The most striking aspect of this books is the pictures the author employs in his telling of the tale. Actually, he doesn't employ the pictures. Rather, the pictures employ the story. Clearly Ransom Riggs (the author--Can that be his real name or is it a pen name? Certainly it's a bizarre name) has a love of old, haunting, black and white photographs. He must have spent years collecting and deciding which pictures would contribute to the story line. Because clearly the pictures came first--not the story, and I think that may be the problem I have with this book.
The story is contrived. It's not contrived as in its cliched. It's contrived, or perhaps derived, from the pictures Riggs has selected. He picked the pictures and then attempted to weave a story around those pictures. But the story reads.... like he did exactly that! The story is peculiar, like the children who occupy the house in his story. It's not believable as a story. Fantasy, of course, requires a willingness to believe in the unbelievable, but Riggs doesn't make this believing easy. The world is not seamless. You can see the jagged, forced connections being stitched between the pictures.
The story, in short, doesn't live up to its pictures. The pictures are incredible--so eery, so creepy, so ominous. The story is meant to be these things, too. But it's not. It's just peculiar and lacking in seamless design.
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Another book I finished recently is Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. (Rainbow Rowell--another truly bizarre name. They must be pen names, right?) This book is a bit high-schooly. It is a romance--albeit not your everyday, boy-meets-girl and instantly they are a dream couple, romance.
I loved this book, and I think it's because the coupling of the two main characters was surprising, and as a consequence, really sweet. The "getting together" is painfully awkward and slow--and hence believable. These are not two kids who expect to find "love." They are loners, neither of whom are looking for and thinking about finding a significant other.
There is also a mystery aspect to the book. Eleanor's family situation is sketchy at best--downright scary at worst. I read on simply to find out if Eleanor would make it out of that house alive.
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This book was a page turner. The main characters are rich and entitled, but you soon grow to like them, despite this. It's a lifestyles of the privileged story--only all goes awry.
What I enjoyed was trying to figure out what was truth and what was lie--right from page one. I didn't think it was predictable until about half way through the book. The first half of the book definitely had me turning those pages as I tried to puzzle out what had really taken place on the island. The story is sad -- but it's a satisfying sad, I think.
I recommend this one.
