Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)

by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here - one of whom was his own grandfather - were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

• ISBN10: 1594746036
• ISBN13: 9781594746031
• Publish Date: 4 June 2013 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quirk Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781594746031

Reviews

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

This sounded good, and since my friends have been raving about it, and the movie based on it is coming out this month I decided to finally read it. And it was good, but it also wasn't...

Let me explain. You know those first-in-a-series books that spend so much of the book setting up the story that it doesn't really feel like an actual story? Yeah. That was this book. Some parts of it were interesting. Some parts dragged like crazy.

Almost the entire first half of the book is about Jacob and growing up on his grandfather's stories. And how after his grandfather dies, he thinks he's crazy and is sent to a shrink. After close to the half-way mark, he finally sets out for the island his grandfather grew up on. And we finally start seeing some of the things promised in the synopsis.

But even then, it's in tiny bits and pieces. The book just dragged on and on for me. And then all of a sudden, after all the plodding along the book does, towards the end it suddenly picks up speed and you're thrown into a spurt of action! Which then dies again for the last handful of pages as it continues to set up for the 2nd book.

The pictures were neat. A few of them were slightly creepy, but not overmuch. The book itself? Not creepy at all. Jacob was kind of boring actually. He only had one friend, and that one he said more than once was because he was helping the guy not fail English, in exchange for the other kid keeping the bullies away from him. And normally I would wonder exactly why Jacob didn't have friends, and expect him to end up with lots of them once he found the Peculiar Children. But I just couldn't care enough about Jacob as a character to wonder or care.

If not for the fact it's Tim Burton making the movie, I don't think I'd bother going to see it either. Your mileage may vary, but I won't be reading the next book in the series.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[MurderByDeath]

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs.   A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.   

If you've seen my posts on your dash in the past few weeks you'll already know I have a hometown bias towards this book and to a small degree, its author.  I bought it purely on the strength of this hometown connection, in fact.   So I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the writing and how much the story sucked me in.  Even after the first few chapters and Jacob's departure from said hometown, I continued to feel like I was in Wales, both past and present.  The fog, the rain, the bogs, the sun, the bombs all felt graphically real.   

The premise has threads of X-Men running through it but it takes on a life and direction of its own and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The authentic vintage photographs help bring the story to life (not to mention freak the reader out in their own right - I might never look at Santa the same way again).   This is the first in a trilogy and if you like the phantasmic and your peculiarities slightly creepy, you might find this book for you.

[Jo]

2.5 Stars.

Review originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is one of those books that I've always wanted to read, but never got round to. I think part of the problem for me is that I'd had a flick through the book, and I found some of the photos included kind of creepy, and they gave me the heebie-jeebies. I'm not generally into creepy, so I think that's why I steered clear. But then I saw the trailer for the movie, and thought it looked incredible! So I eagerly picked up the book and found it to be a really interesting story!

Jacob has grown up with his Grandpa Portman telling him stories about his time as a child at an orphanage, the children with strange powers who lived there, and the monsters he used to fight. Jacob loved hearing these stories as a child, but as he got older, he stopped believing in them. When his grandpa is fatally attacked, his final words to Jacob are a bungled message before dying in his arms: find the bird in the loop behind the old man's grave. Just after he dies, Jacob sees a terrible sight; a horrible creature with three tentacled tongues.
No-one believes what he saw, and instead think he's suffered a mental trauma due to his grandpa's death, proven by the horrific nightmares that visit Jacob sleep almost nightly. But when a letter is discovered that proves his grandpa really was at an orphanage off the coast of Wales, Jacob is desperate to go. Convinced by his psychologist that this could be good for him and help him get closure, Jacob's parents allow him to go, accompanied by his dad. But the orphanage is a crumbling ruin now, hit by a bomb in the second world war, and no-one is left alive who knew his grandpa. But there's evidence in  a group of photographs that perhaps the stories his grandpa told him weren't just stories to entertain a child. And maybe the children who lived in the orphanage when his grandpa was young, might actually still be alive.

For me, the story can easily be broken down into three parts; Grandpa Portman's death and Jacob trying to work out the message he gave him while visiting the crumbling ruins of the orphanage, when Jacob meets the peculiar children, and the part that leads to the climax that I'm not going to spoil. I found the first part really intriguing, and I was completely gripped, what with all the clues and the message, and this ruin of a home. What did Grandpa Portman mean? Who lived at this house? Why was Jacob's grandpa there? It was such compelling reading, and I was desperate to know more!

But once Jacob works a few things out and is introduced to the peculiar children, the story kind of fizzled out. Jacob gets really interested in these kids - Emma who can create fireballs from her hands, Olive who can levitate, Millard who's invisible, and so on - and is content just to hang out with them. I can understand that he's not really had proper friends before, but the story just kind of stagnated here. There are these children, and they can do such fantastic things, but all they're doing is hanging out together. I think this would have been enough and really fascinating, learning about the children and all their different abilities, but with that absolutely gripping beginning, this middle just really didn't match up in intensity, nor was it as fascinating.

But then the story moves forward and things start to get interesting again! Suddenly Jacob remembers the unanswered questions he has about his grandpa, and he wants the truth. There are a number of really exciting, edge-of-your-seat moments; you think the story is bad right now, but then something else happens, and you're constantly wondering how it's going to end. There was an element to the story that I had already guessed, but a number that I hadn't twigged, and I found it pretty gripping again. But once the story had finished, I think in all, I was disappointed with the climax. In the moment it was exciting, trying to work out where the story will go, but once I knew, there was a disappointed "Oh" moment.

I found the romance of the story to be unbelievable, in the literal sense. I just didn't feel it, and I most definitely wasn't rooting for it. No, no, no. That was just too weird for me. And I'm kind of undecided as to how I feel about the ending, and where things stand for the next book. I'm just not sure how I feel. Do I want to read the next book? I think so. Am I in any rush to do so? Not particularly. I just felt, overall, the beginning was the best part of the story, and I don't know if that mysterious feel is going to continue. There's still a lot that needs to be figured about, but... I don't know. I know I found the last part exciting, but is the excitement going to continue and get better, or am I going to be disappointed? I really hope it's going to be exciting! I do think the movie is going to be brilliant, though, I can see the movie taking the good parts of this book and making it wow. Having read the book now, I know just from the trailer there are a few things that have been changed for the movie, and I think some might be good, so I'm excited to see it! I just wish I was as excited for the second book, Hollow City, as I am about the movie.

Thank you to Quirk Books for the review copy.

[Kelly]

Full review on my blog
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was fantastical, a wonderfully rich and picturesque world that enchants and delights. Sixteen year old Jacob stands among the ruins of the once stately Wales manor, formerly an orphanage for children during the second world war including Jacob's grandfather. As a young boy, Jacob was raised on the tales of mythical children who were extraordinary. Invisibility, levitation, creating, shaping and enchanting the children's home where taught by Miss Peregrine herself.

As the modern realm advances, the children are protected by a time loop and live each day with endless possibilities knowing that the sun will rise again. While Jacob's grandfather enlisted in the war effort, returned, married and begun a family of his own, the children of Miss Peregrine's haven't aged. Perpetual children who are loved, cared for and given refuge against a cruel world.

So incredibly whimsical, the children were lovingly created and their world vividly painted. I was captivated. Throughout the first installment, the reader is treated to a collection of images of the children under Miss Peregrine's care. It was incredibly atmospheric and immersive.

Told through Jacob's point of view, Jacob is teen lashing out after tragedy befalls the Portman family. He's antisocial and insists on retracing his grandfathers childhood tales with his unemployed father in tow. His father has never understood the connection his own father shared with Jacob, but under the guise of a bird watching expedition and advice from Jacob's therapist, the duo adventure to the small Welsh island.

What makes Jacob extraordinary himself is the children of the orphanage. Dapper Horace who has premonitions of the future, Hugh who is seemingly made of bees, Enoch who can animate the dead, the invisible Millard and Emma Bloom who is the homes resident pyrokinetic, able to create and control fire. Emma and Jacob are attracted to one another especially given her connection to his grandfather, but their attraction is a gentle companionship rather than a passionate teen romance.

It was nothing short of breathtaking. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children's whimsically eerie storyline of the curious and wonderful. Lyrically beautiful and immersive, I absolutely adored it.

Sllllllooooowwwww

[Steph L]

More on this when we discuss this in the book club, but I really loved this book a lot, and I was skeptical of reading this. This book was very original, and it was very imaginative like a book that I had never read before.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

3.5 ★ Audiobook⎮ This is one of those super hyped books I was really hoping to enjoy, but just didn't. I've had an on/off relationship with this audiobook for over a year now and I finally resigned myself to finish it this time.

It was a real struggle for me. Fortunately, I think I can pinpoint why. This is definitely on the lower end of the YA spectrum, being maybe only a couple of notches above Percy Jackson. I often find myself unable to tolerate "Lower YA" and middle-grade stories because the writing is generally so far below my maturity level. This story came across like it was meant for 12 to 14-year-olds and made me feel like I had been browsing the children's section of a library. Experiences like this always make me feel like I'm on the outside looking in, which isn't a good feeling at all.

Narration review: I will acknowledge that the narrator, Jesse Bernstein, had a lot to do with that. He has a very youthful voice and I'm sure he makes a wonderful narrator for children's literature. He has excellent characterization skills and is a very talented narrator.

Unfortunately, his voice also comes across as immature and annoying to me. I think if this audiobook had been narrated by someone with a more mature voice, the main character would have sounded his age, instead of years younger. Unfortunately, this is an issue I've had with every title I've heard with him as narrator. I have nothing against Mr. Bernstein who, again, is a very skilled narrator. But my personal listening preferences will discourage me from hearing any more of his work in the future.

I hear that the next installments in the series have another narrator, so I won't rule out continuing with the series. It will be interesting to see just how much this installment's narrator has influenced my opinion of this title.

[clq]

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a peculiar book. It tries to be an impossible amount of things at the same time. It doesn't succeed at being all of them, but it makes a very honourable attempt, and it's not like anything else I've read.

I'd describe this book as a genre-defying fairy-tale for grownups. I mean that in the best way possible, but also as a bit of a warning. The reader will have to give themselves over entirely to the book and the world it creates. Disbelief has to be suspended, and one has to allow for the unlikely and fantastical, even by the standards of the "rules" set out by the book itself, to happen.
I wouldn't really blame anyone for not being on board. The characters (with a few exceptions) don't become much more than props which help drive the story forward, and several places the plot feels very forced.

Hoooowever…

If one manages to look past all of those things, this really is a wonderful book! I allowed myself to be pulled into it, and it repaid me with dividends. Reading it awoke in me a sense of childish wonder and adventure that I can't remember having experienced in quite a while.

And that's not because this book is childish, because while it often uses language and tropes one would associate with books for children, it treats its readers as adults. There are a lot of elements that make this story very grown-up, both in terms of subject-matter and plot. I really felt that the story managed to keep hold of the playfulness, sense of adventure, and the magic of a story written for the wide-open mind of a child, while seamlessly venturing into mature territory when the story requires it. The style really appealed to me, and I really liked the story.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants a modern-day, addictive, and really entertaining fairy-tale.

[Kate (Blogging with Dragons)]

I was intrigued by the cover of this book multiple times before finally picking it up from the library. Unfortunately, this was another case where I shouldn't have judged a book by its cover and the strange photos inside. I thought I was getting a supernatural book about a mysterious, even sinister orphanage for children. What I got was more along the lines of a campy Charles Xavier school for mutants. The only thing remotely haunting about this book was its cross generational romance. Why dating your dead grandpa's former love interest seems like a good idea (to the narrator--or the author--for that matter), is beyond me. All in all, this book was a good idea in theory, but proves that a story shouldn't be built around discovered eerie vintage photos simply because it can.

Ik was al zo lang benieuwd naar dit boek! Maar ik had geen idee wat ik nu precies moest verwachten, zonder spoilers te lezen. Uiteindelijk heb ik het besteld op Bookdepository en ben ik begonnen met lezen.
Het boek is zo interessant, ik moet gewoon deel twee lezen. Ik vind het boek uniek, vooral door de foto’s die erbij zitten wat mooi bij het verhaal passen zonder het ook maar een beetje kinderlijk te maken. Ik was niet helemaal dol op het einde van het boek, maar over het algemeen vond ik het zeker vier sterren waard.
Ik vind het erg leuk dat niets is hoe het lijkt in dit boek, zonder dat het onduidelijk wordt. Alles wordt zo duidelijk beschreven, maar niet te uitvoerig en je kan goed doorlezen. Ik kon niet stoppen met lezen toen ik eenmaal begon, buiten mijn leesdipje van een week dan. Maar toen ik vandaag weer begon met lezen moest ik het ook meteen helemaal uitlezen. Het was te interessant, ik kon er niet mee stoppen.

Alleen het einde was een beetje… te snel? Te voorspellend? Ik weet het niet. Het was minder goed dan het begin, maar het maakte me alsnog zo nieuwsgierig naar deel twee. Dus van de ene kant is het wel een pluspunt, want het maakte me nieuwsgierig. Alleen had ik gehoopt op een einde waar iets meer aandacht aan was besteed, zonder dat het voorspelbaar werd of het afgeraffeld leek, wat nu wel het geval was.

Ik vind het zeker een aanrader, maar het is heel lastig om iets te schrijven zonder meteen veel te verraden van het boek. Het moet gewoon gelezen worden, zo snel mogelijk. Oh en natuurlijk naar de plaatjes kijken, die net dat beetje extra geven aan het boek!