Monday, December 16, 2013

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

All growing up Jacob's grandfather has told him stories of a levitating girl, and invisible boy and other "peculiar" children. When he was younger Jacob believed these stories to be real. But now that he is a teenager his parents have convinced him that his grandfather's stories were just that, stories.

When Jacob's grandfather dies in his arms Jacob sees something that causes him to have nightmares and his parents to send him to a psychiatrist. Determined to find the place that his grandfather talked about all of his life, Jacob talks his father into taking a trip to an island so his father can study the bird life and unbeknownst to his father, Jacob can look for Miss Peregrine(the headmistress of the peculiar children).

Unfortunately Jacob isn't the only one looking for the Peculiar's and he may unwittingly open the door for evil to invade their world. 

My Thoughts:

First off, how could a person resist wanting to read this book just from the cover alone? The little girl is levitating! How creepy is that? With the foggy shrouded background and done in black and white, this cover has always caught my attention.

 Now, if you haven't read the book you may not want to read this review any further as there may be a bit of spoilers, although I will try not to *wink*

I found that I enjoyed the story. It started out moving along pretty quickly. I think it bogged down a bit in the middle, but picked up once again towards the end. I found the peculiar children to be interesting. I should say, adults living in children's bodies. Of course they all remembered Jacob's grandfather. Especially Emma, who had a relationship with him when he was among the peculiars. I found her and Jacob's attraction for each other to be a bit weird in that I felt she was seeing Jacob's grandfather instead of Jacob. Throughout the book there are black and white pictures of the different characters which helped give the reader an image of the authors description. I found the loops and such to be a bit confusing. Especially in the end when the children were talking about hopping from year to year. But I'm not up on my time-travel information so someone more savvy than I would probably "get it" better. Also I found the reason why the "Hollows" are wanting Miss Peregrine and others like her a little bit confusing. Hopefully those questions will be answered in the second book Hollow City coming out in January 2014(there's a commercial for you). So, if you like characters that are peculiar(an invisible boy etc.), and you like a bit of time travel or time loops or time warps(whatever the correct terminology is), I would recommend picking up Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

I received my copy of the book from the publisher Quirk Books. This review is my honest opinion.




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