Skip to main content

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is Ransom Riggs' debut novel.  After reading the book in its entirety I can only say that what started out with such promise, ended in a blaze of mixed feelings.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  The ending leaves several issues unresolved and is more of a beginning than an ending.  While the jacket blurb makes no mention of this being the first book in a potential series, the ending makes it clear that there must be at least one planned sequel.

Jacob's grandfather told him fantastical stories about the children he grew up with in an orphanage on a remote island off the coast of Wales.  There was the girl who could create fire with her bare hands, the boy who was filled bees, and the levitating girl among others.  When Jacob stopped believing the stories, his grandfather stopped telling them.  Years later when Jacob's 15, his grandfather dies suddenly and with his last words he sends Jacob on a journey to discover the secrets of his beloved grandfather's past.  Of the stories his grandfather told, which were true and which were merely embellishments?  Jacob's about to find out when he travels with his father to the remote island where his grandfather fled as war darkened the European continent.  What Jacob finds on the island is tragic and stretches far beyond the limits of imagination.

The more Jacob learns about the strange world from which his grandfather came, the more he realizes the special talents they had in common.  However, strange talents bring strange dangers, and the longer the home hides its secrets from Jacob, the less prepared he'll be when those strange dangers finally rear their ugly heads.  And by then it might be too late to save the strange sanctuary where his grandfather grew up.

The book starts out as a historical/family history mystery story before veering toward the fantastical, science fiction genre about a hundred pages in.  This is one of those books for which one must reserve judgment until the final page.  As such I can't say I recommend this book--but if you like strange, fantastical stories, you just might enjoy this one.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In The Woods by Tana French

"What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with the truth is fundamental, but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame of every move we make, and we pursue it with strategies painstakingly constructed of lies ... and every variation on deception. The truth is the most desirable woman in the world and we are the most jealous lovers, reflexively denying anyone else the slightest glimpse of her. We betray her routinely ... This is my job ... What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this--two things: I crave truth. And I lie." opening lines of In The Woods chapter 1, pages 3-4 In The Woods by Tana French, an Irish writer, is an extremely well-written and well-crafted mystery novel. The downside is that this is French's debut novel, and her website (located at http://www.tanafrench.com/ ) does not off...
24 comments
Read more

Broken by Karin Slaughter

Before I begin the formal review there are a few things I need to get off my chest in the wake of finishing this book; I'll do so without giving away too many (or any) spoilers. The OUTRAGE!: the identity of Detective Lena Adams' new beau; the low depths to which Grant County's interim chief has sunk and brought the police force down with him; agent Will Trent's wife, Angie's, sixth sense/nasty habit of reappearing in his life just when he's slipping away from her. Thank God for small miracles though because while Angie was certainly referred to during the book, the broad didn't make an appearance. One sign that I've become way too invested in these characters is that I'd like to employ John Connolly's odd pair of assassins, Louis and Angel, to contract out a hit on Angie; do you think Karin Slaughter and John Connolly could work out a special cross over? Hallelujah: Dr. Sara Linton and agent Will Trent are both back. There is no hallelujah fo...
3 comments
Read more

Generation Kill by Evan Wright and One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick

Non-fiction books aren't really my thing; generally, this is how my relationship goes with non-fiction books: I see a really interesting one, I borrow it, I start to read it, and then I ditch it a chapter or two later when the dry, boring writing and non-existent plot fail to hook me. However, this a review of two non-fiction books that I read back to back after a five year old three article series that I dug up on the internet; it was written by Evan Wright and preceded his book Generation Kill , which is basically a book version of the article series that he wrote and published in Rolling Stone Magazine . Recently HBO adapted Generation Kill into a mini-series that ran sometime last year; I got the series on DVD and in the midst of watching it, I decided I wanted to get my hands on the book to read. In the meantime, I stumbled across One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick, the lieutenant of the platoon that Wright embedded with, and I read that book while I waited for Generation K...
1 comment
Read more