Alisha is shocked when she learns her seizures can send her back through time. With the meddling of Selene, Goddess of the Moon, and Iris, Messenger Goddess, she finds herself transported to ancient Sparta, where Helen is desperately trying to escape her marriage to Menelaus
Alisha Dainton has severe epilepsy, so she's used to having seizures. Sometimes she even has weird visions and hears strange noises. After a particularly bad episode on holiday in Cyprus, what she sees and hears makes her think she s going mad: who is the beautiful girl with the see-through eyes, multi-coloured hair and rainbow and the half-woman, half-bird creature singing by the hotel pool, and just why has she been chosen to go back in time to ancient Sparta to help save a princess called Helen? Either Ali is having some sort of bizarre dream, or she's about to have an amazing adventure that might change the entire story of the Trojan War.
Professional Reviews Lovereading Review on Episode
Episode by Tracey Morait is a fanciful re-imagining of the story of Helen of Troy. It is also an attempt to show just what it's like to experience an 'episode', that is an epileptic seizure. The story brings together some well-known characters from the world of Ancient Greece - Helen, Menelaus, Paris, Hector and, of course, the 'meddlesome' gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus - with Alisha, a 13-year-old from the present day and Travis from a terrifying England at the end of the 21st century. The action switches between these three time zones, which Ali and Travis are able to access by time travel through portals, which come into being at the time of their seizures, as both are epileptic. The author paints a very realistic picture of life in Ancient Greece, a life Alisha finds very distasteful when catapulted there from a family summer holiday in Cyprus, as she is dressed, smells and is expected to behave as a slave girl. Her outrage and contempt for the system, especially the treatment of women, rubs off on Helen and the story then takes on a very different twist. The terror from Travis' time also comes into play when destructive entities access the portals and rewrite the events of the Trojan War, until the combined ingenuity of Travis and the gods (particularly Chronos, god of Time) finally set the records straight. I really enjoyed this book, it rekindled my interest in Greek mythology. It's an exciting fusion of legend and science fiction, with the added medical theme, which, as my granddaughter is epilectic, I also found fascinating.
Readers Favorite
Thirteen-year-old Alisha Dainton is having a sunny holiday in Cyprus with her family. Unfortunately, her epilepsy and her obnoxious 16-year-old sister Sal manage to ruin the fun. While resting in their family hotel room, Alisha encounters a strange half-woman, half-bird with see-through eyes and multi-colored hair. She claims to be Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, the Sea and the Sky－a Messenger to the Gods. She has been chosen to help save Princess Helen. Despite her disbelief and unwillingness, Alisha finds herself traveling back in time to the ancient city of Sparta. There she meets another time traveler, a teen named Travis, whose purpose is also to aid Helen. Episode by Tracey Morait is a fantastical adventure tale of two teens fated to change history and influence the future.
Episode is a contemporary story combined with Greek as well as Norse mythology and literature. It's a slightly odd but fascinating mixture of drama and fantasy intertwining the past, present, and future through time travel. Alisha is a teenager who has enough problems with her epilepsy and her annoying sister, so why bother going back to the ancient past to solve another person's problem? Despite their status as divine beings, I perceived the Greek gods and goddesses in this story as undesirable forces that meddle in a young mortal's life. That said, Alisha's fellow time traveler Travis indirectly benefits from the task that's forced upon him. It's fascinating that a disorder in brain activity becomes an important catalyst for the young protagonists to take control of their fates in their dangerous mission. There are unpredictable plot twists that readers will appreciate as Tracey Morait gives a fresh perspective on the Trojan War. Overall, Morait's Episode is a story that uses its different time settings to its advantage.
Reader Views Kids
I was pleasantly surprised how the author turned an affliction into a super hero power. “Episode,” by Tracey Morait gives the reader a glimpse at what it means to have epilepsy, but instead of writing the story about how hard this can be for someone’s day-to-day life, the author creates this world where it is a gift and not a curse.
Alisha has epilepsy, but she doesn’t let that hold her back. She is outgoing, sassy and my favorite character in the story. While on vacation with her family, because of the heat, her seizures start to come more frequently. She can’t help but feel that her vacation is going to be horrible. Until one night she notices a strange noise coming from the hotel pool. An unusual woman half bird, half human is calling her name. Alisha’s vacation is about to turn into an epic adventure, where the thing that has been holding her back all her life, gives her powers that she could never have dreamed of.
“Episode” is a fast-paced story taking the reader back to the Olympian era, where a conflict that brings about the Trojan War is beginning. When Alisha meets Travis she finds out that her seizures will open time travel portals and that she has been brought here just like him to confront Gods, Goddesses, and mythical creatures.
I think one of my favorite parts in the book was when they found a cave to escape the robots that were trying to kill them, and they noticed an enormous eye that ended up being a dragon. The story line was one turn after the other, all to save Helen from her terrible fate of marrying Menelaus, King of Sparta.
I think the author did a great job of making history a fast-paced adventure. “Episode” by Tracey Morait will surprise you from the very beginning to the ending and keep you on the edge of your seat in between. This a great story for kids in middle school and up.
I like historical and science fiction. Like most time travel stories, you have combined the two. While I find time travel to be scientifically impossible, the device is useful for us to go back and reimagine what might've happened during the Trojan War to individuals of importance or those not heard from before.
Ron