The Doomsday Vault (Everwhen School of Time Travel #1) by Thomas Wheeler

Young Bertie Wells has always had the imagination of an inventor. But when he accidentally creates a black hole in his bedroom, he’s not prepared for either that or for the sudden appearance of a strange woman bearing an invitation for him to attend the Everwhen School of Time Travel and Other Odd Sciences. Not only is this a school set outside of the time-space continuum for bright students such as himself, it’s also offering him a highly coveted Time Scholarship, by way of the kind, if eccentric, Professor Darla Marconi.

Bertie doesn’t want to tell Professor Marconi that the black hole was created less on purpose than by accident. The last thing he needs is further ammunition for his disapproving father’s continuing belief that Bertie is never going to amount to anything. This, perhaps, might be his best chance of escaping the drudgery of finding a trade to apprentice in, so off he goes to Everwhen, little realizing that he’s embarking on the adventure of several lifetimes.

Everwhen is weird and wonderful, filled with fantastic scientific marvels from all eras of time. Bertie quickly makes friends with Millie da Vinci, the much put-upon younger sister of the celebrated Leonardo, and Zoe Fuentes, a brainiac recruit from 2025 who’s accompanied everywhere by her trio of colorful slimes. The three new friends are assigned, as all first-year Time Scholars are, to Haz-Labs, the clean-up crew of the entire school. Haz-Labs is not only considered their extracurricular for the whole of first year but also makes up their team for the Ever-Ring Competition, a school-wide contest that rewards the best half-year student invention. This is a big deal because the winning student’s lab gets the best school perks, including choice of classes, housing and extra free periods.

Hyper-competitive Zoe wants to make her mark on the school by being the very best, while Millie’s insatiable curiosity and poor impulse control have her bouncing from one madcap project to the next. Bertie, on the other hand, couldn’t feel like more of a fraud. While he certainly has the ideas of an inventor, he doesn’t have anywhere near the scientific chops that the others do, and soon finds himself bottom of the class.

That soon becomes the least of his worries tho, when an invention that he and Millie dreamt up is found at the last-known whereabouts of a disappearing dean. With Zoe withdrawing further into herself and time emergencies on the rise, will Bertie be able to get to the bottom of the mysteries plaguing Everwhen? The fate of all existence could very well hang in the balance!

Time-travel is a great twist on the ever-popular boarding school subgenre, and The Doomsday Vault is a great start to this series. The tale itself is bouncy and fun — but leave any expectations of rigorous adherence to historical accuracy at the door. Older speculative fiction aficionados will, ofc, immediately recognize Bertie for the historical figure he’s based on. Almost everything about Bertie’s life in this book is only loosely based on his real biography, but the emotions are detailed both believably and movingly. I especially loved the rapprochement between Bertie and his dad. I also genuinely appreciated the heart-to-heart talk he had with Dean Chen near the end about his own enrollment in the school, even as I kept wanting to reassure him that someone is always at the bottom of every class: that’s just how rankings work! As long as he’s done his best, that’s something to take pride in.

The Doomsday Vault (Everwhen School of Time Travel #1) by Thomas Wheeler was published January 28 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers and is available from all good booksellers, including