Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

Published in 2011.

Pages: 353.

Number of books by author: 10 Novels.

Genre: Fiction.

When Jacob bonds with his grandfather over his childhood stories, he starts disbelieving their truths as he grows older. But when his grandpa dies, he is determined to follow up on his death-bed confession. And when he does, he's shocked at what he finds in the world, and within him.

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:

• Historical

• Family life

• Military/war

• Thriller

• Imaginative Fiction

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.84. I think it was more deserving of a 4.00.

I was more than surprised with myself that I was able to read this book, in one setting at that. I am not typically able to read, watch, involve myself with things that aren't possible or can't exist. And this book was able to hold my interest, for the most part, throughout the entire thing. The historical and war facts or mentions didn't distract from the book as they were just these subtle statements in between some larger statements.

I couldn't put my finger on it until we got about 3/4 of the way through that this felt like a downgraded, less enthusiastic Harry Potter. (And I'm sure true HP fans will disagree or dispute my feelings, but keep in mind, I don't enjoy things that aren't real - in fact, I couldn't even get through the HP books... curse me, I'm sure.) And I say that because the focus here was on the discovery of one's history, and less on the things that actually occur. When I put this book on my wish-list a few years ago, it wasn't under recommendation or referral. Something about the cover (not noticing the levitating

child) and title in combination made this feel like an orphan story with a tragic beginning and a horrid ending with a rainbow somewhere in between the first and last page - and I guess in some ways, that existed. But I never thought through the idea that this was going to involve monsters, and skills, and time travel. (Although, I can't imagine the book being anything else.) Because the book was more about Jacob's discoveries about his history, and his future, I didn't feel overwhelmed with mystical events and it let me focus on the story, not the "fluff."

As someone who loves detail, this book nailed it. There were spots where it may have been overwhelming or unnecessary, even with the attached photos, but in all, it felt complete - from beginning to end, the level of detail was there and it never felt like Riggs got tired or exhausted all the descriptive words in the dictionary.

The pictures bring a lot to the book - and I was curious about their involvement, and my copy of the book happened to have a Q&A with the author and I skimmed through the questions and found one about the photos, which brought a really unique viewpoint to the book. These were all real photos found by collectors, and the stories were in part inspired by those photos, and that says something about the author's ability to create a story out of nothing, or inspire a story out of nothing, and that was a really intriguing part.

The book was done tastefully, that I've set out to make this my trilogy of the year.

My only complaint is there was another typo in another NY Times Best Seller (not to mention a #1 best seller). Just a casual annoyance.

#peculiarchildren #historical #familylife #military #warstories #thriller #imagination