A while ago, Marshmallow and Caramel watched the 2016 movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and were quite disturbed by it. Only recently did Marshmallow come across the book which the film was based on: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, written by Ransom Riggs and published in 2011. To her surprise, she found it to be a quite satisfying read and decided to review it for the blog.
Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about magic and friendship, then this might be the book for you.
Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): As Jacob was growing up, his grandfather Abraham always told him the most extraordinary stories about a house for peculiar children who each had special powers. This home was special, run by a bird who smoked a pipe. The children in the home were peculiar; some could fly, some were extremely strong, and the rest had other unnatural skills. But there were monsters after the children, and the monsters wanted to eat them. As Jacob grew older, he began to doubt the truth in these stories. That is, until he saw the monsters for himself.
Early in the book, Abraham is killed by the monsters that he used to talk about and suddenly everything changes. Abraham’s last words are “Find the bird. In the loop.” In an effort to make sense of these events and his grandfather’s final words, Jacob visits the children’s home. Unfortunately, the home he finds is not the bright paradise his grandfather described; rather it is a destroyed shell of a house because it was bombed on September 3, 1940. Jacob’s grandfather had uttered that exact date with his last breath. Upon further investigation and some excitement, Jacob is brought as a prisoner to the children’s home by some of the children. There he meets the “bird”, Miss Peregrine, who takes care of the peculiar children. Jacob’s grandfather’s stories were all true. And unfortunately, that means the monsters are real too.
Marshmallow’s Review: As mentioned above in the preamble, I had watched the 2016 movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children before I read this book, so I had a sense of what to expect. Here is the trailer if you have not seen the movie yet (certain aspects in the movie differed from the original story and book):
I had enjoyed the movie but was a bit disturbed by it. In the end I think that the book is as good as the movie, if not better.
I really enjoyed reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children because it has a fascinating premise, and the plot is quite intriguing and original. There is humor and action, all intertwined with a lot of strange, peculiar things going on.
I would say that Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is for readers older than 12 or 13. There are a lot of (unnecessary) bad words, and some of the events may be a little scary for younger bunnies. (That may have been the reason why Caramel and I were so unsettled when we watched the movie version.) There was some amount of kissing too, which may be uninteresting for some people.
The book has a lot of photographs (in black and white) that are all mentioned and talked about in the book. And the photos are all displayed. I found it amazing that the photos fit so perfectly with the story. As far as I understand, the author wrote the story based off these photos he found. I found the photos added nuance as they’re not something you see in a novel everyday. However, a couple of the photos (specifically pg 263) might be disturbing for younger bunnies, yet another reason why this book may be better suited for 13 and above.
All in all, I found Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a fascinating book to read, and I look forward to reading the next book.
Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.
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