Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children By Ransom Riggs | Book Review

Book Details:

Author: Ransom Riggs

Ages: YA

Rating: 6/10

Number of Pages: 384

Plot: An unexpected and shocking family tragedy sees young Jacob Portman travel to a remote island off the coast of Wales in order to uncover the secrets of the supposed 'peculiar' children his grandfather had told him so many stories of as a child. In a new and mysterious setting Jacob and his doubting father embark on an adventure that could prove Jacob’s new and peculiar visions and also uncover the secrets behind his grandfather’s past. In a small and archaic town, Jacob stumbles across the ruins of the orphanage once home to his grandfather and the peculiar children. Confused and disappointed, Jacob is almost ready to give up when he sees the beautiful Emma Bloom, one of the peculiar children from his grandfather’s photographs, but something is wrong – Emma hasn’t aged a day. In a story exploring the paranormal, Riggs creates a franchise that is able to mix the mysterious with historical elements.

Review: I must admit that I am very late to the peculiar children craze (I think this installment of the series actually came out in 2011 which is crazy in itself!). I had purposely stayed away from the series due to the popularity it had received amongst the YA community at a time where dark fantasies seemed to dominate discussions. To be honest, I was also scared that the trilogy would not live up to the hype. It’s hard to completely immerse yourself in a book series when you are aware of just how popular and well-loved the books have become. As someone who rarely agrees with public opinion on popular YA’s, this is probably most noticeable in my review of The Fault in our Stars, I tend to try and go back to the series’ a few years later. It was actually the release of the film adaptation hat spurred me into reading the series finally.

So, the first aspect that really stood out for me was the historical element that is incorporated alongside the paranormal. For as long as I can remember I have loved anything paranormal or spooky, The Night World series by L.J. Smith was probably my first love of the paranormal genre. For the majority of the text, I feel that Riggs is able to create an interesting portrayal of the paranormal that, from the top of my head, doesn’t really appear in YA fiction from the last decade. However, it’s the incorporation with history that really exacerbates the success of the exploration into the paranormal. The whole idea of time loops and being stuck in WWII really added to the originality of the text and also made the history nerd inside me excited by the narrative.

"We cling to our fairy tales until the price for believing in them becomes too high."

Another plus of the text was the beautiful vintage photography featured alongside the narrative. Whilst I must admit I was put off by this addition to the narrative when I first picked the book up, it really did add to the immersive nature of the story and, I would imagine, would offer an extra for the younger readers. After doing some research into the text as well, I found that the book was originally meant to be a picture book, having no narrative at all. It was only when the publishers urged Riggs to create a story from his images that the narrative of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was born.

However, whilst there were aspects of the story that I liked, and I would still recommend this series for YA fans, I overall felt a little disappointed. The story, for me, just seemed to incorporate aspects of existing franchises, most notably the whole idea of a whole house full of gifted children just screamed X-Men for me. I know it is highly likely for YA’s appear similar to other texts, especially regarding certain tropes, but, for me, Riggs had such an unusual premise with the whole notion of time loops and the paranormal that I feel that it could have taken a whole different direction – adding to its originality and making it stand out amongst its competitors.