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Flume: A thirty-three minute aquatic mystery
FINALIST IN THE WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS!
Imagine the tallest and most dangerous water slide in the world, towering above the skyline of London, England.
Imagine this structure was built by a famous explorer who died on his first slide down it.
Imagine you are at the top of this slide now, up in the clouds, hanging on for dear life, only twelve years old, and fearful of heights and water.
WELCOME TO THE FLUME!
It contains many secrets and myths and puzzling things.
But rest assured, all will be revealed in your thirty-three minute terrifying descent.
Probably :)
Best wishes,
Bigfoot
(PS —neither confirming nor denying the rumours of an octopus).
** darker stuff, coming fast.
Imagine the tallest and most dangerous water slide in the world, towering above the skyline of London, England.
Imagine this structure was built by a famous explorer who died on his first slide down it.
Imagine you are at the top of this slide now, up in the clouds, hanging on for dear life, only twelve years old, and fearful of heights and water.
WELCOME TO THE FLUME!
It contains many secrets and myths and puzzling things.
But rest assured, all will be revealed in your thirty-three minute terrifying descent.
Probably :)
Best wishes,
Bigfoot
(PS —neither confirming nor denying the rumours of an octopus).
** darker stuff, coming fast.
168 pages, Paperback
Published February 23, 2025
3 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Bigfoot
10 books15 followersBeyond the city, beyond the chirp of the nonsense device, Bigfoot roams The Wilds.
And as he roams, words and images and rivers of nonsense
gush through his mind
until he begins to write
his peculiar
most peculiar tales…
Nuff said. :)
For RUMOURS and a free secret ebook go to www.bigfoot-books.com
And as he roams, words and images and rivers of nonsense
gush through his mind
until he begins to write
his peculiar
most peculiar tales…
Nuff said. :)
For RUMOURS and a free secret ebook go to www.bigfoot-books.com
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 7, 2025
*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'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.
January 9, 2025
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.
July 16, 2025
This is a book with a very interesting premise. We meet Shanks a young boy who lives with "the Captain". It is his birthday and Captain has purchased him a ticket for the worlds tallest Flume. There is one problem. Shanks hates water and can't swim. When he reaches the top and starts his trip down he reaches his two friends Flo and Yam. Each of these characters is very unique. Flo is the tech guru. Yam keeps going into trances and proclaims someone will die. The flume was designed and built by a former explorer who just happened to die when he took the first trip down. His body was never found. For Shank, not only is he terrified of water, he's terrified of heights. Now that the fear level is at its highest, let's throw in a sudden thunderstorm that is the worst in a long time. As Shank zooms down the thirty-three minute ride he has hallucinations. The visions involve his parents who are long dead. As we take this ride we find Yam telling the story of the explorer and the different places he travelled and the worlds he wrote about. What is the connection between his vision, the explorer and this flume? I definitely need to check out this author's other books. I enjoyed this even with the twist at the end. It is the only thing I didn't find satisfying.
January 27, 2025
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Flume: a thirty-three minute aquatic mystery looked so cool and exciting when I requested it. It’s about a group of kids who ride this super-high, super-long waterslide in a futuristic, sort of dystopian London. The slide takes 33 minutes to get from top to bottom. The book takes longer than 33 minutes to read. (This confused me for a bit, but I figured it out. The book is 170 pages long.)
The book obviously has a strong concept, but I felt like we definitely got a proper story and it didn’t just rely on its concept to be entertaining.
The characters were fleshed out and I really cared about them. The dynamics between them were really well done too.
Where I had issues with Flume: a thirty-three minute aquatic mystery was the plot. It’s a mystery story, as well as being about the ride down the slide, but I felt like the plot was too easy and sometimes too much of a stretch. I also felt like I was missing some backstory about the characters, and maybe the world, to make the mystery make sense, or to make me care about it more.
The main problem I had with this book is hard to explain without spoilers. SPOILER< I wanted to read about the slide and I didn’t get to see that. The book took me in a completely different direction and cut out the best bit that the book had sold me. > SPOILER This made the book really disappointing.
However, I did enjoy it and it is such a cool idea. It was a fun way to pass an hour or two and I did enjoy Flume: a thirty-three minute aquatic mystery. I rated it 4.25 stars because it was really fun. I maybe wouldn’t spend your money on this one though, if you want to read about the actual slide.
4.25 stars
Flume: a thirty-three minute aquatic mystery looked so cool and exciting when I requested it. It’s about a group of kids who ride this super-high, super-long waterslide in a futuristic, sort of dystopian London. The slide takes 33 minutes to get from top to bottom. The book takes longer than 33 minutes to read. (This confused me for a bit, but I figured it out. The book is 170 pages long.)
The book obviously has a strong concept, but I felt like we definitely got a proper story and it didn’t just rely on its concept to be entertaining.
The characters were fleshed out and I really cared about them. The dynamics between them were really well done too.
Where I had issues with Flume: a thirty-three minute aquatic mystery was the plot. It’s a mystery story, as well as being about the ride down the slide, but I felt like the plot was too easy and sometimes too much of a stretch. I also felt like I was missing some backstory about the characters, and maybe the world, to make the mystery make sense, or to make me care about it more.
The main problem I had with this book is hard to explain without spoilers. SPOILER< I wanted to read about the slide and I didn’t get to see that. The book took me in a completely different direction and cut out the best bit that the book had sold me. > SPOILER This made the book really disappointing.
However, I did enjoy it and it is such a cool idea. It was a fun way to pass an hour or two and I did enjoy Flume: a thirty-three minute aquatic mystery. I rated it 4.25 stars because it was really fun. I maybe wouldn’t spend your money on this one though, if you want to read about the actual slide.
4.25 stars
March 10, 2025
This story has as many twists and turns as the Flume itself! As the journey gets more challenging and mysterious, so do Shanks' flashbacks. As he works through the truth of his past, he begins to understand the Flume and its Core with more clarity than you'd expect.
March 16, 2025
London has a new tourist attraction – a mahoosive water slide, that starts way, way above The Shard and takes a full 33 minutes from beginning to end. It covers the Thames-side area for miles, and is all the creation of one maverick explorer, who potentially went mad and then designed this. Rumours abound of a secret zone inside the heart of it all – and when the old geezer launched the whole affair, he went in and never came out. But Shanks and two friends are going down it for his birthday, even if the lad is afraid of water and says he can't swim. What chance do you think the three have of accessing the secrets, exploring more of the wacky inventor's legacy than anyone else, and perhaps piecing together Shanks' own past at the same time?
For that is what this is about, and not the slide. Let's face it, the thing is complete cockamamie – three lifts to get to the top, where one bloke gives you the green light, but a canteen a portion of the way down, detours, chutes to refuges like brakeless lorries have on steep hills? The three kids start off at separate times but convene to go down it together, against any health and safety, quietly talking over the rush of the water, and even – at one point – managing to go down it while, er, kneeling.
The rest of the piece is a mishmash of oddities, too. The explorer was so desperate on an ARCTIC trip he was forced to eat penguin – that's desperate for you, being in the wrong hemisphere. The whole secret world affair of the ride is completely implausible, and the way the shebang is forced to be at peril to get the memories of our hydrophobic Shanks back out is contrived. The slide's momentum takes so much of the agency from the kid, and his friends really aren't great company for the reader at all, either.
This starts with the right, glossy feel of this bonkers slide – the sheen of one of those unearthly floating mega-hyper-super-whoopy-do car ramp things on absurd driving sims. But to repeat, it's trying to do so much more, offering a kind of teen-friendly metaphysical journey. Which is almost as brave as going on the ride, all told – and not particularly successful or enjoyable here. I have to say the positive reviews surprise me.
For that is what this is about, and not the slide. Let's face it, the thing is complete cockamamie – three lifts to get to the top, where one bloke gives you the green light, but a canteen a portion of the way down, detours, chutes to refuges like brakeless lorries have on steep hills? The three kids start off at separate times but convene to go down it together, against any health and safety, quietly talking over the rush of the water, and even – at one point – managing to go down it while, er, kneeling.
The rest of the piece is a mishmash of oddities, too. The explorer was so desperate on an ARCTIC trip he was forced to eat penguin – that's desperate for you, being in the wrong hemisphere. The whole secret world affair of the ride is completely implausible, and the way the shebang is forced to be at peril to get the memories of our hydrophobic Shanks back out is contrived. The slide's momentum takes so much of the agency from the kid, and his friends really aren't great company for the reader at all, either.
This starts with the right, glossy feel of this bonkers slide – the sheen of one of those unearthly floating mega-hyper-super-whoopy-do car ramp things on absurd driving sims. But to repeat, it's trying to do so much more, offering a kind of teen-friendly metaphysical journey. Which is almost as brave as going on the ride, all told – and not particularly successful or enjoyable here. I have to say the positive reviews surprise me.
April 11, 2025
I received an advance reader copy of this book.
This was an unusaul and imaginative tale in that the entire book takes place during the 33 minutes it takes three teens are in the world's largest water flume in London. The flume is over a mile long from London Bridge to Waterloo Station. We learn through a toy model in one of the many flashbacks that there's a secret Core in the flume that sliders can take and arrive at the bottom at the same time.
It's at this point where the book becomes fantasy, and it was difficult to suspend disbelief. Shanks, who's been afraid of the water since he was a child and who can't swim, is in the flume with two friends, Yam and Flo. Yam wants to search the secret of the Core when the builder of the flume, Poppity, disappeared in and was never found. Oddly, it's not sealed off and easy to get into. Once inside, they are in a world that could not exist in the structure of the flume, not without taking up a sizable amount of real estate in London, at which point, it would hardly be secret.
There's not much action but a lot of introspection by Shanks about his past. He also seems to do quite a bit of floating and swimming for someone who can't swim. I was ready to give this four stars just for being something different. However, the ending was out of left field and left all the questions that Flo and Shanks had been asking unanswered, or at least unproven as they were never challenged.
This was an unusaul and imaginative tale in that the entire book takes place during the 33 minutes it takes three teens are in the world's largest water flume in London. The flume is over a mile long from London Bridge to Waterloo Station. We learn through a toy model in one of the many flashbacks that there's a secret Core in the flume that sliders can take and arrive at the bottom at the same time.
It's at this point where the book becomes fantasy, and it was difficult to suspend disbelief. Shanks, who's been afraid of the water since he was a child and who can't swim, is in the flume with two friends, Yam and Flo. Yam wants to search the secret of the Core when the builder of the flume, Poppity, disappeared in and was never found. Oddly, it's not sealed off and easy to get into. Once inside, they are in a world that could not exist in the structure of the flume, not without taking up a sizable amount of real estate in London, at which point, it would hardly be secret.
There's not much action but a lot of introspection by Shanks about his past. He also seems to do quite a bit of floating and swimming for someone who can't swim. I was ready to give this four stars just for being something different. However, the ending was out of left field and left all the questions that Flo and Shanks had been asking unanswered, or at least unproven as they were never challenged.
January 6, 2025
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.
Thank you Net Galley, Bigfoot, and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to preview this title. The opinions shared are my own.
February 13, 2025
Flume made for a thrilling read, full of quirky character and creatures, and with dark secrets that the main character, Shanks, gradually uncovers as he descends the terrifying flume.
I love the idea of a gargantuan flume in the middle of London – I would ride it every day! For Shanks, however, the flume represents his fear of water, and his out-of-control descent on the flume correlates with the gradual unfolding of his long suppressed memories about what happened, exactly, to make him fear water in the first place.
There’s plenty of mayhem and adventure as Shanks and his friends go off course, and delve into the ‘core’ of the flume, where the weird imaginings and inventions of Poppity – the inventor of the flume – run amok.
I’d recommend this to anyone who likes fast-paced, zany adventure stories that aren’t afraid to delve into darker themes. This is a truly original story and well worth your time.
I love the idea of a gargantuan flume in the middle of London – I would ride it every day! For Shanks, however, the flume represents his fear of water, and his out-of-control descent on the flume correlates with the gradual unfolding of his long suppressed memories about what happened, exactly, to make him fear water in the first place.
There’s plenty of mayhem and adventure as Shanks and his friends go off course, and delve into the ‘core’ of the flume, where the weird imaginings and inventions of Poppity – the inventor of the flume – run amok.
I’d recommend this to anyone who likes fast-paced, zany adventure stories that aren’t afraid to delve into darker themes. This is a truly original story and well worth your time.
March 11, 2025
I thought a book about a giant waterslide, travelling all the way along the Thames, was an intriguing. I assumed there would be a bit of a build up and some resolutions at the end, but this book really is the journey of a boy on this slide.
There was some interesting descriptions and tension built by Poppity, the missing, eccentric inventor, the bad weather and the flash backs of the narrator, but I just couldn’t get behind this book. For me, it would have been a perfect quirky short story but just doesn’t hold up to anything longer.
I am sure the concept of a giant waterslide will be appealing to many children, but it was just a bit too bizarre for me to recommend to my children.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my views.
There was some interesting descriptions and tension built by Poppity, the missing, eccentric inventor, the bad weather and the flash backs of the narrator, but I just couldn’t get behind this book. For me, it would have been a perfect quirky short story but just doesn’t hold up to anything longer.
I am sure the concept of a giant waterslide will be appealing to many children, but it was just a bit too bizarre for me to recommend to my children.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my views.
December 30, 2025
I thought this book had great potential. The concept was really great. It reminded me of a puzzle/adventure book. I kept thinking of the Mr. Lemoncello books as I was reading it. There was so much build up to finding out what happened to Shank's parents. And what happened to Mr. Poppity? As I was reading, I was imagining so many different outcomes to the story and couldn't wait to find out what they were. And then I got to the end and was so disappointed. Nothing was really explained. How did Shank end up with the Captain? Why did his parents die the way they did? What happened to Shank? The whole thing left me disappointed.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews