Costumes for Time Travellers – A. R. Capetta

Published By: Walker
Pages: 224
Released On: 09/10/2025

Anyone who has hiked through time knows the town of Pocket. It’s the place time travellers first reach after they stumble away from their hometime, passing through on their way to any other when.

To Calisto, Pocket is home. They love their grandmother’s shop, which is filled with clothes from every era that are used to make costumes for time travellers. Calisto has no intention of travelling – it’s too dangerous.

For Fawkes, travelling is life. He put on time boots when he was young and has been stumbling through eras ever since.

When he floats into Pocket, Calisto meets him for the first time, though Fawkes has seen Calisto before – in glimpses of what hasn’t happened yet. He’s also seen the villains chasing them both. Now Calisto and Fawkes must rush – from Shakespeare’s London to ancient Crete to California on the eve of a millennium – to save Pocket, and all those who travel, from being erased.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Walker for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

The cover of this was fabulous and the premise sounded great. I love a YA book and I love magical fantasy stories so this should have been absolute first rate but it ended up being a bit…middling.

I did enjoy it, it had some fun and exciting parts. It gave me what I wanted from the genre, it was magical, but it felt a bit flat. I wish Capetta had dialled up the magic and the whimsical, it all felt a bit tame, like Capetta was holding back slightly and I just wanted them to go for it.

It is very character heavy, and that is what I usually prefer, character creation over plot, but with this, I’d have liked a bit more time spent on the setting, the descriptions of the location, the land, the history, to add to the magical feeling. Perhaps if it was longer then they might have been able to build upon it. But I am also aware I’m older than the intended target and younger readers have a shorter attention span so things need to be fast paced, so I appreciate that.

I loved the diversity of the characters; they’re not just to tick a box, they all have a real part to play in the story, and hopefully all readers will be able to identify with at least one of them. I felt Calisto was an interesting protagonist, they were different, but passionate and I did want to follow them on their journey. The other characters were fine but they felt a bit 2D and I didn’t feel much for them.

I feel in a way that Capetta hadn’t settled on a key plot or message, as it often felt like it was flitting around.

I think overall it was an enjoyable book, with a few interesting characters, but it didn’t quite deliver on what was an exciting premise. Not enough description, too discombobulated, not a whole lot of empathy with what was going on. I think this may be a book that is best appreciated by the audience age it’s aimed at, rather than one that transcends generations, and there’s nothing wrong with it. I just review it as I see it as a 32 year old.