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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)

Ransom Riggs

Start date: November 1, 2015

Finish date: November 30, 2015

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What Members Thought

Mar 12, 2012 Mark rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal, death-and-dying, horror, illustrated, suspense

"I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss. Yet as we stood loading our boats in the breaking dawn, on a brand new precipice of Before and After, I thought of everything I was about to leave behind - my parents, my town, my once-best-and-only friend - and I realized that leaving wouldn't be like I had imagined, like casting off a weig "I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss. Yet as we stood loading our boats in the breaking dawn, on a brand new precipice of Before and After, I thought of everything I was about to leave behind - my parents, my town, my once-best-and-only friend - and I realized 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.

And yet my old life was as impossible to return to as the children's bombed house. The doors had been blown off our cages."

Sixteen year-old Jacob Portman lives what is, to him, a very boring life with his parents. He actually has a much better relationship with his paternal grandfather than he does with either of his parents. His grandfather has spent Jacob's life regaling him with fantastic tales of his younger life on a remote island off the coast of Wales, where children with fantastic (peculiar) abilities had come to live. Jacob's grandfather found his way to the island after escaping the Nazis in the early days of WWII; Grandpa Portman, however, always told Jacob he was trying to escape the monsters. When Jacob finds his grandfather brutally murdered in his backyard, and sees one of the monsters for himself, he realizes there may be more truth to his grandfather's stories than he had wanted to believe.

On the advice of Jacob's therapist, who works to convince Jacob that monsters simply could not have been the cause of his grandfather's death, Jacob and his father travel to the island, so that Jacob can try to answer some of these long-lingering questions. After arriving, Jacob finds the children's home decrepit and abandoned, but soon thereafter discovers that there is a way to return to the day when the house was lively and filled with children. But the house's balance is maintained through careful control of its headmistress, and as other monsters (much like the ones who killed Jacob's grandfather) begin to encroach, Jacob and the others must work together to avoid attack, and protect their home.

I'll go with 3.5 stars for this one, because while I was disappointed that the book wasn't what I had expected, I don't fault the book itself for that, or not entirely. From what I had heard and read, I expected this to be a very atmospheric, creepy novel; it did have it's creepy moments, but after a quick start with the grandfather's death, that element really softens until the novel's final 50-60 pages. And when I want a scary book, I want it to truly bring The Creep, consistently throughout. The pacing in this one was troubling, because the middle really seemed to drag for me. I never really found myself identifying much with Jacob - we're not given all that much to go on with him, other than the relationship with his grandfather, and the fact that Jacob is, in many ways, "replacing" his grandfather at the house. The fact that the book is set up for a sequel doesn't really help, because there were plenty of threads left unattended in this one, threads that probably should have been addressed in better fashion.

However, the way Riggs structures the novel around the old photographs is very inventive. I just wish the book itself could have lived up to the creepiness of the photos. ...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Cheer Papworth rated it really liked it

Shelves: supernatural

Very interesting book...a creepy little children's book with a twist, those amazingly weird historical photos. I give Riggs credit for originality...take some old photos and write an entire book surrounding what could hypothetically be happening in each photo. Very clever! I enjoyed this book and will read the sequel for sure. ...more

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Dec 26, 2011 gudetamama rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

I love the idea: author uses authentic vintage photos and weaves a story around them. The effect of the book relies heavily on the photos (and a few letters) though, without which it wouldn't be as enchanting. There are times when it's like he just pulled that character out of thin air and made up a few requisite sentences or paragraphs of backstory just to support the photo and be able to work it into the narrative. But at least he chose the perfect genre, this mesh of fantasy/surreal/horror, t ...more

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Jan 03, 2024 Katt Hansen rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, books-i-own, young-adult-science-fiction

I'd put this book off numerous times, trying to start it more than once and not really getting into the story. I guess I had to be in the right frame of mind, because this time when I read it, I could not put it down. Proving, I suppose, that sometimes it's really a matter of being in the right place at the right time to read something.

The story of the boy and his grandfather's stories, coupled with weird photographs was a strange and unusual start to the story. (Honestly I would love to write a ...more

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Jun 21, 2014 Carina rated it really liked it

Really, really lovely book. I've read a lot of really hard reviews, and I don't really understand where they're coming from. I wholeheartedly enjoyed every moment of it. ...more

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