The Accelerati Trilogy, Book Two Edison’s Alley

Nick moves to Colorado Springs after the death of his mom. Unknown to him, his new home once belonged to Nikola Tesla, and Tesla’s stuff is still in Nick’s attic. Or was, until Nick sold it at a garage sale. Now, he and his friends are trying to get it back, piece by piece, because the evil Accelerati want to use it for their own nefarious plans. Unfortunately, one of Nick’s friends is a traitor, another is a zombie, and the last is mad at him for asking her out on a date. Not only that, but the asteroid from the previous book is causing major static build-up. Nick must repair the machine and his friendships before everyone is fried.

Nick is an angsty, unpleasant teen with angsty, unpleasant friends. Luckily, he comes with an automatic heartstrings-plucker: his mom died! That’s a guaranteed angst-fest! In case you can’t tell, I didn’t like this book. There are too many cliches, such as Nikola Tesla is perfect, Edison is evil, teens have to save the world while worrying who to take on a date, etc. There is not enough character depth. Characters were given sob-back-stories instead of actually having dimensions.