Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

A mysterious island.??
 
An abandoned orphanage.??
 
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 were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow--impossible though it seems--they may still be alive?? A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.


Lately I have really be reading as an escape so I apologize if the next few reviews feel a bit flippant. This book, for example, I finished reading almost a month ago, so I am completely going off notes and a smidge of memory (yes. I do take notes while I read, especially if a strong thought hits me. I don't want to forget to mention it!)

This book got just an "it's fine" rating of 3 stars on my goodreads account. And that's all it really is. Just fine. I wasn't thrilled with it. It often wasn't my primary choice of entertainment (Netflix won more often), but there wasn't much really wrong with it. 

It was really interesting to read a book with pictures in it! I don't even remember the last time I read fiction that was accompanied by any sort of visual image, whether it be photographs or illustrations. I sort of felt like they were a bit redundant at times, often I would be reading along and all of a sudden the next page is a picture. I found that Riggs's writing was good enough that I didn't really need the picture, his literary descriptions were good enough for me, but perhaps he wasn't confident enough in his own writing? Or maybe this was the thing that he tried to do to make his book different from others?

I found that I got bored with it really early. It seemed like a lot of the devices in this novel had been done before. The time travel element reminded me of Tom's Midnight Garden, the Home for Peculiar Children was kinda similar to Professor X's School for Gifted Children, often times I was reminded of Harry Potter... I didn't feel that this story came up with anything new enough to "wow" me and get me in the "reading zone". Riggs needs to come up with something new (because the pictures really didn't do it for me), and perhaps he has in the sequels to this novel, but I'll probably never know because I don't intend on reading them.

Normally I don't care this way or that what a novel is classified as, but while reading I was really unsure of whether this book was intended for Young Adults/Teens or Adults. The main character and  writing style would suggest it's a Teen novel, but the profanity suggests otherwise. So since, Riggs didn't seem to know who he was aiming this book at, I won't try to pin down a demographic either. But personally, for most people, I would recommend just passing on this one.