Eccentric Everything: Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Publication Date: May 20, 2012 (TPB)
Publishing House: Quirk Books
Number of Pages: 352

Synopsis:

16-year-old Jacob has discovered the ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores the abandoned building, he realises that the children were more than just peculiar - they may have been dangerous. And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive.

Review

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children follows the tale of Jacob Portman, as he tries to find not only himself but also the remnants of his grandfather’s life—the eerie house that was often the center for the bedtime stories his grandpa had been telling him since he was a child. The plot is heavily accompanied by strange photographs Ransom Riggs found.

The story starts off with the boring painting of Jacob’s life. It’s dull, an uneventful routine which consists of going to work at Smart Aid, going home, et cetera. That is, until one happening that split Jacob’s life into two—Before and After. Now, Jacob is regularly seeing a psychiatrist to help him recover from the trauma, and that psychiatrist just so happens to point out that Jacob needs to travel to the island where all of his grandfather’s stories all seemed to take place in. Upon traveling to that island in Wales, Jacob sets out to find the house, and the Bird who supposedly ran it, as well as the children with alleged “peculiar” characteristics.

I’ve already read this novel some years back, and I was enthralled by it. I just decided to read it again because of the fact that the third installment, Library of Souls, came out a few weeks ago. And I must say, my decision of re-reading this book was not a disappointment. First, the world-building. Ransom Riggs was able to mix fantasy and reality in Jacob’s mind, and at some point during my first reading, the possibility that all of Jacob’s revelations were in fact, dreams, occurred to me. Good thing that’s rectified, though.

In another sense, the pacing during the early parts of the book was a bit slow for me, but it picked up its speed during the latter parts. When it got to the point when Jacob discovered the children, I was still enchanted by Ransom’s very detailed and vivid characterization. .

Overall, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a perfect Halloween read and even if you’ve read it the first time, I can assure you that you’d still be mesmerized the second time around. All of the characters are fun to read, and the world the books take place in can be described as peculiar and wonderful. Lastly, the photographs compliment the plot very well, giving hints as to how the characters and the world seem. I think this revolutionized reading, as it paved a way to spark the reader’s imagination in trying to find out how anything in the book looks like.