![Hollow City (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children, #2)](https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1429175859m/23164983.jpg)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This second book in the trilogy begins with the peculiar children, together with Miss Peregrine (in bird form) escaping from the wights and embarking on a quest to restore Miss Peregrine to her human self. They realise that only another ymbryne can help Miss Peregrine, and, knowing that the wights have invaded time loops all over the world and have captured many ymbrynes, their situation is desperate.
Still pursued by wights, the children believe their only hope of survival for themselves and Miss Peregrine is to find another, undamaged time loop and another ymbryne.
By following clues in a book they have with them, "Tales of the Peculiar", they find a time loop, but Miss Wren, the ymbryne in charge, has left. There are no peculiar children in this loop, only peculiar animals, but they advise the children that Miss Wren has in fact gone to London in pursuit of her kidnapped sisters.
The children leave the loop and head to London. The wights are still in pursuit, but, with the help of a band of gypsies, the children escape detection. The gypsies escort them to the nearest train station, but just as they are about to board, the wights arrive and they are captured. They are dismayed to discover that the gypsies who helped them have also been captured.
Things are looking pretty dire, until Hugh and his bees turn up... Let's just say - bees can be lethal.
Eventually, the children again head to London. Still following clues from "Tales", they find themselves at a circus, and then to a mysterious building covered in ice. There are more peculiars here, including some people from the circus, and they finally find Miss Wren. For a short time, it seems all will be well.
But there are more surprises in store, and they are not pleasant... Millard, the invisible boy who is also a scholar, discovers that the wights are extracting peculiar souls and consuming them to allow them to pass through time loops. But that's not all...
Miss Wren performs a ceremony to restore Miss Peregrine to her human form, but instead of Miss Peregrine, the bird transforms into Miss Peregrine's brother, Caul, a wight. He's not very nice, to put it mildly! The icebound time loop is compromised, and once again the peculiar children, together with their new friends, are captured by wights, with Caul as their leader. The peculiars fight back, but only Jacob and Emma escape.
Pursued by a hollowgast, Jacob and Emma appear to be toast, particularly when the hollowgast wraps its horrible self around Jacob! But in this most desperate situation, Jacob discovers his powers go beyond just sensing hollowgasts - he can also control them...
So now Jacob and Emma must find their friends, rescue the ymbrynes, and defeat the wights and the hollowgasts, all while trying to maintain a romantic relationship. And you think you had problems!
I really enjoyed this second book. The stakes are higher, the children are brave and resourceful, and the villains are deliciously nasty. Ransom Riggs has created an intriguing world, and I was eager to see how it would all end.
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