The First Escape by G.P. Taylor

Title: The First Escape: The Dopple Ganger Chronicles
Author: G.P. Taylor
ISBN: 9781414319476
Publisher: SaltRiver/ Tyndale House Publishers

Summary:
"At Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children, life is trouble for fourteen-year-old twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple and their friend, former thief Erik Morrissey Ganger. But what starts out as a perfectly normal day of food fights, rioting classmates, and (yawn) threats of expulsion goes suddenly and horribly wrong when a mysterious, wealthy woman appears at the school and adopts Saskia... without her sister.

On her own in a mansion full of dark secrets, Saskia stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens her very life. Meanwhile, desperate to find Saskia, Sadie and Erik escape from the orphanage with a gang of enemies in hot pursuit. Faced with perils beyond their imaginations, the trio must decide who to trust - and what to believe - if they are to survive long enough to find each other again."
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Review:

My last review was all about graphic formats and such with the latest Chris Wooding book (Malice), so I'm going to try to stay away from format talk on this one. But I have to mention it, because it was the reason I picked up this book. When I was looking at purchasing this book for my library, I was really struck by the word "illustronovella" that was mentioned in connection with this book. I fell in love with the word and the idea, so I got excited about this book :).

It honestly didn't disappoint! I've read a few reviews that weren't inspired, but I was really into this story. A great story that is packed with adventure and intrigue. The pictures very much added to the story and put me in a specific mindset while I was reading. I don't think I would have seen the characters exactly as they were drawn, but I loved the drawings and appreciated the look into the world of the story.

I just have to mention how fast this book was. I wasn't really expecting it to read as quickly as a normal graphic novel, but it really only took me a couple of hours on a lazy Sunday morning. I was surprised, but glad for it. I could have definitely staying in this story a bit longer, so I'll probably go looking for the next book soon (I think we got it at our library this past week).

I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone - it's a great adventure/mystery/graphic novel. There was a weird little dip into a religious theme for a while that didn't seem to fit in the story very well, but otherwise it was wonderful! (I think the author is a minister of some sort, so this does make some sense.) I'm thinking this might be best for the middle grades, but teens could get into it as well.

There is a whole online world for this book, so go check that out.
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