Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1) in DC Public Library

Oct 20, 2016 Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, young-adult, fantasy

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" is a book that I have been wanting to read for a while. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but this cover is hard to miss. You have a hovering little girl in black and white standing on the front cover. It was just begging me to read it!

In this book, Jacob grows up hearing fantastical stories from his grandfather who lived in Europe during World War II. Jacob doesn't think anything of his grandfather's stories besides just being entertai ...more

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Dec 22, 2014 Arlene Caruso rated it it was ok

Ugh. Didn't enjoy this one. I feel like it was not edited well? There were lots of grammatical errors that jarred me out of the book and made me think "who wrote this?" It's a mess. I'm not saying I could write it any better but I am not a professional writer. Also I thought it was a book for children (YA?) but there were lots of references to stuff like boners and at one point the protagonist says something about his friend's mother blowing truckers for food stamps. Not sure that is something I ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Jennifer rated it liked it

An interesting tale of "peculiar" children who live in what's best referred to as a 1940 time warp. When a modern-day teen visits the island hoping to learn more about his recently-deceased grandfather, he realizes that all of the fantastical stories his grandfather told him were true.

I love the author's use of old, creepy photographs to illustrate the peculiar community and the storyline, but I don't think the author's writing style fits with the book's mood.

It's an enjoyable book that leaves ...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Lizzie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult

I was truly enthralled and scared to hell of the darkness subject matter and storytelling of this book. I had could not read it alone or at night. (I'm a grown baby, yes, I know.) This noir might turn off some teens. Strong sense of place. ...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Megan Reichelt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi, ya

Jacob grew up listening to his grandfather's stories about how he escaped the war in Europe and hid from monsters in an idyllic children's home for kids with strange powers. As he got older, he started to realize that there was probably no such thing as girls who could levitate, or boys who could pick up giant rocks, or the mysterious caretaker of the house, "The Bird" - Miss Peregrine. Or child-eating monsters with tentacles coming out of their mouths. He distanced himself from his grandfather Jacob grew up listening to his grandfather's stories about how he escaped the war in Europe and hid from monsters in an idyllic children's home for kids with strange powers. As he got older, he started to realize that there was probably no such thing as girls who could levitate, or boys who could pick up giant rocks, or the mysterious caretaker of the house, "The Bird" - Miss Peregrine. Or child-eating monsters with tentacles coming out of their mouths. He distanced himself from his grandfather and ignored his desperate phone calls, blaming it on senility... until his grandfather ends up brutally murdered, and Jacob sees a glimpse of a monster disappearing into the dark woods. After many visits to a therapist, Jacob embarks on a quest to find the house, find Miss Peregrine, and get some answers. He gets more than he bargained for.

I have a problem with expectations. I expected that this book would scare me shitless. That it would be full of thrills and chills, and that I would not be able to sleep. Like a weird mix of X-Men and the Woman in Black. That is not at all what this book is, and I was kind of disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great first book for Riggs! He has some fun prose, like "The sky was the color of a new bruise." The beginning is fantastic, setting up his listless life, the shock and horror of his grandfather's murder, and the aftermath where everyone thinks he is crazy. I love his initial investigations when he sleuths around the Welsh island. I got some minor thrills when he is exploring the dark, musty ruins of what once was Miss Peregrine's Home, trying to solve the mystery of their fate, while hoping their ghosts did not kill him in the process. The last 50 pages are chock full of thrills, murder, monsters and bombs.

However, (spoilers) he discovers the pocket of endless summer that is "the loop," an idyllic haven for the peculiar children who are now in their 80s, but eternally in children's bodies, still approaching the world as children. This was less satisfactory for me than if their was some element of Claudia from Interview with a Vampire in there. Fun, fucked-up psychology of an 80 year old trapped in a child's body. Anyway, this is where the story stops dead for me. They go swimming, and fall in love, and yes there are interesting characters to be introduced to, and lots of explaining, but other than that, not much happens for a good 100 pages.

One interesting fact about the book is that all the photographs are real. He pulled them out of archives, yard sales, and personal collections. Sometimes I felt he was writing to justify the picture's presence in the book, but other times they creepily supported and expanded upon the text.

It is a charming book (which is not what I expected to say about it), and a well-written first part of a series. At least it reads that way. I hope there are more books coming that can get into the guts of the action, mystery and horror without the weight of exposition.

I said the same thing about the last book. Am I growing impatient? ...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Kelli rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-fiction, young-adult

I think if I was in more of a reading mood right now I would have rated this book higher. It's a quick read full of peculiar children and monsters and contains some interesting photos. It looks like a movie is in the works and possibly more books. ...more

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