Now let the peculiarities begin! How about this photo from the book?! Yikes!
Synopsis:
As a teenage boy growing up in a well-to-do Florida family, Jacob Portman had come to accept that his life would be ordinary. However, extraordinary things began to happen following his grandfather's death. He journeys across the ocean to a tiny island off the coast of Wales where he learns more about his grandfather and more about himself. The more he learns, the more his life becomes peculiar.
Created from vintage photos found in attics, trunks, and yard sales, this story is imaginative, original, and fascinating. We agreed that the storyline grabbed our attention from the beginning. We definitely can see this book as a movie and we were pleased to read online that a movie is currently in the works, along with a sequel to this first book with new peculiar photos. Perhaps in the sequel Jacob will be able to meet back up with his grandfather in a time loop?
The time travel loops were an interesting concept. The whole idea of time travel makes one of our FAB girls giddy with excitement over the possibilities! On page 62 we found a new meter by which to measure visitors in our own homes: “Oggie sat facing us in a threadbare blazer and pajama bottoms, as if he’d been expecting company – just not pants-worthy company…” Thank goodness, we were all deemed ‘pants-worthy’ company at Michele’s home!
Once we had read the entire book, it was enlightening to return to the beginning of the story and see some foreshadowing and relevant information we had missed the first time around. On page 6 Jacob laments that, "I couldn't become an explorer because everything in the world had already been discovered. I'd been born in the wrong century, and I felt cheated." By the end of the story, we know that Jacob will explore beyond country and time boundaries. On page 14 Grandpa Portman in a full meltdown mode regarding monsters yells, "I'll be fine -- cut out their tongues and stab them in the eyes, that's all you gotta do!" Jacob will later use that method to defeat a monster. Grandpa Portman is considered gun crazy, according to his family, even shown in a photo sleeping with his pistol in his hand. Jacob remarks, "I guess that after everything my grandfather had been through, he never really felt safe anywhere, not even at home." As it turns out, Grandpa was not safe in his own home and that is where he was found and murdered by the monsters.
The characters were varied, quirky, and entertaining. The peculiar children each had their own distinct personality along with their unique talents. One of the story's main characters in particular, Jacob's father, touched us as he tried to connect with his son in a way he never felt connected to his own father. Franklin was a sad, unfulfilled character. His relationship with his own father had been strained and distant due to Abe's frequent absences and the alleged adulterous affair. Then Franklin married into a wealthy family and found himself unable to successfully complete any of his work projects so that he was always dependent upon his wife's wealth and felt that his wife would one day leave him. Those broken and hurt relationships in his life seemed to create an unconfident man and father who appeared to be floundering through life still trying to find his own success. Ironically, Jacob was forging on doing a better job than his own father of finding and fulfilling his purpose in life, which, unfortunately, required severing their father/son relationship for an unknown amount of time.
We did have one common complaint among us...the monsters! The monsters had an old-Hollywood feel about them: silly and disappointing. We felt that it cheapened the storyline. We also agreed that the convoluted explanation of how the hollowgast and wights came about lacked clarity and authenticity.
Most Memorable Quote:
"I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was." said by Jacob on page 220. One of the FAB ladies shared, "This is so me, I don’t realize how much I’ve done until my nieces and nephews start asking me questions about my life and then I realize – wow, I’m pretty interesting!" We all need to be reminded that we are extraordinary women leading extraordinary lives!
FAB Rating:
***1/2 (3-1/2 out of 5)
The author took a collection of interestingly odd photos and created a very imaginative story around those photos. His descriptions of the island, retirement community, tavern, and children's home were so vivid as to paint a colorful portrait in our minds.
