Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Quirk Books (June 7, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 1594744769 ISBN-13: 978-1594744761	Order book here:
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Characters
Jacob Portman – 15 year old coming to terms with his grandfather’s tales.
Emily Bloom – One of the peculiar children, a friend of Jacob’s grandfather.

Review

One of the main questions as a reviewer is how do I categorize this book: Is it a fantasy? Children’s book? Science-Fiction? I think it’s probably a mixture of many different types. The characters are strongly developed. Jacob is a young boy trying to come to terms with his grandfather’s death, and his questions surrounding it. He’s also on a quest of discovery. A quest that would seem to match Joseph Campbell’s outline of the mythic journey.

In trying to find out about the stories his grandfather told, Jacob is pulled into something much bigger. A battle between good and evil. A battle beyond time, yet stuck in time. Part fantasy, part mystery, but in the end, just a good story.

I think I’d stick to older teens for this, but adults such as myself I think would also enjoy the story. I think there’s most likely a series of books yet to come, and I look forward to the next installment.

About the Author

Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida but now makes his home in the land of peculiar children—Los Angeles. Along the way he earned degrees from Kenyon College and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, got married, and made some award-winning short films. He moonlights as a blogger and travel writer, and his series of travel essays, Strange Geographies, can be found at mentalfloss.com or via ransomriggs.com. This is his first novel.

You can discuss it here or join my facebook page and discuss it there.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 13th, 2011 at 1:00 am and is filed under Books, Informational, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.