THE TIME TRIALS

In this YA novel, four disparate schoolmates must team up to survive a deadly contest involving time traveling.

A few years have passed since Finn Mallory lost his parents to a car accident. Now 16 years old, Finn is on full scholarship at an elite boarding school. Most of his fellow students look down on him. One exception is the school’s social queen, Everly Caldwell, who is also an orphan. Unfortunately, Finn mistakes her friendliness for ridicule and rebuffs her overtures—a self-sabotage that recurs throughout the story. Finn and Everly are soon thrown together as part of the school’s Young Historians Club, an extracurricular group run by the girl’s grandfather. There are only two other members: confident go-getter Valerie Konrad and Finn’s high-functioning autistic roommate, Edison Pellegrin. Together, the Young Historians will compete in the Time Trials—a secretive contest that sees teams from four schools travel back in time and interact with history. The past itself cannot be changed, yet the trials are not without risk to the participants. Injury is entirely possible—even death. Can Finn come to terms with his own inner demons, or will the trials be his undoing? The McConnells, a husband-and-wife team, structure an engaging, third-person narrative, primarily from Finn’s point of view but occasionally moving to that of one of the other protagonists. The prose is polished and the dialogue unobtrusive, allowing the characters to stand out. The authors present an unusual take on time travel and causality. The trials’ organizers (the voyeuristic, coldhearted timekeepers) offer plenty of intrigue along with steampunk vibes, while the central tenet—that history is inviolable save for how it affects the individual—is a master stroke, especially when combined with issues of teenage trauma and self-esteem. In bringing these themes to light, grunge guitar–playing Finn is a natural viewpoint character. At times, he fluctuates too wildly and quickly toward self-defeatism, but this is representative of a more general heightening of character traits. (The exaggeration is more evident in some players than others.) Though well executed thematically, the book’s ending is too abrupt. Nonetheless, adolescent readers will love the journey and thrill at the prospect of a sequel.

A resonant blend of teen drama and SF adventure.