An unusual and convoluted story, visceral and vivid in imagery, combining coming-of-age, a Victorian-type of upbringing of a young boy by his mysterious and elusive uncle, phobias, flashbacks, and an eccentric explorer/inventor who died or else disappeared--who knows? I am reminded of the novels of John Bellairs.

*free copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review*

I'm not sure how to start this review, except by saying that I was so damn engaged by this book I ended up hunched over my tablet late at night with my hood up, because I'm scared of giant sea creatures but couldn't stop reading.

This book was really something. I am obssessed by the idea of a thirty-three minute water slide!? Like, the sheer SCOPE of that is insane. Imagining that suspended above the London skyline is something else, and I think the constant movement of the characters through the flume was what kept the book from dragging. All of the imagery was incredible, and the idea of being stuck in this flume in the middle of an electric storm? Terrifying. The book is split into three segments with three different parts of the flume - the Core being the most interesting and also the scariest for me - and the world-building and backstory to it is amazing.

Grammatically, this book was perfect. No complaints at all, the writing flowed and our three main characters jumped off the page. I really enjoyed Flo and Yam as a pair of friends for the main character, the former being a techy girl who likes numbers and fixing things, and the latter being something of a hippy boy who goes with the flow (pun not intended). Shanks, the protagonist, was interesting as a narrator, and I found all of his flashbacks and the way his backstory mystery unfolds - as well as the story of Mr Poppity, the explorer who created the flume in the first place - satisfying (even if a smidge predictable).

Me finding it satisfying does not, however, mean that this book was not really, really weird. I love weird books, and I'm not going to spoil the ending, but it was just straight-up bizarre. If you had asked me how the book would end, I would have guessed about a thousand other endings before the one I read. It feels like a bit of a fever dream, or perhaps a very odd simulation. Also, I have some questions regarding Flo and Yam and whether or not they were supposed to be reincarnations of certain people, or whether they just shared similarities to help Shanks jog his memory. Either way, I enjoyed their company all the way down the flume, and I'd say it's still less traumatising for a child than Jacqueline Wilson's The Cat Mummy, so would probably recommend it to upper-primary school.

Tl;dr: An inventive fever dream. 4.5 stars.

I requested Flume as I love to visit waterparks with my family. A thirty-three minute waterslide? How could that be? This story chronicles the decent of a boy (and his friends) down this massive slide. Throughout the journey Bigfoot, uses imagery to create the atmosphere all around the main characters. The main character tells the story through the first person and much of the story is driven by imagery and his fears. It was hard for me to suspend my reality to believe that it could take that long to slide down a waterslide which took away from the story for me, unfortunately. You might be better at this than me. Middle school students would enjoy this as a read aloud and so much can be drawn from the messages about conquering your fears and imagery in writing.

Thank you Net Galley, Bigfoot, and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to preview this title. The opinions shared are my own.