Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Random Riggs

 

 

 

What a book, and what a pleasant surprise it was!  I honestly had no idea what to expect when I picked it up.  Twin recommended it to me - no, scratch that.  Twin basically brought it over and put it in my hands and said "You need to read this.  You will love it.  I know because we love the same things.  Oh, and also, there's this one part.  I know you'll have the exact same reaction as me.  So I underlined it in the book."

 

So I read it.  And I loved it!  It had been a while since I sat up in bed for hours just to finish a really great book, and I was not disappointed.  I thought this was going to be a creepy, creepy book.  Instead, it was a pleasant read into a fantasy world that is held up by magic.  The same day in 1943 before a bomb was dropped on the island where Miss Peregrine has her home for peculiar children.  And peculiar children they are-some can levitate, another is invisible, another can build little living and breathing creatures.  And that is the world that Jacob stumbles into when he goes to that island in present day to find out about his now deceased grandfather's past. 

 

I couldn't help but get that same happy, light hearted, I'm going on an adventure in a different world feeling that I also got when I read the Inkheart books.  I don't get that feeling a lot.  And don't get me wrong, it's not like the whole book is all "ooo, magic and a bubble where time stands still and it is all so cute!".  Because it's not, there are scary monster things that want to take Miss Peregrine for her powers, and kill the kids at the school.  And then of course Jacob needs to come to terms with what he's finding out about his grandfather's life, and also about his own. 

 

And also, U-boats.  Did I mention the U-boats?!  If you've read this blog long enough, you know that Twin and I have a weird obsession with submarines, especially U-boats.  And that of course is what she underlined in the book before she gave it to me to read :)

 

What I really loved too about this book is the PICTURES!!!!  The very, very creepy photos of the peculiar children!!  There is one in particular of Miss Peregrine that creeps. me. out.  It looks so much like an old photo of my grandpa's, of one of his aunts who was a school marm, and she always dressed in black and and least in that photo was creepy.  So creepy.  And that photo of Miss Peregrine reminded me of that photo.  And it was creepy.

 

So, anyway....  I highly recommend the book.  I hear tell that there is going to be a sequal, which I am of course super excited for.  Have you read this?  What did you think?  Do you also like to underline passages about U-boats in your books?  Or do like like to underline other random things?

 

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Date of Publication: 2011

Number of Pages: 352

Genre: Fiction

Source: Borrowed from Twin