Wheels by Lorijo Metz

 

Summary:

WHEELS is a sci-fi adventure filled with mystery and romance—a coming-of-age tale that proves it takes more than super powers to save a planet.

McKenzie Wu doesn’t know her great-great grandmother married an alien or that her great-great-great uncle is alive and systematically eliminating a race of beings on a tiny planet light years away—she has enough to worry about. Molecules keep rearranging themselves to suit her slightest wish, but only at the most inconvenient times. If that weren't enough, she’s been dreaming about an accident; one she’s had no memory of until now and, if true, means McKenzie is responsible for her mother’s death.

When McKenzie stumbles upon a portal, transporting her and her friend Hayes to the tiny planet of Circanthos, she learns the inhabitants believe she is the “One” destined to save them from H.G. Wells, a name that sounds strangely familiar, and his Tsendi warriors. But while her newfound ability might give her superhero status back on Earth, halfway across the galaxy it’s commonplace—all Circanthians can particle-weave—and if they can’t stop H.G. Wells, what can she hope to do?

With the portal closed and no idea how to get home, McKenzie must learn to use a power she does not want and accept her mysterious past, or risk losing everything—her father’s love, her new alien friends and the boy.
Summary & Photo taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 328 pages
Source: Review Copy
Publication Date: July 22nd 2012

This was another one of those surprisingly good reads that I've been encountering more and more frequently lately and I absolutely love that. Nothing is better than going into a book interested and curious then finding out that you're enjoying a book more than you thought you might.

What impressed me the most about Wheels was the extreme amount of details that the author Lorijo Metz was able to incorporate into her novel. Since this is a sci-fi novel I knew going into it that there would be a fair amount of world building but I didn't expect it to work so cohesively with the plot, I loved that about it though because I really enjoy when authors make such a huge effort on that front. I enjoy learning as much as I can about the world that the story is set in because if you have crappy world building skills then your story just doesn't work as well. Lucky me though, because Lorijo had a real knack for this.

As much as I loved the world building and how impressed I was by it, my favourite thing about the novel over all was Mckenzie Wu. Rarely do you find a YA novel with a wheelchair bound teenager as the saviour of an entire world. I thought that was pretty kick ass because of that unique aspect and because maybe it will open up the eyes of other readers who may in turn one day pen their own novels with diverse characters like McKenzie. I was so glad Mckenzie was such a strong character though and I loved her whole attitude towards everything.

Just because she was in a wheelchair she didn't let it get her down too much, and she wasn't boring  either plus I liked that her relationship with the male lead wasn't a case of insta love and was based more on mutual respect and admiration not just a doddering teen romance.

The alien races were also very well thought out and I was impressed that Lorijo made time to create alien religions and gods into the story. I thought that was a nice added touch because those details gave the aliens as well as the story an added complexity.

Overall this was a well written story with many elements of H.G. Wells's famous novel The Time Machine mixed in just enough without being a complete re-write of the story. There were a couple of grammatical errors in the book but besides that this was a good novel and one that I hope leads Lorijo into writing a series based on it. It definitely has the potential.

If you enjoy young adult novels ad especially young adult novels with a science fiction theme I really recommend reading this book. It's well worth the read.

*I received a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my FREE and HONEST review.

 Really Liked it!
★ ★ ★ ★

 

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