Emily Snape, Glitched (Game On! #2), Exisle Publishing, September 2023, 192 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922539410
Miss McBoob’s phone strikes again, and when Max’s brother, Liam finds the phone, it sends the brothers into another weird game app. This time, they’re zapping through history, trying to solve the riddles in the Stone Age and Roman times before the phone’s battery runs out and they’re stuck in the game forever.
This series focuses on the adventure and the body humour rather than the emotional resolution and character growth. Max and Liam are still struggling with working together, and once again, Max sees Liam as the source of all his troubles. There isn’t a whole lot of self-reflection from Max, but there are a few brotherly realisations along the way. Max also has a few minor revelations about how he’s reacted to a major family event – the question is, will his resolution stick if they make it back to the real world?
Like Shrinkle, Glitched leans into the poo humour. By the end of the book, readers will know a lot more about how bottoms were wiped at various times in history than they did when they started. Glitched is not even pretending to be historically accurate or informative, however. The story’s focus is very firmly on the puzzles that Max and Liam are trying to solve, and the dramatic obstacles in their way. It’s all about the action and the suspense about whether they’ll make it through the game and get home in time.
While readers should take the historical aspects of this book with a huge grain of salt, there is a lot of fun, and young readers aged 8 to 11 looking for adventure and a cheeky laugh will have a good time with Glitched.
Reviewed by Emily Clarke
