“Ready for an adventure that’s out of this world?”
Part European interrail adventure, part first contact story, and part heist thriller, The Wrong Stop is a chaotic and hysterically funny sci-fi caper that is truly a disastrous trainwreck in the best way possible.
A slightly anxious control freak, a perpetually drunk party animal and an oddball conspiracy theorist are almost at the end of their hectic interrail trip through Europe when they see some strange flashing lights in the sky… or maybe they were just drunk. Soon after, they meet a very strange stranger on their train to Berlin who seems to have gotten off at the wrong stop, and of course these lovely British lads will play the hero and help this stranger out; none of them signed up for being chased across Europe by men in black and then getting roped into a dangerous museum heist to obtain an ancient alien artefact, but armed with their dry wit and wry humour, they will make the stars align for them.
So, did I devour this book or did it devour me? Right from the very first page, Burke’s sharp and witty prose just completely enchanted me, and I ended up blazing through this rollicking adventure in one day. While I was initially a bit nervous about the prospect of reading a story with three young (possibly hormonal) male British students as the protagonists, they all quickly captured my heart with their irresistible charm and tragically clashing personalities; how The Wrong Stop didn’t become one big frustrating testosterone bomb is truly beyond me, but hats off to Burke!
The authentic way that the chaos and stress of an interrail trip was captured and described honestly kept me in a chokehold, and then we are not even talking about the supernatural mayhem yet. There is no denying that some of the scenarios required some big suspension of disbelief, but the laid-back attitude of everyone (well, everyone except for our ‘anal spreadsheet monkey’ Hutch) in combination with the general irreverent tone of the story somehow just made it all work so well.
Honestly, The Wrong Stop is filled with some seriously good quintessentially British humour, and the effortlessly funny and quippy dialogue had me cackling more times than I’d like to admit. And as if the bizarre dynamic between Hutch, Sully and Jed wasn’t already entertaining enough as is, the addition of Vlak to their motley crew truly increased the tension and hilarity to unimaginable heights. The culture clashing and initial miscommunication resulted in so many tragically funny situations, and I just couldn’t stop turning the pages to discover how they were going to dig themselves out of the ever-deepening pit of chaos they have found themselves in.
Moreover, I really enjoyed the addition of some mixed media elements in the form of text messages and emails between people from the Bureau of External Visitor Incursions, or the ‘hunting party’, if you will. Amidst all the shits and giggles, Burke cleverly delivers some snarky social commentary and throws some amusing shade at the incompetency of government agencies, which added some surprising layers of depth to this delightful romp of a story.
Even though I usually prefer my stories to be a bit slower paced and to have a slightly more intimate style of narration, I fullly acknowledge that Burke nailed the execution of his vision for The Wrong Stop. Despite not being as deeply emotionally invested as I tend to prefer, I somehow couldn’t put the book down and every single shocking twist and turn still completely landed for me. Not to mention, the boldly unconventional and slightly bittersweet ending totally caught me off guard and left me with more questions than answers, but I think it was just the most perfectly imperfect way to wrap up this crazy adventure.
This was my first book by Burke, but I can safely say that it most definitely won’t be my last. The Wrong Stop is honestly the best type of summer popcorn read; it’s light-hearted and utterly bingeable, but it also packs a big punch and just has so much heart that you won’t soon forget it. Though, you better make sure that you have some free time when you start this book, because there are some conspiracies floating around that there’s alien magic in this book that makes it impossible to put it down… you have been warned!
Thank you to the author for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
