Charlie One


Young Adult - Sci-Fi
285 Pages
Reviewed on 09/15/2024
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    Book Review

Reviewed by Essien Asian for Readers' Favorite

Charles Anderson dreamed of having his paper route and delivering newspapers in Chamberlain. He did not realize there would be repercussions when his dreams came true. During one of his runs, he comes across an ailing customer who is a good friend. Mr Grazione tells him a strange tale about time travel and some mysterious people interested in this discovery. He tasks Charlie with finding and destroying a unique artifact before it falls into the wrong hands. All Charlie has to do is negotiate jumping between 1957 and 1984 without attracting attention from his friends at school. He is about to discover how difficult his task is in Tom Connelly’s Charlie One.

Charlie One is an exciting science fiction story. The character development is interesting as Tom Connelly keys into teen high school dynamics to explain Charlie’s origin story and connect him to two groups of youths whose experiences appear to coincide but are twenty-seven years apart. The intriguing aspect of the plot is that Connelly retains Chamberlain’s fundamental structures, such as the Malum House, as the focal point. He uses music tracks and movie titles that Charlie and his friends know to highlight generational differences between the two timelines, evoking a sense of nostalgia in readers. Attention to details such as Charlie’s changing hair color every time he travels depicts a realistic experience that comes with unwanted consequences. The questions Charlie seems to ask of himself during his adventure help to immerse readers in the narrative as they look for the clues he needs to complete his task. As the narrative concludes, the pace picks up with the suspense. A bold storytelling style and well-worked pop culture elements combine to create a uniquely entertaining read in Charlie One.