Hollow City

Hollow City necessarily lacks the sense of wondrous discovery that drove its predecessor, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. By definition, this world isn't new to the reader anymore. Despite that, I like this second book in Ransom Rigg's Peculiar Children series even better than the first one.

Hollow City dives right into the action and doesn't let up. It doesn't need to take the time to orient the reader to this peculiar world, and Mr. Riggs takes full advantage of that fact. It starts at a sprinting pace and draws the reader along breathlessly. This is an action story, a thriller, and an adventure tale.

Through the action, we learn more about the characters by witnessing how they react, behave, and cope with all the twists show more and turns of their journey. Each character gains depth and nuance as their world expands around them. We learn more about the history and mythology of the peculiars as the horizons of that world broaden before us.

Hollow City is strong second outing in a compelling and original series. show less

As readers get to know the peculiar children a bit more in this book, it becomes more and more apparent that there's not much to distinguish one from another besides their peculiar abilities. About a quarter of the way into the book, the author himself mixes up two characters (Horace = top hat, Hugh = bees, not the other way around) showing that perhaps there's not much difference to him, either. Moreover, none of the editors caught this mistake. If neither the author nor the editors care, why should I?

Against all odds, I continued reading this novel, and I actually ended up finishing it, mostly because it was a really quick read, but of course there were more irritations to come, mostly gnat-sized, but some that really bugged me. show more Among the gnat-sized was a misquoting of Shakespeare---it's "once more unto the breach," not "into." Just a minor irritation, although it does come from a major, very famous, oft-quoted speech. It was even in a movie.

More mosquito-sized are the two times that men made lewd comments/advances towards Emma. The second time really annoyed me because rather than standing up for their friend after the comment, "All of a sudden everyone was looking off at the paintings on the walls or adjusting their collars," instead of telling the perv off or even giving him a dirty look. Dude didn't have a gun or anything. He was just a dude. These are eighty-year-old children who face down death on a regular basis, and they can't call out sexual harassment when it happens to their friend? What cowards---and completely out-of-character cowards. If the author doesn't see anything wrong with this---which it seems like he doesn't---then I'm angry with him, too. This mistreating of a female character as though she's just an object is bad enough, but it doesn't even move the plot or character development forward, so it really just seems gratuitous, which makes it that much uglier.

The big, hairy tarantula of this book is the time travel. According to the rules of the world, someone from an older period of time going into a future period of time will age forward to their chronological age in the later time. So why doesn't anyone have concerns about going forward in time? And even more annoying: why on earth are these children still child-like? They're 80+ years old. Sure, they've not matured physically, but wouldn't they mature emotionally or intellectually? They've had decades to read, study, learn, expand their minds, yet they're still completely, totally children, and they're fine letting the ymbrynes continue to treat them like children. I just don't buy it. It makes me a lot more sympathetic to the wights.

But the biggest, creepiest bug of all (probably a tarantula hawk, a wasp that I know about thanks to my friend's eight-year-old) is not knowing why I read this book in the first place. After I finished the first in the series, I didn't feel compelled to read the second, but then I saw it while my kids and I were browsing the YA section at the library and here we all are. So, I'd like to be all dramatic and proclaim that I refuse to read any more books in this series and then flounce out of the room swinging my parasol, but chances are I'll end up reading the third book and then be angry with the authors, the characters, and myself all over again. show less

Book 1: whimsical and slightly eerie tale of magical children, some action and danger but little violence or suffering.
Book 2: Slaughtered animals, physical and mental torture, and the sexual assault of minor, all before the halfway point!

Whoa buddy, maybe give a warning before you jump into the deep end? I mean, I know more than one person whose childhood made that sudden lurch, but I think we all agree that it's not desirable or enjoyable. A couple of other key points: by 2014 you really should know better than to use a harmful old stereotype and derogatory term for any group of actual people. The bad guys have german accents just to make us think of nazis - this is the invocation of the holocaust only to give your story urgency and show more drama it didn't have before, and that's unforgivable (no matter how many times authors do it). Oh and bonus points for describing in detail how the torturer feels up a teenage girl in order to intimidate and humiliate her, but then drawing the line of outrage for all parties at a kiss. You made that sexual assault all about her would-be boyfriend's feels. Good job.

I mean also this is a filler-book plot-line with zero character depth, a grating screaming audio narrator, and an overall sloppy, recycled feeling. Not a fan. show less

The adventures of Jacob and his peculiar friends continues. After surviving their sea voyage, the children must work together to cure Miss Peregrine who has become trapped in bird form. In order to turn back, she needs the help of one of her ymbryn sisters. Unfortunately, all the loops have been raided and it is believed that all the ymbrynes have been captured. The children decide to journey to London and attempt to enter a punishment loop to free one. They must hurry because if Miss Peregrine stays as a bird for too long, it will become impossible to turn her back.

Along the way they will meet gypsies, talking animals, and run from bombs during the Blitz. But if they can manage to befriend the various Peculiars they meet and evade the show more Wights long enough, they might even survive. The book culminates in a tense face-off in the bowels of an ice fortress. Pretty exciting.

I have to admit, this book's premise is not aging well. I guess I really don't understand why anyone thought it was a good idea to keep children with supernatural powers completely isolated from the rest of the world and forever trapped in their adolescent bodies. It's pretty sick. And I don't understand why any of them put up with it for decades. Sure it keeps them safe, but it also keeps them weak. Meanwhile, an entire group of people is hunting them down in order to literally consume them. And the ultimate plan is just to hide... forever? What kind of life is that? And no combat training or self-defense for emergencies? What's the point of having supernatural powers if you never learn to use them?

When they finally meet Mrs. Wren she unceremoniously tells them that they are very brave little children and now they will be safe once again in her impenetrable ice fortress. She says this to an eighty year old woman trapped in the body of a teenage girl who has just had her (perhaps) first experience of adult freedom. I don't know a single teenager who would tolerate being referred to as a child, much less one that is actually an octogenarian that can burn people alive with her bare hands.

And then comes the bizarre scene where they all grab icicles and take hostages. I'm sorry, they all have super powers, they are under siege, and the only weapons they have at hand are icicles?? These people are doomed to die. Of course they are all immediately taken captive by the Wights and Hollows. It becomes blindingly clear how ALL the loops were raided with barely any resistance. They are pathetically unprepared. show less

In my review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I wrote that Ransom Riggs is clearly a talented writer, but that his talents didn't seem to be up to the task to explaining the system of time loops that are at the center the book. I said that I hoped that the second book in the trilogy would offer some fuller explanations. Unfortunately, I'm just as much in the dark as I was before, perhaps even more so. No better explanations of the time loops were forthcoming, and some additional twists were thrown in to make them even more confusing. Still, the characters and story were just as good, and I'm excited to see how Riggs wraps things up in the third book (and still hoping for an explanation of the time loops that I can wrap my show more head around). show less

Oh, what a novel! All the uniqueness that the first had with more of an atmosphere of survival and danger to add to the spice. You definitely have to had read the first novel to get anywhere in this one. It picks up exactly where the first left-off, with no "previously on" stuff to catch a reader up. Thank goodness for the Peculiar Children wiki that could give me a catch up with names, faces, and mythology bits.

I think my favorite part of this novel was the additions we got to the overall world and mythology the Peculiar children verse. We learned more about the struggle between ymbryne and wight, what's really happening to the Peculiar children that have the misfortune of being taken, some history on this very intriguing world, and show more some fascinating additions to Peculiar-dom in general. I'm so fascinated by this world that seeing all these new additions has just made me so hungry for more!

Ransom has done another fantastic job in the characterization department. The characters are just so three-dimensional, a job in itself when some of their most defining adjective is "peculiar". I enjoying learning some of the history of our main Peculiar children, how they manifested and so forth. Then there's the additional characters of the Peculiar animals, the Gypsies, and the Peculiars of London. Everyone shines with their own individual characteristics and personalities, some that we grow to love and some we probably wish we could feed to the hollows ourselves.

I have got to say that I'm just so jiggy with happiness at this new addition to the series that I'm almost high. This book hits so many strong notes for me in story, characterization, lore addition, and thematic thinki-ness that I'm breathless with anticipation at the next volume (which the ending screams for!!). I know the rights have been bought for a movie adaption, so maybe that will help ease the ache for more Peculiar-dom. But that next volume is definitely eagerly awaited for by this reader!! show less

Initial Thoughts
I really enjoyed the first book in this series and I was really excited for this one. It took me much too long to start it but when I did I couldn’t stop. I love the idea of using the vintage photography but I was nervous that it wouldn’t be as good in this second book since we’d already met all the characters. I loved how the book just continued directly where the last one left off. There was no in between where you don’t know what happened.

My New Best Friend
I really like Emma. She’s brave and admirable. She’s the kind of female character that I enjoy reading about. I love how she kind of took the position of leader in this book, it made her stand out more to me. I have a hard time not picturing all the kids show more as 12 year olds though. For some reason that’s how they appear to me even though they’re at least 16. Maybe it’s the pictures of the younger kids that were in the book. I don’t know.

My Crush
I’m not sure if I had a crush in this book. As I said before, the characters felt young to me. I really like Millard though because he always just pops up when they need him. I love that he was always figuring out where they should go next. Who doesn’t like a smart guy?

Writing Style
The writing sometimes seems a little formal to me but that’s the only flaw. I don’t usually like books that take place in the past but this one was different for me. The author only writes what needs to be written. There aren’t any parts where you’re wondering why is that there. Everything is important and makes sense.

Closing Thoughts
I loved this book as much as the first. The bar was set really high and I think he met my expectations. I love how he mixes fantasy with history. It’s a fun twist. It’s nice when an author tries hard to be different and succeeds. It’s not quite up to 5 stars since I found it a little bit slow at the start. It was also a little weird that they met peculiars everywhere when they’re supposed to be rare. I know it was part of the story but it could have been a little better. I was a little disappointed that all they really did in this book was run around looking for someone. I’m hoping it will be the next book is full of action. It just felt like the author kind of stretched the story based on the photos when he should have stretched the photos to be part of the story. Either way it was still a great book.

Bonus
The author adds pictures to his story which makes it really unique. They’re real pictures that haven’t been altered which makes it kind of cool. show less