Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (YA Book Review)

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
(Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1)
by Ransom Riggs
Published by Quirk Books
on June 7, 2011

Genre:

Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Ages: 13 - 17 years

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Literary Awards:

The Kitschies Nominee for Golden Tentacle (Debut) (2011)
  ALA Teens' Top Ten Nominee (2012)
Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Awards for Young Readers (2014)
California Young Readers Medal Nominee for Young Adult (2016)

My Rating:

 ☆☆☆☆☆

SYNOPSIS:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.

As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here - one of whom was his own grandfather - were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason.

And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was one of the most interesting and entertaining books I have read so far this year. (I'd list it right up there with The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which I also loved very much.)

Young Adult fiction tends to blend together quite a bit these days, in my opinion and finding something that really stands out from everything else was very much anticipated. I think I knew from the moment I saw/read the title of this book that it would surpass most fiction and end up on my favorites list. I personally tend to LOVE anything peculiar, dark, and/or macabre so maybe I'm a bit biased but I truly did love this book. I avoided any reviews so I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by it.

I really loved that the photographs used in this book were real. I don't know if the author based the story and characters around the photographs or if they were found after the story was written but they bring so much more to it all. Usually, we are left to our own imaginations but having a little something visual to go by gave it a special touch.

I also love that there is a possibility that this story may continue. I was perfectly okay with it being a stand-alone novel but I'm also quite alright with imagining how the 'peculiar children's lives will continue on after the end of this story. I would love to see what other 'peculiars' the author can come up with, though, so I'm looking forward to a sequel. (I am not positive that there will be a sequel, I just know that Ransom Riggs is writing another book.)

[Read from April 13th to April 16th]