Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children

4.5/5 Stars

Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children

By Ransom Riggs

Quirk Books (June 7, 2011)

Genre: Supernatural, Suspense  

Is a mouth full that's what it is! No, no, it's an interesting and imaginative novel by Ransom Riggs. This was a story I just sort of stumbled upon, it was one of those 'if you like this book you may like this one also' type of dealeo's, and I'm glad I gave it a go!

The story follows a young boy named Jacob who grew up on his grand fathers unbelievable stories of children with special talents. His grandfather had fled from the Nazi's and taken refuge on a small island outside of England, where he attended a school filled with special children. He had left the magical school to fight in the second World War against the 'monsters' and later settled in America. Jacob's grandfather had shown him several pictures of these gifted children, which when Jacob was a child himself, had happily lapped up as real. Now a teenager his faith in these 'tales' begins to waver, and his father tells him that the people are most likely real but the stories are embellished and the photos manipulated. This is a far easier alternative than believing that gifted individuals exist. It's not until Jacob's grandfather calls him in a panic demanding the keys to his gun cabinet -which Jacobs father had confiscated afraid that the old man was showing signs of dementia- that he begins to question if in fact his grandfather's stories are indeed fallacious. Jacob eagerly flees his job at the family owned business to make sure his grandfather hasn't gotten himself into trouble, only to discover the house in complete disarray and his grandfather missing. Soon Jacob finds his grandfather mortally wounded in the wooded backyard, and his dying wish is for him to return to the school his grandfather had once attended and seek the answers his grandfather had foolishly never given him. If that isn't strange enough Jacob glimpses the ghoulish monsters his grandfather had described to him countless times lurking amongst the trees. Jacob ventures forth to the island with his father either to put to rest that he isn't crazy or rid himself of the nightmares plaguing him of the frightfully awful creature that he had witnessed.

It is very beautifully written, very creative and original with the story and characters and Riggs uses personification, similes, and analogies flawlessly. I actually have examples this time of some of the lovely descriptions he used. I read this book and it made me think 'this is what creative writing is all about'. Here are a few excepts:

'and I realised that leaving wouldn't be like I had imagined, like casting off a weight. Their memory was something tangible and heavy, and I would carry it with me.'

'"For a hundred generations he slept, curled like a fetus in the earth's mysterious womb, digested by roots, fermenting in the dark, summer fruits canned and forgotten in the larer until a farmer's spade bore him out, rough midwife to a strange harvest."'

'I strapped it{gas mask} over my face and followed her out onto the lawn, where the children stood scattered like chess pieces on an unmarked board, anonymous behind their upturned masks, watching billows of black smoke roll across the sky.'

'It{chest} hesitated for a moment, wobbling there on the edge of oblivion, and then pitched decisively forward and fell, tumbling end over end in beautiful balletic slow-motion.'

'It{path} ended abruptly at a forest of skeletal trees, branches spindling up like the tips of wet paintbrushes, and for a while the path became so lost beneath fallen trunks and carpets of ivy that navigating it was a matter of faith.'

'It was a crisp blustery day - the sun hiding behind giant cloundbanks only to burst out moments later and dapple hills with spectacular rays of light-'

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to. My only complaints are, that its was rather predictable, and that when it ended - while it was in a good place- I felt that there was so much more that I wanted to know (which I'm not sure is the worst thing, but it leaves you with a sense of incompleteness and yearning for a sequel). Which thankfully seems like there will be one, at a currently undisclosed date, so hopefully I don't forget! I would really like to see what adventures Jacob and the peculiar children undertake. I would definitely recommend especially if you're in the mood for something different, it's somewhat similar to x-men, but darker. And I think it goes without saying that I am anticipating the release of the second novel. Another interesting aspect of the book is that it contains pictures of the key characters including their bizarre abilities, and at the end of the book it tells that the majority of the photos are real with very little doctoring, which makes you wonder how this was all possible without photoshop and with these supposed 'dark-room effects'??