Book: The Shape of Time
Author: Ryan Calejo
Publisher: Amulet Books
Year: 2023
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: “Antares de la Vega is an adventurer at heart. He dreams of journeying across burning deserts, trekking through wild and uncharted jungles, sailing the farthest reaches of the seas – and yet, he’s never stepped foot outside of South Florida.
Until strange creatures come leaping out of lightning bolts to kidnap him.
Locked away in a secret prison in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, Antares meets Magdavellia, a mysterious and iron-willed girl who opens his eyes to a shocking truth: This world is a far different – and weirder – place than he’s been led to believe. Every stranger rumor, every wild theory, is based on truth.
After they escape the prison, Antares and Magdavellia must set out beyond the edges of any amp in search of a legendary artifact – and Antares’s parents, who have been missing most of his life. The two of them must wield geometry and alchemy, outsmart molten and mermaids, and outrun fiendish aliens…all while attempting to solve a riddle as old and mystifying as the sun.

Review: Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room, shall we? I’ve never given a book anything lower than 2 out of 5 stars and here I am, bypassing an entire half star to give this book a lone 1 out of 5 stars. You’re right, it’s drastic; particularly as I’ve been reading and reviewing more and more standout books over the last year. But it’s necessary. Trust me.

The Shape of Time (TSOT) is a middle grade read with a 14-year-old main character – based on how it’s written, I suspect this book would do best with those 10-12 years old. Never in my life did I think I would be reviewing a flat earth conspiracy mid grade read, but here we are. I cannot defend it, teaching middle schoolers that the earth might be flat (albeit in a science fiction book / fantasy book) in a world where conspiracy theories freely abound, feels at best irresponsible and at worst dangerous. I was worried as I began this book and realized what direction we were headed in that a thrilling adventure book geared toward young to mid grade readers would create a space where growing minds might not be able to differentiate between fact and fiction, particularly when fiction exists so prolifically outside the world of books – but my fears were in vain, as this book is not the thrilling adventure I expected it to be.

Maybe this is my fault, for assuming that a book with a synopsis like that would be anything short of thrilling, exciting, or adventurous. In fact, until about four chapters into the book I thought it was really headed in a direction I could see myself enjoying. It starts well – well, actually, it starts by ripping off A Wrinkle in Time with strange characters from another world / time / dimension / part of a flat planet Earth named Mr. Now, Mr. Minutes, and Mr. Hoursback (though, why Mr. Minutes is called Mr. Minutes when he comes from a part of the Earth that calls Minutes Mintocks is beyond me). There are so many discrenpancies like what I mentioned above that it began to feel overwhelming keeping track of them all, but I want to point out specifically the differences between Calejo’s descriptions of the world he crafted for us and the illustrations not only within the book but on the cover as well. Antares is described as having one blue eye and one brown, but on the cover of the book, praised by Calejo in his acknowledgements, Antares has two brown eyes. Calejo describes monsters and vessels and the world around us in TSOT but the illustrations never line up with what we’ve read – the disconnect is hard to get past and kept me from creating a world in my mind. It does a huge disservice to the book, but quite honestly, it’s Calejo’s poor writing and inability to craft a world I either care about or care to even visualize that are the real disservice here.

I had a hard time getting into this one, likely from the immediate A Wrinkle in Time reference, but once I did, I enjoyed a mere two chapters before I found myself annoyed and ready to be done. I sincerely wanted to put this one down before I finished it, but I found the things that frustrated me about this book were so egregious that I had to write a review. I find it interesting that a quick google search for this book turns up, first not this book, because it’s a common name and there are other, better things out there; second, not a single review of it despite it’s September publish date. I find that to be a good sign. Calejo boasts several awards, “half a dozen state reading lists”, and medals for his writing prowess, yet I find TSOT to be, to put it bluntly, aggressively bad.

Advice: Avoid. Trust me. Avoid at all costs. It’s not worth the time or energy.