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Loading... Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Childrenby Ransom Riggs
  
» 38 more Books Read in 2014 (60) Books Read in 2023 (237) Carole's List (83) Amusing Book Titles (45) Books Read in 2013 (244) To Read - Horror (5) Books Read in 2018 (2,569) Books Set on Islands (30) Books Read in 2012 (35) Ghosts (125) Secrets Books (67) Books read in 2015 (12) al.vick-series (62) Books About Girls (108) Art-inspired fiction (28) Magic Realism (348) First Novels (345) Best Young Adult (426) No current Talk conversations about this book.  Kristi_D | Sep 22, 2023 |  This book was full of surprises and imaginative twists! Can't wait to read the sequel. (  ) ajrenshaw99 | Sep 1, 2023 | This was really cool and unique. I'm not sure that I liked the storyline enough to read the next one though. ( ) CaitlinDaugherty | Aug 28, 2023 | This was really cool and unique. I'm not sure that I liked the storyline enough to read the next one though. ( ) CaitlinDaugherty | Aug 28, 2023 | A good friend recommended this book as an introduction to the culture of Wales, where I will be traveling soon. The book failed on that front, though it is set on a little island off the Welsh coast. In fact, it is not of the style I would usually read (or stay with). Yet, the creativity in this writer's work led me on, and I did finish the book. I plan to recommend it to my young adult grand children. (  ) jjbinkc | Aug 27, 2023 |
 Boken är knappast ett stilistiskt mästerverk. Dialogerna krystas stundom fram och vissa figurer är lika blodfattiga som de spöken som förföljer dem. Det som gör verket unikt är bilderna  The author’s ability to use the photos to play with the reader’s imagination, while still holding the tension of the plot, is extraordinary. This kind of device can feel like a self-conscious reminder of the authorial hand, but this is not the case in Miss Peregrine’s Home.  In Miss Peregrine’s, a teenager decides to investigate the stories his grandfather told him about an island off the coast of Wales. He finds more than he bargained for, of course, and there are adventures, involving a group of kids with remarkable abilities which are almost, but not quite, entirely similar to mutants from X-Men comics. For a story constructed to make use of a collection of vintage snapshots, it’s impressively cohesive, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with yet another recounting of the hero’s journey from callow youth to manhood. But the book never lives up to its own aesthetic, and the story refuses to get past surface level on the occasional odd idea or intriguing concept. Whatever its faults, Miss Peregrine’s only true sin is that, presentation aside, it isn’t really that peculiar. Those Creepy Pictures Explained The idea for Miss Peregrine's Home popped into Ransom Riggs' head when he ran across some sinister-looking vintage photos, which ''suggest stories even though you don't know who the people are or exactly when they were taken.'' As he began writing, he kept searching for images, even combing swap meets and flea markets. ''I was developing the story as I was finding the photos. I'd find a particularly evocative photo and I'd say, 'I need to work this in somehow.' '' Most are reproduced in the novel ''as is,'' but a few have been digitally altered. Riggs says he ended up with more photos than he could use: ''I have a nice big fat backlog for the second book.'' — Keith Staskiewicz  With its X-Men: First Class-meets-time-travel story line, David Lynchian imagery, and rich, eerie detail, it's no wonder Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children has been snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox. This is a novel with ''movie adaptation'' written into its powerful DNA. B+ Belongs to SeriesIs contained inContainsHas the adaptationAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumRansom Riggs's book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.  Popular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.7)
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Wikipedia in English (2)
5
Throughout all of Jacob Portman's 15 years, his grandfather has told him stories about his past. Incredible, unbelievable stories about monsters and kids with special abilities and an island where he and the other kids hid from the monsters. As he grows up, Jacob realizes that the stories are fictional, or at least an exaggeration of a childhood shaped by fear of persecution and annihilation, for Jacob's grandfather's family was Jewish in Poland during WWII. Then tragedy strikes, and Jacob begins to feel he's losing his mind, haunted by his grandfather's monsters. The only solution he can think of is to go to the island where his grandfather once lived, where he hopes someone who knew his grandfather might still be. But he could never have prepared himself for what he would find there.
I really did not know what I was getting into when I started reading this book. Apparently some people expect it to be horror, but it really isn't--more creepy at worst. It's more of an adventure story, with some mystery and suspense, definitely sci-fi/fantasy elements, and even some historical fiction thrown in. I really liked the mystery and intrigue as Jacob tried to decipher his grandfather's cryptic message. I also think the world-building around the safe house and the way it's kept safe are incredibly interesting and well-done. The main character starts out as a self-important, bratty kid, and...well, he may still be that at the end of the book. But a self-important, bratty kid with a mission is better than one with no aim whatsoever, so there's that.
I was really caught up in the book almost the whole way through, but when I slowed down to think about it, I realized the writing could have been better. And the inclusion of the photos sometimes flowed well, but other times the explanation for why there was a photo of a particular person or event just felt too forced. However, I think I approached this book the opposite of most people--rather than being excited about these creepy, vintage photos that the story is written around, I didn't really care about the photos in advance, read the book for itself, and looked at the pictures as they came up. If you're thinking of reading this book because you're looking for a creepy story to go along with the creepy pictures, you may be disappointed. If you're looking for an interesting speculative fiction world with kids with super-hero-type powers that first have to save themselves, and then quite possibly the world, this might be worth reading. Be warned, though: it ties up most of the story from the book, but the ending is a jumping-off point for the next book, which I'm looking forward to continuing. (