My next review starts in a Denver airport, or maybe it was Houston—it doesn’t matter. I was alone in an airport bookstore clutching onto a box of flu medicine, a water bottle and the ability to stand, and I decided I needed a book. Though I was returning to Seattle (after a luxurious holiday back home) with no job and a heap of bills, I bypassed the self-help books and gravitated straight to a glowing black-and-white cover where a little girl belonging to another time, stood eerily.
A slight shadow beneath her feet caught my attention. The girl was levitating.
“That’ll be $14.68, hun,” the sweet lady in the Denver/Houston airport said. And thus began my desperate, hungry, stuffy-headed experience with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs is the author of this dark twist of fiction, and he’s gotten some rather extraordinary recognition for the novel, which was released by Quirk Books in 2011. Peculiar Children (yes, it’s a nickname) made the #1 New York Times Bestseller List, was called the next Harry Potter by CNN, and was referred to as “Tim Burton-esque” by USA today.
I believe that’s enough praise for Mr. Riggs.
Excuse me, my jealousy is showing.
To get to the base of it, this book is an experience. From the dark patterned pages that introduce each new chapter to the photographs laced throughout, supplementing the story—but not supporting it—this book is a gold mine. No, literally, I felt like I was digging for gold. With the dusty confusion of reality trying to ground me, and the shimmering draw of fictitious peculiarities attempting to pull me into a delicious new world. Every bit of gold, every detail, was vital to the story; oddities didn’t exist in the novel merely to supplement the chilling mood. And for that, I was grateful for each one.
Something I wondered continuously while reading, however, was if this book was meant to be Young Adult. Our focal character, sixteen-year-old Jacob, is an interesting kid who has a good deal of graphic, traumatizing encounters, but is he interesting enough to keep my adult attention? From a first-person perspective? I asked myself this as I swallowed the first half of Peculiar Children waiting for my flight. Then I realized that I had swallowed the first half of the book. Then I stopped asking dumb questions. Then I kept reading. I suspect that the key to forming a successful young adult character who is able to capture the attention of most readers, independent of age, is to display growth. In 352 pages, Riggs not only achieves this, but does it believably. Each new scene or experience has an impact on Jacob, sometimes stunting him, and other times forcing him into adulthood. Coming of age, you say? I think it’s a little more than that.
However, for the sake of brevity I’ll move on to the speck of things that I didn’t quite enjoy:
- The parents. I’m not sure if Jacob’s suffocating and concerned, but not-quite-there parents are unfairly pulling at the corner of a distant memory of mine, but I wanted more or less of them.
- I understand the flood of details that needed to be poured into the reader’s head, and I enjoyed the majority of them. At times, though, I felt that a couple of key conversations existed more for the reader rather than Jacob, our vessel into the unknown.
- I expected an open ended close to the story. I wanted to hungrily scour the internet for the next installment’s release date and mark my calendar but, while I know the series is only beginning, I somehow feel content with the ending. C’mon Riggs, be a tease once in awhile!
Despite these small irks, I recommend Ransom Riggs’ first novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, to everyone over a certain age. But I urge those who enjoy an escape, goosebumps, photographs, kind-a-sorta historical fiction, and mystery to go get a copy immediately. Like, now. Also, quit your job, catch a cold, book a flight, and get stuck over-night in Denver—it makes the read that much more thrilling!
Thanks for the scares and near heart-attacks, Riggs. 3.5 stars.
P.S. Coincidentally, Hollow City, the second installment of this series was released today, 14 Jan 2014. Now isn’t that creepy. I guess I better go buy it….