Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Random Riggs

genre: mystery/fantasy

Jacob has grown up an avid admirer of his grandfather.  Not that he believes all those crazy stories about levitating girls and invisible boys that Grandfather showed him pictures of.    And that school on an island in Wales can't possibly be as magical as grandfather says.  Right?

Except, after one singular, horrible experience,  Jacob doesn't know WHAT to believe.  Either he has actually gone crazy or there is more to grandfather's mysterious stories than he'd thought.   Only a trip to Wales to do his own investigating will finally let his mind rest and put those childish ideas behind him forever. 

OOOOHH but what he find in Wales!  This is where the book just gets so GOOD.  I mean, I read it in a DAY, good.  I don't want to spoil any of the plot but what makes this story so stinking special is those photographs!  Throughout the book these fascinating old photographs add depth and, almost, a firm footing to things that are just so hard for Jacob to believe.  But he DOES believe, and so do we and I found myself completely enthralled with this alternate reality.  The mysteries keep you guessing and I particularly enjoyed the few really great scary moments.

It was shelved with the young adult books in my library, but I think this is one that any lover of alternate realities or mysterious fantasy could enjoy.

note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

5 comments:

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

My friend/hairdress told me I needed to read this -- add that to your 4 stars -- I'm clicking "to read" on Goodreads!

bermudaonion said...

This book sounds so unique!

colleen cutayne said...

This book was a little slow to get started but then really hooked me. It had lots of interesting characters and I like the author's sense of humour. This is the type of book I like to read. Something original and in an original setting.

Cheers,
CJ Cutayne
Author of "Because of the Moon."

Alice said...

Hi! I found your blog through Book Blogs. I'm a copy editor at Rizzoli Publishing (Italy) and we published this book a few months ago :-) I copyedited myself actually, and I love it very much.
I hope you'll have time to check out my blog, at

http://alicepluswonderland.blogspot.it/
and maybe join it.

Look forward your next review:-)
Aly

(twitter @pluswonderland)

Malia said...

Reading this series right now and loving it! I can't wait to get my hands on the third one, conveniently published this week:-)

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