Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs
30 Nov 2011
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![Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Ransom Riggs. Book Review: Jacob's grandfather told him incredible stories. Unbelievable stories, about his childhood and friends with strange abilities. His only evidence: a collection of strange, old photographs. As a child, Jacob wanted to believe, but as he grew he came to the same conclusion as everyone else: his grandfather was, at best, using his stories to insert magic into a life full of loss and tragedy. [Black and white photographs show a destroyed building and a falcon.] But then, tragedy strikes again, and Jacob sees a nightmare creature in the woods, a creature from his grandfather's stories... [Black and white photographs show the destroyed building from another angle and a falcon in flight.] The words of the story are interspersed with old, eerie photos Jacob finds along the way. The photographs really make this novel, which is hard to put down.](/assets/img/missperegrineshome.png)
Good for: While it's on a lot of "young adult" book lists, I'm not really sure why. It didn't read as particularly "young adult" to me. I would recommend this for any fans of mysteries and dark fantasy. Some elements reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, or something by China Miéville.
The original images of the dilapidated house used in this review are in the public domain, and were accessed through Wikimedia Commons. The Peregrine falcon images were originally by J.M. Garg and Sylvia Duckworth.
Comments
Whitney said:On Nov 30, 11 at 9:51pm
I agree, slow in a couple places but overall fantastic.
Brian Marino said:On Dec 02, 11 at 12:53am
Sounds really awesome! I'll check this out.
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