Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is really a 3.5 rating - better than a 3 but not quite a 4!
I enjoyed this book (the first in a trilogy) - although it took me a little while to get into it. But ultimately, who can resist children with peculiar powers, time loops, shape shifters and monsters? Not to mention those haunting photographs scattered through the book.
Jacob Portman had always loved hearing the stories his grandfather, Abe, told, but he had long since stopped believing they were true. That is until the day his grandfather dies under tragic and mysterious circumstances, and only Jacob seems to have seen what really killed him. A monster.
After his grandfather's death, Jacob has terrible nightmares, and is haunted by his grandfather's dying words. His psychiatrist, Dr Golan, suggests he go to the source of the stories - a remote island in Wales, where his grandfather spent some time as a youth. There Jacob discovers the ruins of an old mansion, an orphanage - the very house where his grandfather had stayed, which was destroyed by a bomb during WWII.
On one of his explorations, he is caught by a girl, Emma. But Emma is no ordinary girl. She controls and creates fire, and, together with several other children with peculiar powers, lives in the orphanage. In a time loop. In 1940.
Cool, hey.
The peculiars have various powers. Hugh controls bees (in fact they live inside him). Millard is invisible. Olive is weightless. Fiona makes plants grow and can manipulate them. Bronwyn has super strength.
Anyway, those are the good guys. The bad guys are wights and hollowgasts. Hollowgasts were peculiars who tried to make themselves immortal and it all went horribly wrong. Wights are hollowgasts who have eaten peculiars, and now look like humans again (except they have no pupils or irises - just white - for their eyes). Creepy. Hollowgasts are particularly nasty - all teeth and tongues (three!) - and apparently they smell really bad - and it was a hollowgast that killed Grandpa Abe. But here's the kicker. Peculiar children can't see hollowgasts. But Jacob, and his grandfather before him, can. This is Jacob's peculiar power.
Because of the time loop thing, Jacob can go back and forth in time. He finds himself becoming more and more attached to the peculiar life, and wondering whether he can ever really go back to his normal life before he knew all of the stories were true. And then there are his feelings for Emma, who was also romantically involved with his grandfather back in the day. Awkward!
The orphanage is run by Miss Peregrine - an ymbryne (a shapeshifter who can control time). Jacob learns that there are several time loops, all over the world, run by ymbrynes like Miss Peregrine. All the ymbrynes are women, and all of them turn into birds.
Things go along fairly peacefully for a while, and Jacob enjoys his new life of peculiardom. But then one of the other ymbrynes, Miss Avocet, turns up at the orphanage. Her time loop was attacked, and Jacob and the others learn that wights are kidnapping the ymbrynes from the time loops. It appears nobody is safe.
Before long, Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet are kidnapped too - by Dr Golan (who is, in fact, a wight)! That treacherous bastard. The time loop has been breached, and is no longer a safe haven. The children give chase, Dr Golan is killed, and they rescue Miss Peregrine. However she is unable to change back to her human form, and the children must go on a quest to find another ymbryne in another time loop to help. If there are any left.
It's a cliffhanger ending, and it worked, because I couldn't wait to read Book 2!
View all my reviews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is really a 3.5 rating - better than a 3 but not quite a 4!
I enjoyed this book (the first in a trilogy) - although it took me a little while to get into it. But ultimately, who can resist children with peculiar powers, time loops, shape shifters and monsters? Not to mention those haunting photographs scattered through the book.
Jacob Portman had always loved hearing the stories his grandfather, Abe, told, but he had long since stopped believing they were true. That is until the day his grandfather dies under tragic and mysterious circumstances, and only Jacob seems to have seen what really killed him. A monster.
After his grandfather's death, Jacob has terrible nightmares, and is haunted by his grandfather's dying words. His psychiatrist, Dr Golan, suggests he go to the source of the stories - a remote island in Wales, where his grandfather spent some time as a youth. There Jacob discovers the ruins of an old mansion, an orphanage - the very house where his grandfather had stayed, which was destroyed by a bomb during WWII.
On one of his explorations, he is caught by a girl, Emma. But Emma is no ordinary girl. She controls and creates fire, and, together with several other children with peculiar powers, lives in the orphanage. In a time loop. In 1940.
Cool, hey.
The peculiars have various powers. Hugh controls bees (in fact they live inside him). Millard is invisible. Olive is weightless. Fiona makes plants grow and can manipulate them. Bronwyn has super strength.
Anyway, those are the good guys. The bad guys are wights and hollowgasts. Hollowgasts were peculiars who tried to make themselves immortal and it all went horribly wrong. Wights are hollowgasts who have eaten peculiars, and now look like humans again (except they have no pupils or irises - just white - for their eyes). Creepy. Hollowgasts are particularly nasty - all teeth and tongues (three!) - and apparently they smell really bad - and it was a hollowgast that killed Grandpa Abe. But here's the kicker. Peculiar children can't see hollowgasts. But Jacob, and his grandfather before him, can. This is Jacob's peculiar power.
Because of the time loop thing, Jacob can go back and forth in time. He finds himself becoming more and more attached to the peculiar life, and wondering whether he can ever really go back to his normal life before he knew all of the stories were true. And then there are his feelings for Emma, who was also romantically involved with his grandfather back in the day. Awkward!
The orphanage is run by Miss Peregrine - an ymbryne (a shapeshifter who can control time). Jacob learns that there are several time loops, all over the world, run by ymbrynes like Miss Peregrine. All the ymbrynes are women, and all of them turn into birds.
Things go along fairly peacefully for a while, and Jacob enjoys his new life of peculiardom. But then one of the other ymbrynes, Miss Avocet, turns up at the orphanage. Her time loop was attacked, and Jacob and the others learn that wights are kidnapping the ymbrynes from the time loops. It appears nobody is safe.
Before long, Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet are kidnapped too - by Dr Golan (who is, in fact, a wight)! That treacherous bastard. The time loop has been breached, and is no longer a safe haven. The children give chase, Dr Golan is killed, and they rescue Miss Peregrine. However she is unable to change back to her human form, and the children must go on a quest to find another ymbryne in another time loop to help. If there are any left.
It's a cliffhanger ending, and it worked, because I couldn't wait to read Book 2!
View all my reviews