Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published
June 7th 2011
by Quirk
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here - one of whom was his own grandfather - were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason.
And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive- "Goodreads"
*This review may can spoilers. Read at your own risk *
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here - one of whom was his own grandfather - were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason.
And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive- "Goodreads"
Rating
The first time I heard about this book was from a book reviewer on youtube. It was on one of their haul videos. I become interested in it when said reviewer started to show some of the pictures inside of it. I knew I had to have it just to see all the creepy pictures inside and also because it sounded like such a unique and interesting concept for a novel. When I finally found a pretty cheap copy, I took the first few minutes just going through all the pictures. Maybe that was cheating, but it was what I did. Some of the pictures,I have to say, are beyond weird.
After looking at all the strange pictures, I was ready and excited to get into the actual content of the novel. I have to say it was a lot different than what I expected. I sort of expected it to start at the Home for peculiar children instead of where it did. Don't get me wrong, I loved Jacob as a character. I guess I just expected the story to go a certain way based only on the title. I would say, for me at least, the start of the book had a bit of a slow start that built to an action pack middle and ending. I wanted to rush the start so I could finally get information about all these children from the weird pictures Jacob's grandfather gave to him.
Once I got to the middle I found that I read faster and enjoyed the book more. Not to say the start of it was boring, it wasn't. It was just the case of setting the story up . That always takes awhile and most of the time, while necessary, it is not the most interesting part of any book. Once I got past that, the parts where Jacob meet the children sucked me in. I thought they each added something interesting to the book. I did find that I had to flip back and forth sometimes to remember names and what everyone's ability was. After awhile though, I didn't have to do that as much. Probably some of the few weaknesses of the book is I thought the villain of the book could have been scarier and that certain things about the world the children lived in could of had more explanation. One of the concepts I loved about this story was the whole time travel element. The children are stuck just before a bomb hits and destroys the orphanage they live and just before it hits time goes backwards. So they basically live the same day over and over again. I really think the author handled that and the other time travel elements in the book well, ex: aging rapidly if they go back to present or the effects of time on a body that doesn't age.
Overall I really liked the book and giving it a rating was actually rather difficult. I was torn between a 4 or a 5. I was leading more toward a 4 when I still had 100 pages left, but since I stayed up late to finish those pages plus read the first chapter of the sequel, why must all books be series, I had to give it a 5. That and the fact that I really think the pictures made the story more rich and entertaining for me personally.
Once I got to the middle I found that I read faster and enjoyed the book more. Not to say the start of it was boring, it wasn't. It was just the case of setting the story up . That always takes awhile and most of the time, while necessary, it is not the most interesting part of any book. Once I got past that, the parts where Jacob meet the children sucked me in. I thought they each added something interesting to the book. I did find that I had to flip back and forth sometimes to remember names and what everyone's ability was. After awhile though, I didn't have to do that as much. Probably some of the few weaknesses of the book is I thought the villain of the book could have been scarier and that certain things about the world the children lived in could of had more explanation. One of the concepts I loved about this story was the whole time travel element. The children are stuck just before a bomb hits and destroys the orphanage they live and just before it hits time goes backwards. So they basically live the same day over and over again. I really think the author handled that and the other time travel elements in the book well, ex: aging rapidly if they go back to present or the effects of time on a body that doesn't age.
Overall I really liked the book and giving it a rating was actually rather difficult. I was torn between a 4 or a 5. I was leading more toward a 4 when I still had 100 pages left, but since I stayed up late to finish those pages plus read the first chapter of the sequel, why must all books be series, I had to give it a 5. That and the fact that I really think the pictures made the story more rich and entertaining for me personally.
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