I gave The Black Hole Cinema Club a shout-out in my recent February reads review post. It publishes in the UK on March 14th, so here is my full review of why you should read Christopher Edge’s latest mind-bending sci-fi book for readers, middle-grade and beyond!
What Is The Black Hole Cinema Club?
Lucas and his friends are off to the cinema (the place we go to watch films movies this side of the pond!) But this is a cinema with a difference—quite a lot of differences. It’s a modern, sleek affair, with automated turnstiles and serverless snack concessions. It’s as hi-tech as they come.
This theater doesn’t carry all the latest movies but often lists lovingly curated movie marathons, as well as mystery screenings where the movie shown is a complete surprise. Today is one such screening.
Apart from Lucas, his friends, and a couple of other girls from his school, there is nobody in the cinema. The lights go down, the credits roll, and darkness descends. A wave of energy bursts from the screen, sweeping Lucas and everybody else away with it.
Lucas immediately finds himself immersed in a film. Not just the most realistic 4D experience of his life, but deep in the film, he’s actually being shot at, actually needing to defuse the bomb; it’s Lucas who needs to save the world.
Why Read The Black Hole Cinema Club?
The great thing about Christopher Edge books is that they appear to be about one thing, before morphing into something unexpected; something more complex than the novel’s original premise. So it was with Escape Room and so it is once again in Black Hole Cinema Club. Structurally the two novels are very similar.
In this case, the reader is treated to several vignettes of classic movie tropes (evil lairs, menacing leviathans and countdown clocks, that sort of thing), before Lucas and his friends realize the reality of what is happening and the Black Hole Cinema becomes something else entirely. Something deeper with considerably more gravity…
The novel is 100% a rollercoaster ride. The characters aren’t that deep, having a blockbuster movie veneer that means we care more about their actions than their inner psyches. Yet, as for many children’s books, the importance of friendship and teamwork bubbles to the surface.
Christopher Edge books always deliver a hefty punch despite their brevity. His books are slim, but he packs so much plot and fascinating STEM concepts into them. They’re a marvel of TARDIS proportions. If you have a child, who loves science and is fascinated by how the universe works, they will love Christopher Edge’s books. I’ve shoved Black Hole Cinema Club under the nose of my reluctant-reader 15-year-old too, because he’ll love both the physics and adventure side of the story, but won’t be put off by a large number of pages.
There are few voices in children’s fiction like Christopher Edge, and once again he’s delivered the perfect blockbuster! (Note: This book would make an amazing film!)
If you would like to pick up a copy of The Black Hole Cinema Club you can do so here, in the US, and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
