Banned from their phones by their mum for turning their cat pink, brothers Max and Liam are blaming each other. Max continues to fume, also cross at Mum for choosing to go out with his boring History teacher.

Liam doesn’t muck about being cross. He’s soon hiding in the bathroom, playing on another phone he’s found. Max is horrified to realise that Liam learnt nothing from their last cellphone disaster, and this stray phone also belonged to their neighbour (Miss McBoob) who once worked for the CIA and NASA. She’s known by the brothers for dangerous gadgets, and sure enough her phone throws them into another terrifying adventure!

This time Liam has been playing a time-travelling game on Miss McBoob’s phone. The brothers open their eyes to discover their bathroom gone, and a giant wooly mammoth charging them! It’s exactly the same place but thousands of years in the past. What the heck!?

Unlike in their last adventure when they shrunk, this time when Shrinkle (an evil digital cat) appears on the phone screen, the brothers learn they must follow the rules after Liam accepted the Terms & Conditions for the game. Max can’t believe his younger brother has got them into trouble again, but they work together on tasks set by Shrinkle, in order to return home.

Each task is in a different time, but always set right where their real home is. The boys learn about the Stone Age, Roman Britain and the Middle Ages all as the phone battery fades. The more they work together, the closer they become. Arguments are forgotten and realisations about what’s really important begin to surface.

But Shrinkle isn’t only holding them to Terms & Conditions. This evil cat creature has a terrible surprise in store for them, plunging their hopes to go home. Can they beat Shrinkle and finally get back to tell Mum they’re sorry?

Episode 2 in the Game On! series.

With just as much action as the first book in the series (Shrinkle), Glitched throws the boys forward and back through time. History has never been so fascinating and frightening. Facing wooly mammoths, jousting knights, angry Romans, and roaring dinosaurs brings squabbling brothers Max and Liam together as they face the ‘ticking clock’ of completing tasks before their phone battery runs out.

Double page illustration spreads break up the text as the boys face one task and terror after the other. 

Each chapter cleverly counts the battery level down through the book, all the while increasing the tension of the story. Interesting historical facts are part of the narrative – involving wee, witchery and living with pigs. The conclusion places pieces of the brother’s adventures into their own time.

An engaging, fast-moving read. The quarrelling, competitive brothers, along with the action of dinosaurs, knights and unfortunate smelly bits, will capture boy readers in particular.

Author / Illustrator – Emily Snape

Age – 8+

See a review for the first book in the series (Click on the Cover)

(2023, EK Books, Exisle Publishing, Fantasy, Time Travel, Brothers, Siblings, Action, The Stone Age, The Middle Ages, Roman Britain, Adventure, Tension, Tests, Riddles, Tasks, Digital Nemesis, Cell phone, Terms & Conditions, Mammoth, Jousting, Castle, Gladiator Ring, Missing home, Series, Sibling Rivalry, Family, History, Humour, Funny, Time Travel)