Review | 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Quirk Books
eBook
4 stars | B



From Goodreads:

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

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 were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography,Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My experience with this book did not go as planned.

I've been wanting to get to this book since before it was even released, and it wasn't until Isaac, who also posts on this site, got his hands on the book that I actually pursued my interest. I got the book via my local library's eBook checkout system. When I first opened the novel up, I was interested in about the first 10% (eBook-wise). I liked the Tim Burton-ness of the story, but it started to go downhill from there for me. Then, I decided to abandon it about mid-May, only 35% through the book. The character's weren't pleasing me, the plot was going nowhere fast, and I had more important books to read. Today, though, I picked it up at 8 o'clock and finished it an hour later. The book's pacing grew impeccably quick and engrossing, and I was so fascinated by the intrigue and whimsy of the story. 

I began to really appreciate the characters and the roles they each played. I felt so bad for Emma, and I don't even know if I was supposed to. There was this tragic story behind her about how Abe, the protagonist's grandfather, was sort of the one that got away for her, and he ended up starting a family of his own with another woman, and I felt like Emma tried to find Abe in his grandson, Jacob, the story's protagonist. I sort of imagined her like Jenny from the film Big Fish (another Tim Burton reference for you), and how she was briefly romantically involved with this larger-than-life fellow, but it was just a brief affair. I was constantly connecting the concept of time loops to Peter Pan (which the characters also refer to) and The Chronicles of Narnia, as far as the whole never-growing-up thing goes, as well as the separate time-streams existing at once. It really was a fascinating world that was built. I, of course, also really liked Jacob, and I saw a bit of him in me, which made him really easy to relate to. I liked the way he dealt with situations, but I often forgot that he considered Emma a Siren, and I was perplexed as to why he would pursue a relationship with Emma so often and then regret it. I felt like that whole aspect was emphasized in a very odd  way. 

The plot of the story was very slow at the beginning, and was the reason I initially abandoned it. I advise anyone who picks this book up to plow through the first hundred pages or so, because it does pay off! I was so interested in the whole back-story of Miss Peregrine and the type of people she was housing, and I liked learning about the characters' different abilities. It was definitely a unique type of story, and I would describe it as a sci-fi historical fiction, which I can honestly say--at least I don't recall--I have never called a book that before. The pacing was slow at first, but that was obviously just to set things up, for it quickened later on. 

The writing was very darkly humorous and almost satirical, which I liked the lot. It worked very well with the pacing and the intensity of the plot, and I'm glad that it was told from 1st person; I'm sure it wouldn't have been as good told from 3rd. I thought Riggs did a great job of weaving his writing persona into the actual story.

Peculiar Children is truly a defining, unprecedented, peculiar novel that is book-ended by layers upon layers of exposition that left me hanging around despite some bumps in the road.

A sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is expected to be released next year.