Jacob is an average student living an average life, with an extraordinary grandpa who tells him stories about his peculiar childhood. Amidst Jacob's growing disillusionment into his late elementary and teen years, the sudden death of his grandpa sends him on an unusual journey looking for answers about his grandfather's past, which will ultimately affect his own future.

SPOILERS:
Riggs has an excellent first novel. The juxtaposition of photos and prose is well done. The characters are mostly consistent, and I loved how slowly Jacob's skeptical character slowly gives over to the reality that was in front of him. Jacob's embracing his new life in the "time loops" parallels with his grandfather's exiting the time loop so well, and we find their strengths are similar, even though they are executed differently - while Abe sought fighting the monsters physically in his "time", we see Jacob, yes, taking on a physical fight, but he becomes more of a nurturing fighter (if that makes sense). I also appreciated the time constraints and "rules" Riggs had for crossing "worlds", and I love that he crosses back and forth. This is something I'm struggling with in my own writing (my own characters need to cross back and forth) and I really like his execution.

Oh, if this is helpful–this book comes across as creepy/scary, but it's not really creepy at all. I'm easily scared, and my recommendation would be to not look at too many of the pictures before reading the text that goes before them. There's much less of a creepiness factor if you experience them in the order Riggs has laid out.

I'd definitely recommend this to any YA enthusiasts. I haven't seen the movie yet, and I'm interested to see what they'll do - will they make it more creepy/scary, or stick more to the book? We'll see!