Book 118: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" By Ransom Riggs

 

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author:  Ransom Riggs
Read In: Nook ePub
Genre: YA Fantasy/ Historical Fiction
Publishier: Quirk Publishing

The book has been highly touted as amazing. I'm sure you've seen it, it's everywhere. Recently the sequel was released. It (as you can see in the picture) has been on the NYT Bestseller list for quite some time. That said... it was okay. For less than 300 pages, it took me an absurdly long time to read. Why? It wasn't hard; it was easy. It just wasn't gripping. The one character I cared about dies at the beginning of the book. I care about all the remaining characters only in proxy to that one person; this doesn't make for a strong book. It is plot driven, which is most likely my problem, since I only really love books that are character driven. The book is well written and well-developed, it simply did not grab my attention. The storyline also took forever to actually go somewhere; the actual point of the story didn't reveal itself until the last third of the book. That, in my opinion, is far too long of a build up before the conflict is shown to the reader. So, overall, I simply wasn't engrossed in the characters or story and I wasn't impressed.

There is one aspect of the book that I really did enjoy: the photographs. Riggs uses old photographs to illustrate "peculiar" children and adults. This is the only time I was really engrossed with the novel. It is also the main reason I would suggest reading it in print vs. the electronic format. On my regular nook, the photographs didn't translate well at all and on my nook tablet, the photographs were small, I had to zoom in on them, which actually destracted me from the magic of the storyline and the pictures' roles within the narrative. My tablet also displaced some of the pictures, so their presence made less sense. If I read the sequel, I will read it in print.

Overall, the book does have a unique concept, the story and characters just weren't gripping enough to keep me reading for long periods of time or to even draw me back, anticipating me more. The book is well written, but I don't understand why everyone is touting it as amazing. It's not bad. It just isn't great, either.