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399 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
“Are you so concerned with the well-being of normals that you’d risk Miss Peregrine’s life to protect a few of theirs? A thousand of them aren’t worth one of her! Or one of us, for that matter!”
“If even outcasts and downtrodden folk like yourselves can’t muster a bit of compassion for others,” she said, “then there’s no hope for this world.”
“It was hard to imagine anyone objecting to these kindly people. Then again, similar prejudices were among the reasons peculiars had withdrawn from society. Such was the way the sad world turned.”
“ “Miss Wren meant this menagerie to be an ark, but gradually it’s become a tomb.” “Like all our loops,” said Enoch. “Like peculiardom itself. A failed experiment.” “ ‘This place is dying,’ Miss Wren often said.” Addison’s voice rose in imitation of her. “ ‘And I am nothing but the overseer of its long funeral!’ ” Addison’s eyes glistened, remembering her, but just as quickly went hard again. “She was very theatrical.””
“Despite everything, this peculiar life was what I’d always wanted. Strange, I thought, how you can be living your dreams and your nightmares at the very same time.”There's a real good development here about the characters and motivations.
“I am a time traveler. This is real. I, Jacob Portman, am traveling in time.” This was astonishing enough. More astonishing, perhaps, was the fact that time travel hadn’t broken my brain; that by some miracle, I had not yet devolved into a gibbering crazy person ranting on a street corner. The human psyche was much more flexible than I’d imagined, capable of expanding to contain all sorts of contradictions and seeming impossibilities. Lucky for me.”
“ “They were of the past, and the past always mends itself, no matter how we interfere.” “Which is why you can’t go back and kill baby Hitler to stop the war from happening,” said Enoch. “History heals itself. Isn’t that interesting?””
“And maybe it was childish, this old urge to explore for exploring’s sake. There was romance in the unknown, but once a place had been discovered and cataloged and mapped, it was diminished, just another dusty fact in a book, sapped of mystery. So maybe it was better to leave a few spots on the map blank. To let the world keep a little of its magic, rather than forcing it to divulge every last secret. Maybe it was better, now and then, to wonder.”
““Why are you pushing me away?” “Because you have a real home and a real family, and if you think any of us would’ve chosen this world over those things—wouldn’t have given up our loops and longevity and peculiar powers long ago for even a taste of what you have—then you really are living in a fantasy world. It makes me absolutely ill to think you might throw that all away—and for what?” “For you, you idiot! I love you!”.”
“What I believe is that when it comes to big things in life, there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. You are here for a reason -- and it's not to fail and die.”
“A song and a smile from someone I cared about could be enough to distract me from all that darkness, if only for a little while.”
Do you ever find yourself climbing into an open grave during a bombing raid..and wish you'd just stayed in bed?