Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Reprint) (Paperback) by Ransom Riggs

The House in the Cerulean Sea + Back to the Future + Groundhog Day + The Diary of Anne Frank Jacob Portman grew up listening to his grandfather’s stories. Some were horrific, with his family being hunted during the war. Some were fantastical, like the island of peculiar children where he went when he was saved. Peculiar, like the boy that had bees living inside of him. All had pictures to go with it. As he grows up, Jacob starts to think the photos are doctored and the stories are just stories. What will it take for him to believe? I hear people use the phrase “felt like I was coming home” a lot. That’s the best way I can describe a lot of the books I reread. There’s something so comforting about the book--from the cover to the characters, and in this book, the photos. If you go to Ransom’s IG, he did a fantabulous live last Friday, where he gave us the original ideas (it was originally going to be an illustrated poetry book, like Amphigorey). Again, I can’t praise this book enough. Not only are the characters and world extremely well-fleshed out, but Ransom has done a totally unique thing by shaping his story around old vintage photos he found. I’m extremely sad that just as I’m coming back to the series, the final book comes out next month. Buy this book for yourself or someone looking to get lost in time. If you’re twisted, get it for someone who says pictures are for kids’ books.

Came in before estimation time and was in great condition.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a novel like no other. The reader experiences characters and scenarios that are nowhere close to normal. This story is the tale of Jacob Portman who learns about the peculiars from his grandfather’s dying words. He starts to see the creatures his grandfather would speak of, which causes his parents to make him see a psychiatrist. Jacob becomes inspired to learn more and, with a little help convincing his parents from Dr. Golan, he and his father take a ferry out to the island of Cairnholm. On the island, Jacob learns of the various time loops and meets all the peculiar children. He becomes close with Emma Bloom, who can start fire with her bare hands. The wights and hollowgasts are mentioned throughout the story as we learn they are the monsters the children are frightened of. They start to cause problems on the island and Jacob and Emma fight them off together. I think a lesson is learned about who you should trust when we find out that certain humans in Jacob’s life, such as Dr. Golan and his bus driver, were wights the whole time. Jacob is an extremely relatable character to any teenager who chooses to take on the endeavor of reading this novel. He is misunderstood by his parents and constantly feels out of place, feelings almost all teenagers feel the burden of at some point in their life. Because of this, he holds his place as my favorite character. At first the time loops can be confusing, but eventually they start to make sense. My favorite part of the book was toward the end of the novel, where Emma and Jacob fight of the wight together. I would most definitely recommend this novel to any young adult looking for an extremely interesting story. I am sure you will not read anything else like it. Ransom Riggs did a phenomenal job of keeping the reader’s attention, while contributing aspects to the story that were very unexpected. Overall, it was a very good read filled with the most peculiar surprises.

I read it and then bought it for a 14 year old. Part suspense, part dealing with being different.