Review: Caught in the Moment by Martin Dukes

Caught in a Moment is the story of Alex Trueman, a teenager who daydreams himself unwittingly into the strange world of Intersticia. This is a world outside of ordinary time, that exists in the slender intervals between instants. From Alex's point of view the world around him freezes into immobility. At first it seems the he alone is free to wander the hushed streets with their motionless cars and people. But he is not alone. Alex soon discovers that he shares the world with others. There are a few dozen fellow daydreamers who share his fate. There is plump, bespectacled Will, pretty brunette Kelly, and the rebellious outcast Paulo. Presiding over them all is the enigmatic Ganymede, and irascible vagrant who distributes food to his dependents and sets them perverse tasks to perform in return.

Alex soon finds that he has rare skills in Intersticia. Most uniquely he can affect the motionless world of 'Statica' around them. He can open doors, help himself to food, and move objects. But this forbidden activity soon sets him on a collision course with Ganymede in which the very existence of Intersticia is put at risk.


from goodreads

When I first read about this story, it was nothing like I had ever heard of. The story had a strange feel when I read it. It was like I as partly dreaming, and partly there. Whatever it was, I liked it. Some background info: this book is published in the UK and there is the occasional saying or word I was unsure of. That does not give away change or disrupt the story at all, and it's the quaint things that I like most about the story.

Martin Dukes is a wonderful writer, and I would think that he would be published by the big publishing houses here in the US. He writes in away that gives you enough information for now just to settle you, but not too much that all the secrets are given away at one time. I love the strong characters that he writes, and the in between worlds fascinate me.

Alex is such a peculiar teenage boy in my opinion. There's that off feeling I felt when the story started to unfold in the beginning. I guess, he never really is 'normal', even before he goes to 'Sticia. He is probably more intelligent than the teenage boys I know, but he has this sensitive spot that is quite prominent and something that I did not expect to show so early in the novel.

I felt like most, if not all, of the characters felt real and tangible. They were easy to grasp a hold of. I think Paulo was my favorite character out of all of them. There's the sense of you know who this character is before the main character has come into contact with, because everyone knows that person that curses like a sailor, and travels like one too.

My favorite part of the novel is that the moral really stands out. It's kind of like, be careful of what you wish for kind of thing. The whole don't take things for granted moral is popular amongst the popular morals, and I think Caught in the Moment is a great example of that. So, when my best friend asked me what I thought about Caught in the Moment, I gave her a head nods, thumbs up. (4 out of 5)