Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Story Line - 5

Writing Style - 4.5

Characters - 5

Excitement Factor - 5

Believability for type and topics - 5

Similarity to other books - 5

Cover art - 5

Dust Jacket Art - 5

Title Relevance - 3

Goodreads users gave this book a 4.05. I think it was more deserving of a 4.56.

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Published in 2012.

Pages: 396.

Number of books by author: 12 Novels (Book 2/3).

Genre: YA Fiction.

When Jacob decides to live the present for the time-loop, he has no idea that he'll be going on an incredibly dangerous adventure to save Miss Peregrine (and her children). But when Jacob is faced with challenge after challenge, he begins to doubt his presence in either life. Will Jacob stay in the past, or will he venture back to his un-ordinary life?

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

• Science Fiction

• Fantasy

• YA Fiction

When I first read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I wasn't sure why I was drawn to it. But by the end, I had put Hollow City on my TBR. I'm glad I read it with a little space in between, because I think back-to-back, this series would've been too outta my league. I think I enjoyed the first book more than this one, but I'll try to keep the comparisons at bay.

The character development was something I was curious about before even starting this book. How do you expand on the already peculiar? It wasn't known if Hollow City would exist until the first of three was already doing well. So Riggs had to really dwell on their character traits. And each primary and secondary character was flushed out very well in the first. So I wondered how he'd explore that in Hollow City, and he did a great job with the already existing characters. They were each challenged with personal battles and we learned more about their personality traits as we went along (for example, someone has a soft spot for children's safety; someone feels under appreciated, etc.). But these weren't things that we truly saw in the first book, so it was nice that I was able to grow with the characters as they journeyed through all sorts of smaller-battles. And I think it was smart to also add secondary characters at virtually every stop they made. Each minor battle gave them someone who either helped or hurt their potential to move forward, and I thought that Riggs did a good job of including them in that moment, but not making their presence be required in future pages. It was also nice to see that these characters, for the most part, had one mission, and one mission only. There was still conflict between the characters, as there would be in any high-stress situation, but we weren't bogged down with drama. I don't know if that's an age/maturity thing for the peculiars, or if it was just a matter of them being focused on their mission, but I was happy to not have to sit there children crying over spilled milk (yes, I'm aware, they're still children).

The writing style bothered me in this series, yet again. I really don't like how choppy it all is. Either break it down, or don't. But I'd prefer it to be broken down into smaller chapters. That being said, the rushed writing style is what makes this a page-turner. It wasn't so rushed in the first and I thought that was fitting; but here, it needed to be rushed. We constantly needed something to drive the story, because even with a mission in mind, this is a rather repetitive series, and it's important that we don't get bored (at least for the sake of the author). If time loops and hollows were a real thing, you can bet on this being what life would've been like for peculiars (if they were real, too, of course). I thought it was methodical, it was understood, and I really liked that we brought in a scientific style with an intangible mission. The entire story line was just really powerful simply by existing. We didn't need big words or lots of detail (which we didn't really have, and that was fitting) to make the story feel important to the reader. Riggs did it just by writing the story. And I'm glad that he continued (although I didn't like it at first) using the photos to write his story. At the end of book 1, we were clued in that these photos were things he was collecting, and he felt compelled to write a story using the photos. It wouldn't have felt like a sequel without the photos, without that element.

The dust jacket was almost identical to the first, but I liked that we got a new photo. (Although, I'm not sure why either photo was chosen for the cover, but I think it's a simple representation of peculiars at their most extreme.) I hate reading with dust jackets on, so they quickly come off before I start reading - and I was surprised to find a little name jotted on the hardback. (My first book was paperback, so I'm not sure if this was on the first one... if it was, I'm interested to know what it said.) And it didn't make sense to me until the end... and I'm not sure if I have entirely wrapped my head around the purpose of it being there, but I thought it was a nice touch. The hardback reminded me of an older book, faded and kind of old in texture. And I'm not sure if that was intentional, but to me, it was a nice touch. It felt old, like the children, like their stories, and like the time period we end up in. I dreaded the title. I thought this was such a strange title... I expected it to really resonate with the story, but I didn't find it to be that valuable. Looking back, I don't remember there being a phrase where the title was included or something that anyone was particularly strong-headed about. I wouldn't say it was forced, but I just didn't particularly enjoy it.

#mysterymonday #trilogy