From the Bookshelf of Read With Sammy…

Contains spoilers.

This book was very different than I expected it to be. I had heard about it a while back but only just picked it up. While not a four, it wasn't a three either. And here's why.

The concept behind this is, in essence, a time travelling story about a boy trying to figure out his present by using the past. At least, that's what I got. I typically don't do time travel books, but this one did it so well that it wasn't like the main focus.

Jacob, the main boy, was eh

Contains spoilers.

This book was very different than I expected it to be. I had heard about it a while back but only just picked it up. While not a four, it wasn't a three either. And here's why.

The concept behind this is, in essence, a time travelling story about a boy trying to figure out his present by using the past. At least, that's what I got. I typically don't do time travel books, but this one did it so well that it wasn't like the main focus.

Jacob, the main boy, was eh for me. While he seemed like a good kid, there were some points where I just wanted to shake him. Mostly because of how he mistreated his "friend", parents, and grandfather, the last being the person who depended on him the most. I don't like a character that doesn't have family has a high value. The only other primary character was Emma, and I didn't particularly like her either. While it was cool how she could wield fire, I didn't feel any likeness for her. It was kind of obvious in the beginning how she liked Jacob simply because he looked like his grandpa (who was her former boyfriend by the way).

Pretty much everyone else, I felt, were used only to advance the plot. I feel like the 2nd book needs to use the other peculiar children for more than that, and I hope it does. I want to know more about them and go more in depth about the situation they're in.

I will say that, despite this being his first book, Riggs knows how to construct a plotline. It was kind of slow to start (and some of the chapters... dear jeezum some of those chapters were very long). But once it got rolling, it kept me interested to the end. There was a huge plot twist I honestly didn't see coming that was very welcomed. And then it flowed so well that I honestly forgot that they were in 1940 a lot. The pictures were amazing. You would think that they would bum the reader out since you couldn't "visualize", but they actually didn't. It made it better to be able to see the pictures. It put this book on another level.

I will say that the ending was kind of anticlimactic. I won't say why, but it started amazing and then went downhill for me. That's the main reason why it's rating went down for me. It wasn't terrible, just not what I expected from it, and in a not-so-good way.

I will be reading the second one, however. I want to see where this ends up.