It’s been awhile since I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, but Guillermo Del Toro’s vivid imagination, use of practical effects, and attempts to create a mythos have stuck with me. When I saw this book being released, picking it up from the local bookstore was a no-brainer.

Before you even get to the story, the dust jacket and book cover make this worth owning. The art is stunning. The story itself is divided into short chapters, usually 2-5 pages on average, and even though the prose is terrific and the characters and settings are fantastically painted, a lot happens in each section. This set up was very reminiscent of a collection of fairy tales. Set up as interludes every few chapters are dark fairy tales within the world of Pan’s Labyrinth that end up tying into the greater narrative.

I ended up reading this book over the course of about a week, savoring if you will, but this is a story you could knock out in a weekend. It’s being marketed as young adult, but there’s a lot to like for readers of all ages. Especially those who remember the movie fondly and want to read an expansion on the constructed mythos. My greatest hope, feeding off the subtitle “The Labyrinth of the Faun” is that Del Toro and Funke have more stories to share with us.