Review: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Publisher: Quirk 
Published: June 7, 2011 
Pages: 352 
Source: Bought 
Rating: 3.5 Stars

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.

In short: I loved the eeriness of the tone and the writing in the first part of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, but was remiss when the second half was nothing like the first.

The moment I saw this book - the title, the cover, the blurb, the trailer - I knew I needed to read it. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children seemed unlike any YA book I had ever read or heard of and I was immediately eager to read such a unique and odd-sounding book. You can't deny that the packaging of Miss Peregrine's - with the inclusion of the creepy, old, black and white pictures - makes it intriguing as heck and though it was perhaps a bit gimmicky, I can't deny that the images were a major part of my interest in reading it.

And indeed, I felt like the old pictures complimented the story really well - at least, in the first part of the novel - and added to the overall dark tone. The pictures don't do all the work though: Ransom Riggs is a superb writer and he infuses the story with an overarching gloomy atmosphere that really adds to the creepiness of the plot. I really liked the way Jacob was written as well. Though not everyone will enjoy his sardonic tone and his teen angst, I felt as though there was a realism to him that I really appreciated.

It was the second half of Miss Peregrine's that I liked less and where it felt like the tone does a complete one-eighty. What started out as a dark and eerie story turns into a lighter, quirkier one. It's not that the second half was bad, it's just that I wanted the creepy gothic horror that was promised to me by the packaging and what I ended up with was a sort of superhero adventure story. And even though I liked the concept of the time loop and the mythology and the children as quirky superheroes, it was not what I was expecting and the change was a bit jarring. Furthermore, the inclusion of the old pictures, which were utilized so well in the beginning, became a bit forced and arbitrary in the second half, much to my dismay.

Overall, I would still recommend Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children to anyone looking for a creepy-ish read with a cool concept and a male protagonist - just keep in mind that what you might have been expecting from the packaging isn't necessarily the case.

Other Reviews:
Muggle-Born.net
Novel Sounds
Small Review

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