Recent Reads #12 - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

When was the last time you read a book that was so good it made you forget the world around and seemed to absorb you into its very own world? I know exactly when I did. When I was reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs at the pool back in Tenerife, the noise around me seemed to die down and I didn't even realize when little kids splashed me or dripped ketchup from their hotdogs on me.

This book is a very special one, pretty much one of a kind, at least on my shelf. I can't be the only one who has seen it sit on a shelf in the bookstore a thousand times and never picked it up. To keep you from passing up this gem, let me spill the beans about it to you.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children follows the story of Jacob Portman, who appears to be a completely normal American boy at first sight . Jacob thinks of his life as boring and doesn't really feel comfortable with his family's wealth. The one member of his family he has a real, strong bond to is his Polish grandfather, who used to tell him the most fantastic storie about the children he grew up with when he was a kid. Children who had strange abilities, like making plants grow, flying or foreseeing the future.

But when Jacob wants to visit his grandfather one day, he comes to find that his grandpa has been  murdered viciously. Before he dies, however, he tells Jacob to "find the bird in the loop on the other side of th old man's grave on September 3 1940, and tell them what happened". Even though everyone tires to tell Jacob that it was dogs who killed his grandfather after the incident, he can't stop feeling like that it wasn't like that at all - he saw a man-like figure. With tentacles coming out of its mouth. In fact, he keeps seeing them.

Jacob feels like he is losing his mind, but then he finds a small box when cleaning out his grandfathers house. A box containing the pictures Jacob's grandfather brought out when elling his stories. Only that suddenly Jacob feels like those aren't stories anymore.

As Jacob tries to unravel the mystery surrounding his grandfather's life and death, he has to realise that there is a whole other one surrounding him, and that peculiarity can be found even in the most blunt of people.



While I really like the book overall, I have to admit that it might take you a while to get into the plot if you are not an avid lover of fantasy or mystery novels. After the first fifty pages, however, all hell  breaks lose, and you'll read like your hands are glued to the pages because everything that is happening is so strange and yet so wonderful.

What I also found extremely interesting is that this book has two different time settings - modern day America, and 1940 Wales. Every peek back into Wales during the second World War was really intense - I really enjoyed that as I don't think I've ever read a book set in that historical period, even though I've learnt so much about it during the past few years.

I haven't even touched base on the best thing about this book yet. It's actually not just your average book - it's filled with pictures that help introduce characters, set atmospheres or just plainly freak you out. The photos used in this are all original, vintage photographs the author collected, and they were chosen so perfectly that they tie into the book's plot seamlessly. They're incredibly fascinating to look at and make the book even more exciting and intense!


Overall, this books an incredible piece of work that draws you in completely and doesn't let go of you for a while, even after you manage to put it down. It has incredible characters, especially if you take into consideration that the majority of them are children, and an awesome plot that is carried by fascinating yet sometimes terrifying, authentic photographs.

If you want to see if all the stories are true, you can pick up Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children from Amazon for 7,99€.

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