Phew! I raced to the end of this novel, which made me realize that I had invested a lot into these characters and their lives.
This is not an easy read, nor is it easy to classify or slip into a genre label. If pushed, I’d say dystopian, with a backward glance! It’s disturbing and sad. Standish is a wonderful narrator: honest and maybe a little on “the spectrum” which lets him say exactly what he’s thinking! His friendship with Hector is heartbreaking. Actually, the whole book is heartbreaking.
This would be a fabulous text to study in Year 7-8 for boys or girls. Highly recommended.

I gobbled this up in a matter of days. I read a lot of YA and I felt this stood out from the crowd. Our hero, AJ, has just got his exam results from the English equivalent of the HSC and hasn’t done well at all (except English where he excelled!).His home life is grim; he has never met his father and his mother and her new partner are abusive. His two best buddies are both in similar places. So far, so ordinary teenage issues. Until AJ starts work as a “baby clerk” at Baldwin Groat law firm. It’s here he discovers an old key with his name and date of birth. This key is to a door that opens to London, but not as AJ knows it; it’s London and it’s 1830. This is a rollicking good yarn. Whilst it’s a classic time-slip story, it also deals with the usual problems faced by 17 year olds the world over: love and friendship and finding your place in the world. This is going to be my “go to” book for recommending to YA readers who say reading is boring!