Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel

I have yet to read the actual book by Ransom Riggs because I have a severe disinterest in all things popular in the young adult genre. However, this graphic novel sparked an intense desire to read the actual book because this graphic novel was phenomenal. I was amazed at how much I loved this story and watching Jacob's journey into the loops to figure out his grandfather's history, and final words. The typical story of a boy on a journey to discover himself and someone who cared about him post-trauma is only the beginning of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Incredibly enough, I felt like parts of this story were ripped straight from my own work that I have been writing over the last few years (which I started writing before show more this came out, by the way). So I had an incredible connection with the story that was being told, and the themes and elements the author is trying to touch on. The monster illustrations were also gruesome, and very creepy which added to my delight as I thumbed through this adaptation. I'm sold on reading the actual book in the future now, but I am still not ready for Tim Burton to butcher another splendid work from a talented writer who will get no recognition once the movie is out. show less

I found Ransom Riggs' debut novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children to be interesting, downright creepy (the photos definitely helped that aspect - the book would have been much less "fascinating" without them) and quite unique .. both in format and storyline. There were times when I needed to put the book down; I found it difficult - as the story progressed- to do that! As I often do, I "read" the e-book (which included the photos) while listening to the audiobook (the photos were included with the audiobook as well . . kudos to Random House Audio!). The audiobook was narrated by Jesse Bernstein; his ability to audibly/vocally define the, numerous, characters added a terrific dimension to the "read".

Bottom line: it took me show more three weeks (and a library renewal) to read/listen to this book . . real life tends to intrude but I found myself looking forward to leaping back into the fray at every opportunity! It held my interest, it was entertaining, it was quite unique and . .bottom line, it was "peculiar" . . definitely MY kind of book! HIGHLY recommended. show less

I must say that I started the original novel a while back but only made it about halfway or less, but I loved the book. As a lover of manga, as well, this was something I knew I had to buy and read! I wasn't disappointed.

The characters were beautiful and they even kept the photographs from the original novel. My only complaint is that the story seemed to move far too quickly, but that's to be expected of a manga. That might just be a stigma because I did start reading the original which is, naturally, filled with more detail and slow pacing.

If you don't like reading full on novels but are still looking for an awesome story to get sucked into, I recommend giving this a try! I love the storyline and the characters, and I can't wait to show more read the next part!

Side note: I'd like to take a moment to fangirl over Enoch because he's sexy as fuck and reminds me of my all time love, Gaara. I would read a thousand books just for him okay ♡ show less

Summary: Since this is the graphic novelization of the book of the same name, I'm going to use the same summary:

When Jacob was little, his grandfather would always tell him stories. Stories about the mysterious house in which he grew up, a house on an island in Wales, a house that was full of children with strange powers - a boy who was immensely strong, a girl with a second mouth in the back of her head, an invisible boy, a girl whose feet never touched the ground - children who are pictured in a series of incredible photographs, children who were hiding at this house because it was the only place where they could be safe from the monsters. As Jacob grew up, he dismissed his grandfather's photographs as trickery and his stories as mere show more fairy tales, but when he finds his grandfather dead in the woods behind his Florida home - and sees something impossible and monstrous fleeing the scene - he begins to wonder. His parents and his therapist think that he's suffered a mental break, but he convinces them to let him travel to Wales, to hopefully find out the truth beyond his grandfather's cryptic last words once and for all. But what Jacob finds on Cairnholm Island makes him wonder if his grandfather might not have been making up his stories after all... but if that's the case, then Jacob may have just put himself in mortal danger.

Review: This is one of the first graphic novelizations of a prose novel that I've ever read, and I can see the thought process that went into it. The original novel of Miss Peregrine's relies heavily on found photographs to help tell and build its story, so it's already a combination of words and images - why not take the next step and make it entirely a graphic novel? But I have to say, I don't think it worked as well as intended. By making the photographs - many of which are included among the panels as photos, but some of which are incorporated as drawings, and some of which are omitted - just one image among many on the page, they lose a lot of their specialness and their power. One of the things I liked best about the original book was how the photos gave the story weight and made it feel like it could be real, and that feeling was totally lost for me in the graphic novel form. Also, although liked seeing the artist's interpretation of some things, there were also things that were better and creepier in my own imagination. It's still a good story, and quite imaginative, so I can't rate it too badly, but in my opinion, what's gained in the graphic novelization process isn't quite enough to make up for what's lost. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: I wouldn't hand this to someone who hasn't read the original first, so I'm not exactly sure who the target audience is. Maybe people who've read the first novel and want a refresher before they read the second, but don't have time to re-read the book in prose form? show less

I wasn't going to review this because I thought, well, I've already read and reviewed the novel version of this book and they're almost the same...but then I checked and I actually haven't rated or reviewed the novel version even though I added it to Goodreads which is pretty shameful. So I'll have to go back and do that, but for now: this is a very faithful remake of the original novel. Which I was hoping it would be, as I was reading it basically to refresh my memory of the novel so I could read the next one in the series without having to look up who all the characters are. That said, I didn't like it as much as the novel. It was too faithful, if that makes sense...I love graphic novels that were written to be graphic novels, because show more I find they're more likely to take full advantage of the format. This felt like a novel that someone drew pictures for, which was still great, but not as dynamic as it could be. show less

Having read the original book, I found this really good! I loved the illustrations and the story was just as good as I remember.

I had no idea I was waiting for this book to come out, but here it is! I read this book (the novel version) back in 2011 when it first came out and fell in love. The story is engaging and fresh, with decent character development and amazing universe creation. If this were not so tightly woven with fantasy, it could almost be historical fiction. The graphic novel was released in 2013 and I completely missed it until now. I was so excited to go back and read through this childhood (well, young-adulthood) favorite!