Oh, my God, I cannot believe how much I loved this book! I don’t know how I haven’t read it earlier.
Okay, I do know. I was super scared to start it *hang my head in shame*. I’m just an easily scared person so predictably I didn’t want to read a scary book. It’s just that THE HYPE WAS TOO MUCH! Every review I saw was a positive one and then saying that the second one is better and aahhhhhghhh I caved! And it was
AWESOME!
I have to say that, out of context, the photographs are scary as hell! I went through them before reading, just trying to know what I’m getting myself into, and it made me put it off another month or two *blush*. However, as I was reading the book, I looked forward to them. They added so much to the story and made the novel just… more. It’s a whole new experience, it’s not like normal reading, it’s not like watching a movie, it’s almost magical. I can’t really describe what it was like to read about a character picking up a photograph to look at and then turn to page so I could look at it too. It’s just unreal. Not to mention it saves a lot of descriptions. Ransom Riggs figured it out: You could describe in long details how a person looks like, with wide eyes, tiny nose and whatever. Or you can just show the reader a picture. Like a boss.
The thing is not only the photos, the thing is that it goes perfectly with the story. It’s different from anything I’ve read before, there’re extraordinary things happening and a whole different world behind our normal one. It’s incredibly well thought, as if it’s actually there but I’m just one of the normal people of their world so I don’t know about it. The whole world is just SO INTERESTING AND CLEVER. We go back and forth between two different times and it’s amazing how I felt that, like each time had a different feel and pace of its own. There are so many technicalities and small details put in the story that makes it feel so real, like it’s possible.
The writing wasn’t the easy, normal one I began to get used to. Obviously, Riggs is doing everything his way. I had to google some of the words he used, or just guess its meaning from context, and it was weirdly a breath of fresh air. I love that he wasn’t afraid to use complicated words, it’s a peculiar book, it can do what it wants. He also wasn’t afraid to get gory, with a lot of cringe-worthy descriptions that was somehow more graphical than the photos accompanying it. It felt less like writing and more like art. Like, how can you add weird words, describe unfamiliar things and still make your writing flow? It’s art.
As you can tell, this book had everything! I’m not surprised now to know it’s so many people’s favourite book because it should be. I seriously recommend this book, and even though I got scared a couple of times (maybe more than that) but I’m definitely continuing on with this series.
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