Series Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

* This post contains spoilers. *

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1)

Ransom Riggs

Fantasy - Supernatural

352 Pages

(Read 10/31/2016)

     First of all, let me just say, I absolutely despise the new cover art on this novel. I do believe that the cover art on the original book is what drew me in more than anything. That, and now it just does not go with the rest of the series' covers. Who wants to have a bright, colorful book when the rest of the series is black and white. Just my opinion, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

     So I've technically been reading this since June... It took a while to get into, and I mean a while. Jacob is a peculiar child, well teenage boy, and is put into counseling and is considered "psychologically unhealthy" after his grandfather, Abraham, dies and begins having nightmares of the things that his grandfather told him stories about. He is raised hearing stories of his grandfather's backstory, escaping from Germany during the war because he was Jewish, then fighting in the war (but not the war), and about growing up with his peculiar friends at the "orphanage." Jacob learns all about the levitating girl, the boy with the bees, the invisible boy, and the strongarm girl, each with their own photo. Among others, he also learns about the monsters. The monsters (later explained by Miss Peregrine) are former ymbrynes (ymbryni?) who thought that they could use the "loop" to relinquish aging for good. The whole thing was actually led by Miss Peregrine's own brothers. When they stepped through the loop, though, they were taken so far back in aging that it is believed that they were formed into their "before-the-soul" selves called hollowghasts. The hollowghasts have to feed on peculiars to thrive. They can feed on common people, but the peculiars are what give them strength. 

     Jacob gets a letter addressed to him from his grandfather after he dies that was found among Abraham's things. When Jacob reads the letter, he convinces his parents and psychiatrist to go on a trip to this Island on the coast of Wales to "prove to himself that none of it was true." In reality, he is going to find whatever his grandfather wanted him to find. He finds the old home in ruin and rummages through the remnants, not finding anything.

     So he finds the loop and meets all of the peculiar children who are old, like 80+ old, and Miss Peregrine, the headmistress. Miss Peregrine actually knows that Jacob is peculiar. He, like his grandfather before him, can see the hollowghasts. Later on when a group of wights kidnap Miss Peregrine, Miss Avocet and other ymbrynes, Jacob, Emma, Hugh, Bronwyn, Horace, and other Peculiars are going on a rescue mission. They manage to save Miss Peregrine, but when they get back to the loop, stuff is wrong. Miss Peregrine can't revert back to her human self and the loop hasn't reset. This is where the book drops off and leads into the next book. 

     Overall, this book gets a three from me, it wasn't easy to get in to and I'm still not 100% sure about the series. What are your thoughts? 

Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #2)

Ransom Riggs

Fantasy - Supernatural

428 Pages

Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #3)

Ransom Riggs

Fantasy - Supernatural

464 Pages