As someone that reads a lot of fiction aimed at younger audiences, I was excited by the prospect of a book for young readers tackling the lockdown, but I foud myself pretty thoroughly disappointed by this read.

Max’s daily routine in lockdown was undeniably pretty dull, and it felt like even the writer knew it– having one’s protagonist repeatedly break in to admit that a book about wizards would probably be way more interesting reeks so strongly of authorial insecurity, I’m sure that I’d have picked it up on it even if I was of-age with the target audience. A lot of the humour throughout this book is similarly flat, and Max’s voice doesn't feel authentically childlike.

The most pressing issue, undeniably, was Williams shying away from tackling the pandemic thoroughly, in a way that condescended to that target audience. I have a family member who was the same age as Max when the pandemic began, and couldn’t help but feel that this couldn’t be further from her experience: of news, truthful or otherwise, spreading like wildfire on the playground, of the paralyzing uncertainty, of the new sacredness of evenings spent gaming with friends. It’s more than three quarters through Max Counts To a Million before anyone even mentions that it’s possible to die of Covid, and the possibility is whisked away almost as quickly as it’s presented. This strikes me as babying an audience who knew very well the danger the pandemic could pose, many of whom were forced to confront that danger head-on when they, or someone they knew, lost a loved one. Max doesn’t seem to have any anxieties at all, but will occasionally declare that he is. I wasn't convinced that he ever worried that his Dad, a doctor called into hospital, would catch Covid. I had no idea what parts of school he missed most, or which people. For me, it just didn’t feel like a genuine, empathetic depiction of the experience as it was for children who went through it.

I can’t help but wonder what an author like Jacqueline Wilson might do with the pandemic as a backdrop. I find myself confident she’d be a lot more honest. I was hoping to recommend this book- I know how validating and cathartic it can be to come upon a lived experience, faithfully fictionalised. This is not that book.