Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

The cover for Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is difficult to resist. Reading the synopsis and looking at a couple pictures makes it even more enticing. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children was an exciting read. I don't know why I waited so long. It was a story I could barely put down. The first line was a great hook, "I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."

The pictures were an interesting, unique addition to the story. I know people love the pictures and I thought they were great, but they didn't make the story for me. I think I would have enjoyed the story as much without the photos. Author Ransom Riggs writes well. I had no problem picturing Emma or Olive after they were described. The vintage photos were interesting though, especially knowing they were real photographs from peoples' private collections. I appreciated Riggs acknowledging everyone at the end of the book.

I really liked all of the characters, Jacob, Emma, the villain. They made the story for me. I liked getting to know Jacob's father, but I would have liked to get to know his mother too. He makes some pretty big decisions without his parents for being just 16. Why was his life so miserable? Why did he have just one friend? Was it just because of his grandfather's influence. I understand the author making him into an outsider, for the various plot reasons, but what I wanted to feel more was why. Maybe with some more information about his relationship with his mother... in Hollow City perhaps... I will understand Jacob's decisions more. That being said, the plot was great.  I loved the twists and turns. There were so many unexpected little quirks. The end was mysterious.  I'm looking forward to Hollow City.