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.