Ghost Town

"How can it be the same day twice?"

Writer: Susie Day

Format: Novel

Released: March 2021

Series: Team TARDIS Diaries 02

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

Something has gone wrong with time, and the Doctor – alongside her friends Yaz, Ryan and Graham – is determined to investigate. The trail leads to a dusty mining town at Hallowe'en – and something scary is lying in wait for them...

Verdict

Ghost Town was an excellent little book! I must admit I was a little trepidatious prior to reading this story as the cover looked incredibly childish and I really don’t think I was the intended target audience. I’d even put off taking the books out of the local library during the run of the Thirteenth Doctor on screen because of this very reason, but alas I fancied a trip back to her wonderful era and this seemed like a great way to do it. And I was pleasantly surprised! I seem to have jumped ahead by starting with the second in the Team TARDIS Dairies series as research indicates there is something of an overlapping story arc between the two, but I didn’t feel like I didn’t know what was happening or had gone on for the quartet. It was just brilliant! I thought the style was just tremendous and I loved the imagery. It was also fascinating to have over one-hundred pages of continuous storytelling and even though I took a large break in the middle for the work shift, I picked things right back up seamlessly on the train home. It was just glorious in its presentation and this is certainly something I would have lashed up as a child. The illustrations throughout complimented the adventure wonderfully well and it just really helped with the storytelling. Despite the date of the blog entry, I was actually reading this book a week prior to Halloween so with time being stuck on 31 October 2019, the thematic elements were very current from my perspective! On lunch break I was seeing pumpkins here, there and everywhere. I think that would have helped with my enjoyment of the novel. I really adored the concept of the psychic paper being found in a woods and actually getting an origin for it was very exciting! The way the story was told utilising the diary was fantastic and it was marvellous to have the three users primarily be the companions. I think starting with Yaz was certainly the right move as she’s easily the best of the three, and at one point I thought Ryan was going to be forgotten about when he was left behind! That was pretty humorous and it’s sad to say but I didn’t miss him. I liked the idea of time being stuck and the companions coming together and wanting to help the Doctor was lovely when she said they could leave because of how dangerous a tear in the vortex was. That was nice and it was good characterisation to present how much that meant to the Doctor. This was certainly her fam. I thought the story behind Maddy’s vision thanks to Buck was impressive although it did sound quite unbelievable that rubbish could just be sent to the Sun for incineration! It was a bold idea and I liked that the Doctor’s old friend Tomiko Handa was there to help with the science. It was an intriguing revelation later on to find that she knew the science couldn’t work as was just there after being offered her own access to the Katz machine. The concept behind that with the ever changing neutrinos was intriguing and felt very advanced for this kind of children’s book. I liked the educational elements there and as an adult reading it felt good to get this kind of science. The imagery and illustration of Graham as a giant because the science didn’t know how to stop was amusing and Ryan’s reaction to seeing a ninety foot version of his grandad was tremendous! I quite liked how the psychic diary turned out to be the mysterious power source that brought everything together, and the ambiguous ending in almost addressing the reader was terrific. For what purpose? That was left to us to think about. It’s such a shame the third book in the series went cancelled and I’m now tempted to read the extract at the end of this book, especially with the prospect of a Nimon return! Overall though, a fantastic read!

Rating: 9/10