Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

“Sometimes it's better not to look back.”

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.

This book has been everywhere. I'd seen the book trailer, countless reviews, and that gorgeous cover over and over again. I'd even seen some of the photographs from the story, and I was really excited to read the book and see how they fit in.

The photos were gorgeous. When I was reading the book, I was constantly flipping ahead a few pages, looking for when the next shot would appear. I loved them all; vintage shots that added emphasis to the story.

I loved all the peculiar children, but my favorite character was probably Millard, an invisible boy. I loved his habits, and I loved every scene he was in. Emma was a close second, even if she was slightly the stereotypical tomboy character.

This book was a letdown for me.

I guess I was expecting more of the book to be about the "peculiar children", you know, since they're in the title? But they were never the focus. The story was really about Jacob and his life, and he wasn't even an interesting character to me: he didn't get along with his parents, he didn't want to go into the family business, he didn't really have any friends. He was so blah to me that I didn't even like hearing about him. I wanted to know about the kids and their powers, but it never concentrated on them. Sometimes when Jacob spent time with the kids, the book skimmed over it, giving you a basic description of what they'd talked about instead of the actual conversation.

My other big problem with the story was that, from even reading the summary, you know that these peculiar children are going to exist. When you hear about them from Jacob, from old stories his grandpa used to tell him, you know they're going to be real. For a large portion of the book, he won't believe that they're real, and understandably so. It would be ridiculous if a character accepted myths right off the bat, with no proof. But I felt like Jacob kept going over it, and I just wanted to tell him, "Okay, we get it, it's crazy that people would able to do stuff like that. Please move on with the story." I mean, you know he's going to end up realizing the truth, so having him go over this time and time again was so boring to me.

I wanted to give this one a better rating: it seems like everyone loved it. but I just never really got into it. I loved the pictures and the children, but I don't think they got the face time they deserved. I don't recommend this one.

Read more reviews for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children at:

The Infinite Shelf and Muggle-Born