in the best way,’ so I’m very happy about that,” Jelso said. “But all those plot twists lead into an explosive third book that ties everything together and will hopefully complete the story on a satisfying, albeit bittersweet, note.”

In the future, Jelso hopes to keep writing novels.

“I view this current trilogy that I’m writing as practice for the type of stuff that I want to write down the road, because these are the first books I’ve written,” Jelso said. “And hopefully, one day I can have my name next to some of the biggest authors.”