Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford: Book Review

A truly original debut novel from an extraordinarily talented new voice in children’s books. Laugh, cry and wonder at this race-against-time story of a boy who travels back to 1984 to prevent a go-kart accident, and save his father’s life…

“My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.

The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn’t been for his ‘time machine’…”

When Al Chaudhury discovers his late dad’s time machine, he finds that going back to the 1980s requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, burglary, and setting his school on fire. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

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To be fully honest I wasn't totally sure about this book when I first received it in the mail from HarperCollins New Zealand. The main reasons were because: a) It is a middle-grade book and I usually don't like anything too plain like these unless it's by the exception of Stacy Gregg in which I will happily accept anyone of her books to read and keep. b) Because of the name and the cover. Yes I know that is a quick and harsh judgement but I mean come on, I'm not the biggest fan of cheesy titles and kiddy-ish looking books unless it has anything to do with horses or spiritual stuff. Basically I'm a really fussy reader (which is really strange because I'm not that fussy with other things but there are probably a million different foods I wouldn't eat even if you offered me a million dollars. Okay in that case, I wouldn't be that fussy. I need a new laptop anyway and the money would come in handy. I'll shut-up about that now). The cover is honestly the type of image that I would have seen as a kid and head off running in the opposite direction. It brings back the memories of being the weird kid that didn't read because all the books I found in my opinion sucked and my attention span was the length of my pinky toe. Depite the obvious and the fact that I do judge a book by its cover (the literal term) I do have a completely different opinion about the actual story.

 This book is about a kid named Al Chaudhury who is a quarter Indian and is basically best friends with his full Indian Grandfather, Grandpa Byron. His father died when he was eight from a piece of metal that was lodged up through his nose into his brain from a go-gart incident which eventually killed him and left Al to survive with his mother, and now at twelve years old, with a new step-father (or step-loser) called Steve and a step-sister (step-sister-from-hell) called Carly. Al has just celebrated his twelfth birthday with everyone and has finally received a very secretive letter that his father wrote to him before his untimely death. Al finds out that his father Pye was working on a time-machine project that involved his old Apple Mac laptop, a bunch of cords, and a zinc tub, all concealed in the safety of a cellar-turned-safehouse in his old house which is basically a while away from where he lives now. He has been instructed by his father to use this time-machine to go back to 1984, two days before the incident, and prevent this go-cart accident from happening and therefore saving his dad's life. Basically if the accident never happened, the metal that got shoved up his nose as a kid wouldn't be there as an adult to eventually kill him. Thanks to this, Al feels a responsibility to save his father and have a complete family once again. Not only does he need to attempt this in order to change history, he cannot tell anyone about it because they would either try stop him out of fear for his safety, or tell him that he is crazy and that it would never work. Despite everything, Al manages to find his way around but ends up finding a bunch of obstacles in his way and everything changing before his eyes in ways he could (almost) never explain, all while being accompanied by his pet hamster, Alan Shearer.

Things I LOVE about Time Travelling with a Hamster:

* Again like the memoir thing, I love the "10 Things I Know About. . ." list! It gives the book some personality and I've never really seen any author use a list in a fictional novel before so it's pretty cool. Plus it gives a lot of quick insight to the characters that he is referring to, such as his Grandpa Byron, Mum, Dad or Steve.

* How logical most things sounded but some confused me a little! I absolutely loved how the idea of time-travel and the fact that you couldn't travel to a time where you already existed. The way the time travelling worked using a computer and coding is so unique. The way his Dad explained the way it worked and experimented it. Though I noticed that some facts that were originally stated early in the book weren't thoroughly kept up with when Al was thinking of all the things he could do with time-travel, he mentioned going back a week to get a lottery ticket and winning it with the numbers he'd retrieved from that following week. But he wouldn't have been able to having been alive a week ago and he wouldn't have been able to travel to then due to that simple fact.

* The hamster was adorably cute and I think it helped make the story better! The fact that Al was galavanting around back and forth with time-travel with his hampster and having to look after it all the time was so cute. He worried about it constantly and lost it about twice but the fact that he made sure he always saved it was the cutest thing. Plus (believe it or not) we can't have hamsters here in New Zealand and so for some reason I imagine it to be the most adorable little critter ever and I had a rat once (it was an albino with red eyes so it wasn't ugly like some rats) so I totally get the little bond between owner and pet.

Overall I have given this book a three out of five stars. I won't lie, it was a little boring for me mainly because it wasn't really the type of thing I was interested in and there wasn't a romance therefore I was at a lost for words when I finished it. However it is a great book for kids who are just starting out reading in middle school/intermediate and may be interested in the concept of time travel and computers. For a debut novel I think the author did a great job with writing this book and it will be nice to see what he writes in the future.

RELEASES FEBRUARY 1ST 2016!

Thank you HarperCollins New Zealand for the review copy! Go like their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Harpercollinsnz?fref=ts

Go add Time Travelling with a Hamster to your Goodreads list HERE

Go buy it on MightyApe with 1 day delivery in New Zealand HERE

Buy it on Book Depository with free shipping world wide HERE

Find more out about my writing career at:

http://ellafleming-christie.weebly.com

My YouTube Channel: FeathersandFaith

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings: Book Review

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

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Lindsay Cummings is yet another author with a book that I just happened to discover while watching an interview with her and Sasha Alsberg on YouTube. When I heard about her debut novel, The Murder Complex I instantly felt like I really wanted to read it. Probably because it was all about survival and strategy which is something I like reading about to learn just in case the world ends up being a similar type of "f**ked up" reality. I saw this at the library and without even reading the blurb I picked it up in an instant and added it to my already massive pile of books I'd have to sort through two hours later and decide which I was actually really wanting to take home - obviously The Murder Complex ended up being one of those "chosen ones". That, my friend, is the power of book reviewers if you think we don't really do or mean much to anyone. Though if I were to give a quick overall review on this book, I'd really just have to say that if a debut novel can make me question how they are over the age of twenty and basically have not been discovered by a few simple short stories at high school or something crazy like that then they are definitely doing their job. I'm just a little melancholic thinking about the fact that this is only a duology and I won't have that much time to delve into this world once I get my hands on the next book, The Death Code, as it will be the last one.

The Murder Complex is the story of a young girl called Meadow and a young boy named Zephr, who both live in a city where everything is cut off from the rest of the world by a massive gate surrounding it and cannot live without having to survive first. They are controlled by a government of people who watch their every move and make sure that they do not attempt to escape the perimeter of the city or the tiny pins in their arms will zap them dead. Meadow is coming up to her test which decides whether or not she can get a job and provide for her family. Zephr is one of those that collects the dead bodies of the unfortunate to live and survive with his older friend, Talan who he practically considers his only family even if they aren't related. Soon Meadow and Zephr end up meeting almost by fate and start discovering some weird and different things that they didn't expect to be true. Meadow ends up feeling responsible and regretful for the things she has done but soon finds her way with Zephr and they come up with a plan to do what no one sane has ever thought about doing before. Escape.

Things I LOVE about The Murder Complex:

* Meadow and Zephr are cute together and I ship them so much! If there was any couple cuter than Aelin and Rowan, I'd have to say that Meadow and Zephr are next in line. I don't know why but I think it's the way I notice them when they start to connect and realise how much they actually like each other. It's not a confusing or disorientating experience for them and I like that because I have kind of gotten sick of seeing relationships in books where they can't make up their damned minds and it's like, come on! What on Earth is stopping you two? Love each other already! You were meant to be!

* Survival is one of my favourite things to read about! You have to thing about one thing if our world becomes anything similar to The Murder Complex, Red Queen or The Hunger Games; Who are gonna be the ones to survive because they know what the hell they're doing? It'll be the readers and movie fanatics. We'll have watched and thoroughly subconsciously taken in everything we need to know about survival. I already know I'll be good with a bow and arrow thanks to a school camp and thanks to The Hunger Games, both book and movies, I know how to set a trap for an animal and how to sleep in a tree without falling out of it. You've got to think that even though book reviewers or book lovers in general may get crap for having a job in something "so basic" or not having a "real job", we will be the ones who have learnt to live in different types of realities and think more logically and sanely about it because we have thrust ourselves mentally into these worlds. You think we come out the same once we're done with a book like that? No my friend. I know myself I was very different once I had finished reading all three The Hunger Games novels. You come out a stronger person in a way and that's what I love about novels like this. Think I'm crazy and all but that's what I believe and good luck to you non-readers when you need to know how to live in the woods and survive and no one is there how to teach you.

* It's unique in its own way - new content is what every reader needs! Yeah it may be a 'survive or die' novel which is pretty similar to The Hunger Games but it isn't like any other novel I've read or heard before. New content and ideas are always attractive to the average reader so it's much more understandable that something like this novel would do pretty well. I applaude to the up and coming authors that have the guts to write about something that hasn't really ever been written before. I feel like that's the true art of being an author. You hook readers by being the one with fresh and new ideas. That's how you become a best selling author (think about every best-selling author you've read - is every one unique from the other? Yup, thought so).

Overall I have given this novel a four out of five stars. This book was so bloody and brutal so obviously it may not be the best for very squeamish or easily offended people (However I'm pretty squeamish so it didn't sicken me that much). It was highly descriptive and well thought through. I did absolutely love it and basic enough for me to feel hopeful about my own writing (This is literally what I think about everytime I read a novel). I can't wait to get into The Death Code but at the same time I'm already wishing it wouldn't end so soon. Fanfiction anyone?

Go add The Murder Complex to your Goodreads list HERE

Go buy it on MightyApe with 1 day delivery in New Zealand HERE

Buy it on Book Depository with free shipping world wide HERE

Find more out about my writing career at:

http://ellafleming-christie.weebly.com

My YouTube Channel: FeathersandFaith