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juushikaTitle: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Published: Philidelphia: Quirk Books, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 352
Total Page Count: 107,797
Text Number: 311
Read Because: Caitlín R. Kiernan's July book of the month, borrowed from the Corvallis library
Review: When his grandfather is killed, Jacob travels as far as a remote Welsh island to discover the truth behind the strange tales and photographs his grandfather left behind. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is as much about aesthetic as anything else, and if the cover intrigues then most of the book will satisfy: indulgent, creepy circuspunk brought to life by vintage photos, the book lingers gleefully in the dark corners of history. I'm not often scared by what I read, but the pictures attack the imagination from a second angle and do much to instill the aesthetic; while their inclusion eventually becomes contrived, they're on the whole a fantastic inspiration and one of the best parts of the book. Peculiar Children is a fast read, because of the illustrations but also because of its growing focus on action and its teenage protagonist—while not strictly YA, it shares the easy-reading first person POV that's common in that genre, and the prose is otherwise transparent. Initially, its consumability is as delightful as the aesthetic, making for a book that's easy to slip into for a few hours of immersive distraction. But in the end, Peculiar Children lacks something. What begins as a mysterious premise and promising worldbuilding develops into too much explanation with too little depth; at the end of the book there's no mystery, and, as a result, none of the intrigue and threat promised by the subtle impossibility of the images at its premise. Combined with an open-ended conclusion, the end of the book doesn't quite fall flat—indeed, insofar as one cares about the characters (Jacob's suburban frustrations are trite, and the rest of the cast is promising but underdeveloped), the book ends with an emotional climax—but it does betray its growing focus on action and drive home that the destination doesn't justify the trip. None of these issues are ultimately deal-breakers: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is still brilliantly inspired and a fun distraction. But other than potential and a very handsome presentation, it's not much more than that. I recommend it ambivalently: there's no harm in reading it, especially if the atmosphere intrigues, but there's no pressing need to either. Myself, I found it a pleasant enough escape from these too-hot summer days, but don't need to own it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Ransom Riggs
Published: Philidelphia: Quirk Books, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 352
Total Page Count: 107,797
Text Number: 311
Read Because: Caitlín R. Kiernan's July book of the month, borrowed from the Corvallis library
Review: When his grandfather is killed, Jacob travels as far as a remote Welsh island to discover the truth behind the strange tales and photographs his grandfather left behind. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is as much about aesthetic as anything else, and if the cover intrigues then most of the book will satisfy: indulgent, creepy circuspunk brought to life by vintage photos, the book lingers gleefully in the dark corners of history. I'm not often scared by what I read, but the pictures attack the imagination from a second angle and do much to instill the aesthetic; while their inclusion eventually becomes contrived, they're on the whole a fantastic inspiration and one of the best parts of the book. Peculiar Children is a fast read, because of the illustrations but also because of its growing focus on action and its teenage protagonist—while not strictly YA, it shares the easy-reading first person POV that's common in that genre, and the prose is otherwise transparent. Initially, its consumability is as delightful as the aesthetic, making for a book that's easy to slip into for a few hours of immersive distraction. But in the end, Peculiar Children lacks something. What begins as a mysterious premise and promising worldbuilding develops into too much explanation with too little depth; at the end of the book there's no mystery, and, as a result, none of the intrigue and threat promised by the subtle impossibility of the images at its premise. Combined with an open-ended conclusion, the end of the book doesn't quite fall flat—indeed, insofar as one cares about the characters (Jacob's suburban frustrations are trite, and the rest of the cast is promising but underdeveloped), the book ends with an emotional climax—but it does betray its growing focus on action and drive home that the destination doesn't justify the trip. None of these issues are ultimately deal-breakers: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is still brilliantly inspired and a fun distraction. But other than potential and a very handsome presentation, it's not much more than that. I recommend it ambivalently: there's no harm in reading it, especially if the atmosphere intrigues, but there's no pressing need to either. Myself, I found it a pleasant enough escape from these too-hot summer days, but don't need to own it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
