Explorer Travel Trailer

Freak chic: The “universal creepiness” of Ransom Riggs' new novel

Since the novel’s titular home is located on a fantastical island off the coast of Wales, Riggs went looking for a real-world stand-in in Belgium; he’d seen some photos online posted by an urban explorer and photographer named Martino Zegwaard, who agreed to give Riggs a tour of the country’s creepiest abandoned houses; together, they embarked on a four-day road trip, armed with a GPS unit loaded with the co-ordinates of several dilapidated chateaus across the Belgian countryside. Eventually they found an empty farmhouse not far from Antwerp — it looks like Norman Bates’ country estate — and despite getting yelled at by the farmer who now owns the property, the two managed to capture it on film for the trailer.

“I’ve always been interested in exploration and the history of exploring the world, but it seems like we’ve found everything now,” Riggs says, on the phone from Los Angeles. “We kind of know there’s no more frontiers in the physical world. So the frontiers move from where we haven’t been yet to where we’ve been and abandoned. The undiscovered places that are interesting to me are these places that contain bits of our disappearing history, like a ghost town.”

Alma LeFay Peregrine’s home for peculiar children is one such place. Partly destroyed by a German bomb in the early days of the Second World War, the house remains abandoned until rediscovered by a teenage boy. At the outset of the novel, 15-year-old Jacob Portman is living an unremarkable life in an unremarkable Florida town. Then, suddenly and violently, his beloved grandfather is killed; Jacob finds the eviscerated body in the forest. Jacob’s family, and the police, cling to the idea that the old man was killed by a pack of wild animals, but Jacob knows the truth: It was a monster, one of the beasts his grandfather claimed had been hunting him for years. Clues lead Jacob and his skeptical father to Wales, where his grandfather took refuge in a strange orphanage after his entire family was murdered by the Nazis.

“I needed somewhere that would seem a little exotic and unknown to American readers that I could invest with magic  [and] that wasn’t already overrun with wizards,” he says of the decision to set the novel in Wales. “Harry Potter lives in England, and elves and dwarves of all descriptions live in Ireland, so it seemed like an untouched country in terms of fantasy, except for, I guess, Arthurian legend.

Antique Dinette » 2007 Explorer Travel Trailer*Bunkhouse*$9995

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This Explorer T190 Travel Trailer weighs only 4075 pounds (dry), is 18 ft long and is easy to pull behind almost anything! This Explorer features a bunkhouse, a sofa that turns into a bed, a dinette that converts into sleeping space so you can sleep a total of seven in comfort. You will find all the expected amenities like cold air, a gas cooktop and a cold refrigerator to make your camping days a breeze. Reconnect with your family and take advantage of the upcoming camping season with this Explorer bumper pull. Just call Joe @817 266 0288 to arrange a time when you can drop by to see this unbelievable value.

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