This book has one LONG title, doesn't it?
A friend of mine, Emily, and I have been chatting about this book on and off for the past few months and our excitement over the movie coming out next year (Tim Burton is directing it so it's going to be weird and slightly wonderful). So imagine my bookish pal's surprise when I admit that I have never read this.
It's one of those books that I know people love online, but there has always been something about this that has always made me be a little hesitant to pick it up. So when Emily asked if I wanted to borrow her copy, I went "Yes!". I mean, it's October - a time of year to read a creepy book and this fitted it perfectly. So, Emily, if you're reading this, thank you for letting me borrow your copy. I hope I took good care of it.
(EDIT: I moved dates for when this goes live on my blog. Reason? My reactions post to LIFE AND DEATH: TWILIGHT REIMAGINED by Stephenie Meyer.)
Jacob has always had a close relationship with his grandfather. His grandfather, who survived the Second World War and is proud of his Jewish roots, always tells Jacob stories. Stories of peculiar children in the photographs. Stories about the girl who has to wear leaden shoes otherwise she will fly away. The invisible boy who has to wear clothes. The boy who has a swarm of bees living inside of him. But they are stories.
And then Jacob's grandfather dies, believing the stories were real and that there were monsters after him. And the monsters weren't the Nazis. Jacob thinks he saw a monster standing close to where his grandfather died. But that was a trick of his mind, unable to cope with the horror of his grandfather's death... right?
Ok, I am going to be honest with you. I am not entirely certain how I feel about this book. I'm not certain on my feelings that I have been holding off over my thoughts and feelings on this for over a week, because I am just in the middle of it.
I see things that work wonderfully for the book - the creepy photographs and the ideas that Ransom Riggs put forward which lead the book forward and will lead the series forward.
But there are things that just didn't work for me. One of which was the writing style. I just couldn't get on board with it. A sixteen year old is meant to be telling the story, and yet... and yet, it didn't feel like a sixteen year old telling the story. It felt disjointed - the voice of the narrator and the age of the narrator.
Because I am so uncertain on my thoughts, I am going to leave this here. I just thought you ought to know that I have read it and I am... well...
