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| Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children |
This is one of those books I seemed to hear about everywhere for a while there. Books like that always seem to end up On Reserve, though it often takes months or years before they actually end up in my hands.
I think I first added this book to my Goodreads list last summer, making it about a year until the point I actually read it. To be honest, that's about average for me. Something I really need to get better at....
The novel is probably best classified as fantasy, perhaps a bit science fiction. The best way to describe it is with a reference to X-Men. It's different enough from the comic book world to set it apart, but, for the average person, X-Men is going to be the best comparison to which it can relate.
Basically, a Florida boy has his adventures set off when his peculiar grandfather is killed. And, I don't use the word peculiar accidentally. It turns out, Jacob's grandfather is one of a unique breed of people, called peculiars. Going back to the X-Men analogy, they are the mutants of this fictional world.
Mix in some international travel, time travel, and a host of quite unique children and you have the book. The plot is nothing overly clever or unique, but its execution is fun and entertaining.
Most interesting to me, Ransom Riggs incorporated strange old photographs that he and others have collected over the years. Really, the plot and characters were born out of these photographs, which are scattered throughout the book. It makes you wonder why these pictures were taken in the first place and how they were accomplished without the magical influence given them in their fictional history.
I have just started the second book in the series and am looking forward to diving more into some of the technical aspects of the world Riggs created.
The series is not ground-breaking, but it's fresh enough to give you several hours of enjoyment. It's also clean, except for some bits of violence. It would be a great book for young adults looking to read more of this genre.
Pages: 352
Date Completed: August 17, 2014
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