Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children: Ransom Riggs

Following a traumatised teen witnessing his grandfathers death at the hands of a seemingly fictional monster to a magical orphanage where he discovers that these peculiar events might just be real after all. This is a book where you’re almost immediately thrust into the action. Sure, it may start off innocently enough with your average teen at a summer job and then BAM! Death, monsters, and traumatised children. 

It’s quite a dark beginning for a book that has a pretty happy and relaxed middle. It explores some really fascinating ideas, the concept of peculiardom is awesome to think about and the many abilities that could be possible. The time loops are also a very interesting idea when you consider what could be done with them. You could effectively time travel by hopping from one period of time to the next. I hope that that’s explored later in the other books of the franchise because it would be really cool to see them time hopping. 

The main villains of this book and the series, the wights and the hollowgasts are very well done and have the persona of a fanatical cult trying to achieve goals known only to them. It gives off the sort of vibe that you might find more in a horror book than in a fantasy. Additionally, Jacob’s (the main characters) family are so out of touch and emotionally unavailable that you kind of have to feel sorry for him, even after his PTSD and nightmares and panic attacks, they still don’t do much and that doesn’t paint them in a very good light.

Though I do find it a bit odd that while the characters inside the time loops are vastly older then they appear, they still act as if they were still a child. It’s like the years they’ve lived have had no effect on them. Also, I find it a bit unrealistic that he is able to befriend everyone so easily and so quickly, especially after they’ve spent the last however many years together as just them, so they might not be very welcoming to change.

I have read the second in this series and will definitely be picking up the others too (although I will be avoiding the film until I have finished them all). They have just the right amount of creepiness and fantasy to be entertaining.

Image copyright: Quirk Books