Despite being made into a major motion picture in late 2016, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children caught my eye on a spontaneous trip to Waterstones. The book was on a table surrounded by other fictions of its kind and instantly, my eyes were drawn to it. Without a doubt in my mind, book in hand- I purchased a copy.
I actually bought the book back in July of 2016, with the intention of reading it on holiday and only recently got around to finishing it (naughty me)! Being an avid book reader, I felt it needed a blog post of its own, (warning this post may contain some minor spoilers).
I will start off by saying, yes, I have watched the film adaptation and like in most cases, the book was immensely better in numerous aspects, but we will come back to that.
A little bit of background information:
The novel was written by Ransom Riggs in 2011, and is the first of three novels in the series. The book has since, well deservedly, been a "New York Times #1 Best Seller", a "USA Today #1 Best Seller" and an IndieBound Bestseller.
Brief Plot summary:
The plot is from the perspective of a 16-year-old boy called Jacob who, upon the strange death of his Grandfather begins 'seeing things'. Due to this, Jacob beings to visit a therapist and journeys to a remote, Welsh island where he believes his Grandfather wanted him to go, with his father. Here, he discovers the old remains of a children's orphanage (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children). Against his father's wishes, he continues to visit the abandoned orphanage to explore the decaying structure and finds himself in a mystical world, in which the 'peculiar' children and Miss Peregrine reside. This seems odd as Jacob had been informed prior to this by the residents of the island, that a bomb had hit the orphanage and killed all of the children during World War II. If you are feeling confused, I was as well, but you soon come to realise that the sense of 'time' in this novel is unusual, in a breathtaking and magnificent way.
My thoughts:
I loved it. Plain and simple. I was drawn in by the 'Harry Potter-esque' tenor throughout the story (and no, it wasn't some sort of cheap rip off version, in fact, plot-wise it wasn't anything like Harry Potter. I mean the sense of magic and wonder integrated into the plot). The storyline kept me hooked constantly, and I found myself sitting reading for hours on end, unable to put the book down. This is a massive brownie point to the novel, as it's a crucial aspect to maintain reader interest and to leave people craving more.
This book also wasn't short of unpredictable twists and turns, that actually left me open-mouthed whilst reading. The ability to steer the plot and make clever U-turns is something I adore about Ransom Riggs- making the reading experience even more enjoyable. Do you remember how I mentioned the film before? Well here is the first critique- in the book, the plot twists were executed a lot better than the film in my opinion. My second critique of the film is that they swapped and changed the characters and their powers, which I didn't like at all- I felt if they had stayed true to the book- the film would have been better.
Pictured above, is a sample of some of the images used in the book. Creepy images of the children in the orphanage were used whenever Jacob mentioned that he had found one. I appreciated this, as I felt it complimented the story extremely well and made you feel as though you were a part of Jacob's peculiar (if you pardon the pun) journey. The images also gave you the ability to visualise the characters and orphanage better- shaping your view as well as making the novel feel a little more mysterious (mirrored within the children themselves).
All in all, I will 100% be reading the other books in the series and I would definitely recommend this book.
Rating: 5/5
If you have read the book or even watched the film, please feel free to comment your opinion below- I'd love to hear them!
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