Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Publication: June 7, 2011

Synopsis: 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.

Fresh, creepy and unique. All those crazy stories Jacob's grandfather used to tell him about going after the monsters could easily be explained by Nazi memories plaguing him, but who'd have thought the monsters his grandfather was referring to were actual monsters? Certainly not Jacob, who saw one in the woods the night his grandfather died and later haunted him in his dreams. Everyone kept telling Jacob that he was simply traumatized, but he began to wonder if there was something more to the stories his grandfather told him as a child about Miss Peregrine and the children that lived on an island off Wales. The peculiar ones that levitated, lifted heavy objects, were invisible, etc. He once thought the old photos had been manipulated, but once he saw a monster in the woods that night, he's not so sure anymore.

Jacob sets out to the little island of mystery, and once he finds the old mansion that was once bombed during the war, his world gets turned upside down as he learns more about his grandfather, the children he lived with at one time, and even the possibility of Jacob being a little 'peculiar' himself, and finds himself  in the middle of a war the real world doesn't even realize is going on around them.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this when I first started out...possibly something with a little more horror, but I was pleasantly surprised nonetheless. This novel had a little bit of everything - suspense, mystery, paranormal elements and even a smidgen of romance. Old, creepy photographs fill the pages within and offer visuals I'm not sure my imagination could have done any better creating. The approach this novel took was fresh and creative and I'm looking forward to the next installment!