Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs + Trailer

Title: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children 
Author: Ransom Rigg 

Release Date: June 7th, 2011

Rating:  5  ❤❤❤❤❤

Description via Goodreads:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.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.A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

“I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen.” ― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children 

My Review:
This is apart of my "read before the books hit the screen" challenge (I should really post this list huh?) and since this novel is scheduled to hit the screen September 2016, I wanted to get ahead.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is for sure a page turner! I couldn't put it down and I'm sure I would have finished it sooner if I didn't have children of my own to take care of. It's the first book of the trilogy and though I usually don't read trilogies, I've been finding them intriguing lately.

We follow Jacob Portman as he uncovers the past and present of his Grandfather, Abe's life. It's set in the twenty first century as well as 1940. I'm a big fan of books, shows and movies set in anytime between 1900-late 1960's. I find that time period fascinating. So I was pleased to read about the descriptions of this place, including clothing they wore, transportation they had and the way people behaved. Jacob spends the majority of the book fishing through his grandfather's past and trying to figure out how did he fit into that world which is so magical and different from the one he knows.

Then there is a choice. Should he stay in his world of ordinary people doing ordinary things or should he join this world of peculiar people that nearly no one knows about? I suggest you read it to find out the answer to that one!

Riggs uses photographs to show what the children of Miss Peregrine's Home look like and it's amazing how well that works with the novel. It really ties in with the descriptions and the fact that you get a REAL photograph to help with your visual.

Riggs makes it hard to NOT believe that a world as fantastical as this one he described doesn't actually exist. He pulls you in and invests you into a character who is by all means relatable except the fact that he is in a world that as readers we might start to believe can actually coexist with our world. If that's not brilliant, I don't know what is.

I loved it from the very first page to the very last and I am really excited to go out and get the rest of the trilogy. I do hope that Riggs explores the other characters backgrounds more because in this novel he focused more on Jacob and his grandfather.

And to sum it up - here is the trailer:

About the Author:

Ransom Riggs is the author of is an American writer as well as a film maker. He is responsible for The Sherlock Holmes Handbook, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Hollow City, Library of Souls and other titles. He is married to Tahereh Mafi who is a YA writer herself. 

Riggs new novel, Tales of the Peculiar is set to be released on September 3, 2016. Pre-order here.

Amazon US | Author's Page | Goodreads