"Tesla's Attic" by Neal Shusterman & Eric Elfman

Title: Tesla's Attic

Authors: Neal Shusterman & Eric Elfman

Series: The Accelerati Trilogy, #1

Publisher: Disney Book Group

Imprint: Disney-Hyperion

Publication date: February 11th, 2014

My rating: 5 of 5

(Book read from February 7th to February 10th, 2014,  from an eARC received from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange of an honest review.) 

Summary:

After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they've inherited. When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he's hit in the head by a toaster. That's just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there. After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids-Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent-and they discover that all of the objects have extraordinary properties. What's more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble. It's as if the attic itself has an intelligence . . . and a purpose.

Ultimately Nick learns that the genius Nikola Tesla placed the items-his last inventions-in the attic as part of a larger plan that he mathematically predicted. Nick and his new friends must retrieve everything that was sold at the garage sale and keep it safe. But the task is fraught with peril-in addition to the dangers inherent in Tesla's mysterious and powerful creations, a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati, is determined to stop Nick and alter destiny to achieve its own devious ends. It's a lot for a guy to handle, especially when he'd much rather fly under the radar as the new kid in town. 

 

Fans of intrigue, action, humor, and nonstop surprises are guaranteed a read unlike any other in Tesla's Attic, Book One of the Accelerati Trilogy.

 

My Thoughts on the Book:

The moment I saw this book for the first time, I knew I had to read it. I mean, it's Neal Shusterman, and I love his books, and on top of that it sounded like a really interesting read. I haven't read anything from Eric Elfman until now, but I definitely want more.

But, the book itself, was both everything I expected & everything I didn't expect, and I loved every second of it. I actually read it in only two sittings, and only because I didn't want it to end so quickly so I put it aside until today, otherwise I would've read it straight through.

The story itself & the way it was written was quite interesting & quirky, a mix of history, adventure, mystery, humor, science & in a way - magic, packed in quite entertaining & at the same time heartbreaking package. If you've read Neal Shusterman's Skinjacker Trilogy, you know what I'm talking about, or even John Connolly's Samuel Johnson Tales a.k.a Samuel Johnson vs. the Devil trilogy, if you mix them up, but with no ghosts or demons, then you'll get a story similar to Tesla's Attic. And that of course is brilliant. Since I'm big fan of both trilogies, Tesla's Attic was just the book for me.

In Tesla's Attic, we meet Nick Slate, his dad & brother Danny, who move to a new house in a new town, after their old one burned down, along with their mom :( The attic of the new house is full of weird old objects, so Nick decides to have a garage sale & sell them all (or at least, almost all of them).

After the garage sale is a smashing success, Nick realizes that there's something weird about this objects & what they can actually do, so he with the help of his new friends, tries to uncover the mystery of the objects by collecting them all. We watch the story unfold through Nick, Mitch, Caitlin, Vince, Petula, even Theo a tiny bit, and it's quite an amazing, hilarious & sad story, too, but I'm not saying any more, you'll just have to read it yourself & see. 

I won't go into details, but I loved the way it was written - it was brilliant, I loved the story itself, it's quite an imaginative one, and I absolutely loved almost all the characters. Nick was such a cute, fun & interesting character, the same goes for his little brother Danny, my heart more than once was breaking for them, it was so sad. And then there's Mitch - I loved him, too, and that I didn't expect at first, but he's amazing as a character also, I wanted to hug him & never let him go & I hope he'll get the justice he deserves in the end. Caitlin, despite being a popular girl, she's quite smart & quirky, too, she made me laugh, and she was sweet, too, and really smart, and I loved her as a character. And then there's Petula - she's quite the character, and although I didn't love her as a character, I guess in the end she was likable enough, and she was quite an interesting character, albeit quite selfish one, but she contributed quite a lot to the story. Theo was also amusing enough character, his philosophy was quite hilarious, and then there's Vince - another character that got under my skin with his quirkiness & weirdness, and that also made me both laugh, and made me sad.

This whole book was quite the mix of sad & fun, but in the end was quite an entertaining ride, and I can't recommend it enough. I know the waiting for the sequel will be torture, but I can't wait, because I'm dying to see what will happen next!

 

 

 

Challenges:

 

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