Book Review/Inspired Outfit: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Excuse the horrible photoshop. I was being lazy and trying to go fast.

As you can see, I’ve just finished reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and it’s time for a review!

I had planned to be inspired by one of the photographs other than the cover, but… did I mention lazy? As well, it’s probably the most recognizable of all of the images, seeing as it’s on the cover, and it’s the closest thing I have to an outfit out of any of the peculiars. So, here we are. I have actually been wanting to read this book ever since Salazar reviewed it, and I was not disappointed! The cover really appealed to me (I’m a visual person!), and while I wasn’t quite satisfied with the ending after all of the buildup, it was good enough.(And I guess there’s a sequel coming, so that makes me feel better about the end.)

But first, the synopsis. Jacob’s grandfather Abe has always told him fantastic stories of his childhood and shown him old pictures of peculiar children — the floating girl, the slender boy who could lift boulders, the man with a mouth on the back of his head, the invisible boy — but as time went on and Jacob grew up, he stopped believing his grandfather’s tales.

Until one night, when his grandfather is murdered, and on finding his grandfather at the scene, Jacob sees something from his nightmares.

After some time seeing a psychiatrist to deal with his trauma, Jacob is encouraged to find the island and the house for peculiar children that his grandfather often spoke of. He arrives… and finds a horribly marred house that was bombed in the war, leaving no survivors.

Or so they thought.

As Jacob explores the overgrown, long-forgotten house, he is discovered by a group of children who, when he spots them, scatter off into a bog. Jacob gives chase… and somehow finds himself thrown back in time, to the very day that the house was bombed. And he discovers that his grandfather’s stories were not just stories.

The children are still alive, caught in a time-loop that resets the day over and over and over again just before the bomb strikes. He learns that they are in perilous danger, that the nightmare he saw on the night of his grandfather’s death is real, and that he is one of them. It’s a pretty fascinating story, and Riggs writes it fantastically well. I was captured from the first page, and when I turned the last I was sad. I didn’t want the story to end — partially because it’s not really a conclusive ending, partially because I could have happily spent many more hours exploring the curious world Riggs created between reality and fantasy.

Throughout the entire book, I was dreading that Riggs would write an ending that was a complete letdown; that perhaps he would take the cheap way out, or that Jacob’s entire adventure was an episode because of his trauma, or the monsters he saw would never really be revealed… but thankfully none of this happened. While the ending was not absolutely conclusive, it left you with a sense of triumph that they would conquer the problems the book left them with.

The last few chapters were the most intense. I kid you not, I was reading it at night in bed and I still got the heebie jeebies when I had to quit mid-scene because my husband wanted to go to sleep. I loved each and every character in the book; each peculiar child, however small their part, had an interesting background and a perfect personality for their peculiarity. The monsters were perfectly creepy and intense (which is hard to do in a book, I think). It’s the first book that has really scared me since I read the scene with Shelob in Lord of the Rings.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a quick read and good fairytale with a twist!

Well, you guys, it is absolutely frozen today! I feel like I say this with every season’s beginning, but I LOVE this weather. I feel like Fall/Winter might be my favorite, because it’s all frosty and pretty, and you get to wear fun layers and the grass sparkles and it’s just beautiful. Plus there’s Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to, and… ah, I just love it!

What are you looking forward to this season? And can you believe Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK???

I can’t. Happy Tuesday!