Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Written by: Michelle Gajewski

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is, as you can probably guess, a peculiar type of story. The plot is based on a collection of old photographs Riggs has come across that are sparsely included throughout the book.

The prologue immediately drew me in. We are introduced to both Jacob Portman, a loner teenager who comes from a wealthy family, and his paranoid, gun enthusiast, World War II veteran grandfather. Jacob tells us about his childhood and the marvelous stories of Grandpa Portman’s (Abe) that are hard to believe. Though, he shows Jacob various photographs, mostly of children, doing ‘peculiar’ things (such as levitating) that make them more believable – until Jacob grows up. I actually found this part of the book the most interesting, and I regretted being forced into the ‘present’ to focus on Jacob rather than Grandpa Portman’s stories.

All of these peculiar children live on a semi-secluded Welsh island that Abe escaped to from Poland during the Second World War. All of these children have varying special abilities and choose to remain hidden from the rest of the world under the matronage of Miss Peregrine. Abe leaves the island in order to fight in the War and later settles in Florida. Slowly we also learn about a past love interest of Abe’s (named Emma) who also lived at the peculiar home. But Jacob and his father can only speculate what exactly transpired between them. After the mysterious death of Abe, Jacob decides to visit the Welsh island to fill in the gaps of his grandfather’s stories and to reveal the circumstances of his death.

The plot then progressed at an acceptable tempo, but unfortunately, I lost interest in the story about three-quarters through. At first I was eager to follow Jacob along in discovering the secrets of his grandfather’s past, but the dialogue between characters became too unbelievable and answers to question were not satisfying and weak. Reading the last two chapters was quite the struggle. I slowly disconnected from Jacob and did not feel invested in the ragtag ensemble he encounters at all; their fates were no real concern to me unlike it often is with other books. This might be because it’s not targeted to my demographic (I’m 23 and this is listed as children’s/young adult literature). On the other hand, this book did manage to spook me on occasion and violent scenes are depicted –so I’m not sure if parents would let their children read this.

Something I enjoyed about this work was how easily I was able to imagine the settings with the descriptions provided, which is something I often find myself struggling with as I tend to focus on dialogue the most. The included photographs actually do little to nothing  for the general plot setting, so I appreciate this being the first book that did not create major ‘setting holes’ in my mind through its use of words.

I did not know what to expect from this novel before picking it up, and I was left unsatisfied. The writing ranged from extremely captivating to dull and offers no real conclusion, leaving it open to a sequel that has been confirmed by Riggs. Either way, I have no strong feelings for recommending or discouraging others from reading this book.

Side note: the book trailer is actually pretty cool and definitely worth a look. There is also a movie adaptation in the works with Tim Burton set to direct according to the author’s blog. I just hope they don’t cast Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter as the two teenaged protagonists (because that would be weird).