The Photo Travelers: My review

The Photo Traveler: Arthur J. Gonzalez

Take your camera and look through the lens. What do you see? Look carefully and before clicking on the shutter and taking that snapshot. Photography requires skill. Preparing for the shot, having the correct lighting, making sure you have it properly sized and the color your want takes time and work. But, what would you do if a single photo could transform your whole life and take you back in time to relive a moment in history; a moment lost in your life and finds your way to being reunited with someone you thought you lost? Gavin is 17-year old teen whose life became a living nightmare at the age of four. Finding himself orphaned and then placed in a foster home he winds up dealing with not only the loss of his parents but with an abusive step father who not only beat him but adopted him using him as a punching bag. What made it worse are secrets and lies that were kept hidden from him until one night this man goes too far and everything would change. Gavin finds the a document which sends him on an internet search to find his grandparents and learn why they gave him up and why for 13 years he never even knew they exists. Connected to photography the hurt, the pain and the misery that he endured when this cruel man destroys the one thing that he loves the most, his camera lens. Finding his biological grandparents his goal and how he manages to escape quite ingenious.

The information he finds leads him to his grandparents but not before we take a bus ride along with Gavin that will enlighten readers into the dangers he will encounter. While the bus driver stops for those who need to get some snacks or use the restrooms, Gavin encounters two strange people that pose more than just a teenage threat. Warding them off and finally getting away they threaten him if he does not give them the crystal vials, which they claim rightly, belong to them. Gavin is clueless at this time and what he learns about these vials and who these two strange kids might be will shake the cores of his being and change the course of his life forever. Would you want to be able to travel to anywhere in the world past or present based on the images of a photo? Would you want to meet Abraham Lincoln or even attend a Salem Witch trial? The events in the picture have to be something that happened in real time. The words that you speak have to be just right in order to get you back and forth. Gavin enters his grandparent’s home and is definitely apprehensive at first questioning both Bud and Estelle, his grandparents about why they gave him and what really happened to his parents. Gavin learns the truth about why they gave him up and his parent’s death angers him but coming face to face with other harsh realities changes things for Gavin. As his grandparents tell him the history of his past, show him photos that will link him with his parents some of the pictures some into focus while others are unclear. Finding out about his grandparents and the fact that they are photo travelers and that is one too endears him to both of them, draws them closer and creates a family for this lonely young man. In order to protect him they gave him up they is what photo travelers and have to protect the crystal vials of which they have three and two are still missing. Gavin learns about the history of this craft and then decides to learn more about his parents as he goes back in time and meets them for the first time in 13 years. Not really knowing him and hoping to bond with their son the encounter is heartwarming, enlightening and sad. History is created and no one can change the past, which is one rule his grandfather tells him he has to adhere to and respect. His parents died in a fire and he cannot change the outcome but his grandparents present him with photos in a sequential order making it possible for him to revisit his parents and for them to remember him each time.

The world changes for him as he goes to school, meets Mr. Perry his photography teacher and makes friends with a young teen named Mario. This transplant from Nevada now lives in Washington D.C. and what happened in this past will come front and center in the present. Nightmares about his adoptive father and sister haunt him. The death of his adoptive mother blamed on him. Take a picture of an event and imagine being about to travel there. The butterfly effect is what they are talking about.  chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane’s formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks before.he butterfly effect is a common trope in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with hypotheses where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes. Wikipedia.

There is much more as Gavin takes a trip back in time to the Salem Witch Trials thinking that he might find his parents but instead he experiences the cruelty of the times, the prejudice and the unrelenting public who demand that a certain young girl be hanged stating that she is a witch even though she is not. But, what about Dina and Melissa his adoptive family will they resurface again and why does Dina keep calling him to come home when she knows what Jet, his stepfather did to him? Is there some underlying reason?

Then Gavin sees a photo when visiting his friend Mario’s home and becomes fixated with his deceased cousin, Alanna. Meeting her and going back he time he does not realize that by giving her one simple thing time would change, events would spiral out of control and the past would come full circle into the present changing events for Mario, his family and himself. But, few people if any can be trusted and trying to confide in a friend proves almost fatal. One bus driver who befriended him on his trip to Washington, D.C. working along with him at the Museum he ‘s been working in, finds his behavior odd at times, realizes that there is more to him than meets the eye and what happens to bring them together will surprise the reader.

As one friendship proves deadly, someone in his life pays with his as one family will person will go to any lengths to get the missing vials, have all the power in the world to travel anywhere without a photo and create a world supposedly that is filled with Peace. But, who is really behind the Peace Hunters? Who is the Norrek what was his role in assassinating the President and what was his goal for the world? What secrets are revealed about his father from an unknown source and what is the final betrayal? When the truth about changing the past comes out Gavin learns about his link to Alanna.

A trip to the Great Depression allows him to find his parents and learn more hidden secrets? Those after him want the vials of purple liquid and one will stop at nothing to get them and at any cost? Five families only one can win the coveted liquid? Imagine what will happen when all of the vials are in one place will the person use it for good or for evil? Keeping his family, grandparents safe was Gavin’s goal but a birthday dinner would change it all and one family member is sacrificed by a killer proving they are still in danger and at war. An ending that will surprise the reader and characters that will keep you guessing every step of the way. Will Gavin find his way back to his parents and bring them back? Can he change the course of events and bring back the one person that understood him the most? What about Jet and Dina? What about Melissa? Lies, betrayals, hate, greed, power, deceit, love, friendship and trust are all issues that come to light within this novel. The ending will leave you wanting more as the author leaves it wide open and open ended allowing readers to know part 2: Peace Hunters is the only way you will learn the fate of everyone.

Take a picture: develop it: What do you see? Would you revisit this time if you could ten years in the future? Take another picture: Make sure it is of a real event: Would you want to revisit this ? Photo Traveler: What would you do if you had this power? Where would you want to go? Check your photo albums and decide. This is one thought provoking book that leaves the reader wondering : Just how powerful are the images in a simple photo?

Fran Lewis: reviewer

Let’s give this FIVE PURPLE EYES