The Great Time Lock Disaster

A truly unique and good story. Enjoyed it a lot.

This is a perfectly paced novel for younger readers of adventure. Throughout the book you will find that things don't always go to plan for Pete and his friend Weasel and that magic isn't always as easy as you might think.

At the very beginning of the book we find Pete struggling with his magic and while unsupervised accidentally unlocks time travel. While trying not to make things worse he and Weasel are suddenly transported back in time to Victorian England. With some guidance from Pete's family ancestors, they are on a quest to find Dr Dread Wraith in London without letting on that they are from the future and close the time lock. This is a time where they immediately realise they could never fit in, life was different for the poorer classes and the richer classes, with a huge social order to how people lived.

While on this quest they run into all kinds of trouble that could happen in England's past, luckily they make some friends along the way to give them a hand.

I found the little splashes of history interwoven into this adventure worked really well with both keeping the plot moving forward and to create an interesting background of the story. London in that era was very different from now and the level of danger on the streets in London added an extra element of risk to the quest.

Themes that popped up in this book besides magic and adventure and time travel was friendship and also confidence - throughout the book Pete sometimes felt that he didn't belong as either a normal boy or a wizard boy. As the book progresses and more things went wrong he still felt this sense that it wouldn't have happened if he was better at being either of these two things. I cannot tell if it was 100% resolved as a personal issue (really could it ever be?) but I think it was accepted that he wasn't good yet, but in time.

Negative aspects may possibly be that I felt sometimes his friend Weasel wasn't really much of a friend but more a whiny companion. Their friendship didn't seem rock solid but maybe over time (more books possibly?) that will improve. At least they were there for each other for the important things

So overall the story paced well to keep younger readers interested and had an interesting location for the plot. To help the readers understand some characters that appeared such as Fannon the familiar it referred back to the first book without feeling like you received an entire recount.

8-10 year old me would have happily traded in a Baby Sitters Club book for this adventure read.