After the loss of her father in a horrible accident, Emily, her brother Navin, and her mother, move into the decrepit family house. But after the first name her mother is kidnapped by a strange tentacled creature and taken through a mysterious door. Emily and Navin follow, meet strange robots, are stalked by an evil elf with an agenda, and Emily must deal with a powerful omniscient power around her neck.
This is the first of four volumes, the fourth comes out Thursday, and there's a lot of exposition and yet there was a lot of action and plot development. The prologue is twelve pages long and absolutely heart-wrenching, and gives you a solid platform for Emily's personality. Kazu Kibuishi does a magnificent job of packing a lot of emotion in each frame, which is partially why this works for me. It's not just going for action, it's not trying to keep just enough of your attention so you'll maybe pick up the sequel. It's creating a story that is highly intriguing and grabs you and keeps your attention with different twists in the plot, highly evolved characters, and emotionally gripping artwork. Nice.
There's really nothing that I didn't love about this book, and I feel comfortable recommending it because my students love this book. It is never left on the shelf and my students enjoy rereading it. I hope you do too.
The mythology behind the story is building up quite nicely as well. There's definitely more to see - and more to be afraid of in this volume. Miskit ends up being Emily's companion throughout most of her adventures with Leon, and serves well as a comic relief.
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