It's a really brilliantly thought-out story, and something I can honestly say feels both familiar and fantastically original. Ransom Riggs tells a story using and inspired by old photographs. The familiar is that I can say that I've tried to come up with stories behind photos before, but never something like this. Usually it's me pouring over old family photographs trying to figure out what Uncle Mike was saying to Aunt Michelle at just the wrong (or right, depending on what the outcome was) moment to have the image come out that way. Because pictures do tell stories, even if the words are lost.
But Riggs' story goes far further than any typical family photo montage would.
The main character Jacob has grown up seeing a series of photos shown to him by his grandfather, photos he refuses to believe are real as he gets older and stories about a children's home and the boys and girls he met there: a girl too light for gravity to keep her down, a boy who lives with bees inside him, another girl who could hold fire in her hands and many others, all watched over by a "wise old bird." But reality turns out to be far stranger than any picture could capture. One with secrets kept in an abandoned building on an island off the coast of Wales.
I've been wanting to read this book for a while, now. I'm a long-time reader of MentalFloss.com, where the author is (was?) a contributor. I bought it for myself as an early Christmas present (and to get the free shipping through Amazon), but was in the middle of another book when it got here. And I've kept shuffling books around hoping to get to it. Well, I brought it with me on my trip last week, thinking that since I forgot the currently open book somewhere (oops) and between that at Game of Thrones, I was most likely to make it through Miss Peregrine before I found myself with three (or more!) open and unfinshed books.
See, Mrs. B.? I'm trying to learn from my past mistakes.
I absolutely loved this book, Mrs. B.
There's just one thing I don't get: why do I keep hitting the "respect your elders" books this year? Is there a message my subconscious is trying to tell me through my book choices?
Much love,
-OA-
No comments:
Post a Comment