Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1) by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My Rating: ★★★★★

Jacob grew up hearing his grandfather’s amazing stories that he once believed were real. Now a teenager and aware that it’s impossible for any of the monsters or the people in these stories to exist, Jacob remains close to his grandfather but tries not to entertain the fantastical stories of his past. Everything changes when he sees a monster with his own two eyes on the night a terrible tragedy occurs. The problem? No one believes a monster murdered his grandfather. His family is walking on eggshells around him and his only friend ditches him while he’s haunted by the monsters. Thinking about his grandfather’s final words, he figures he has nothing to lose and decides that he needs to visit the orphanage from the old fantastical stories and finally get some answers.

I absolutely love this book. In a rare turn of events, I saw the movie before picking up the book, so I had a pretty good idea of how the plot would go for the first book other than any changes that were made for the adaptation. Once I picked up the book, I dove straight in and couldn’t get enough of it. It’s well written, has a wonderful cast of characters, and is an overall fascinating story.

Narrated by Jacob, we follow him on this journey from a teenager who hates his job and only has one friend to a someone who starts to blossom now that he knows there’s much more to life than he thought. Because he’s not very popular at school, we follow him bouncing back and forth between going solo and being with family until he jumps into the loop. One of the things that I love is that Jacob’s family is intent on helping him recover from his grandfather’s death. While they don’t realize that the monsters are real and not a figment of his imagination, at least they’re supportive and want to give him as much support as possible. I found that I liked his parents. They seem like a kind and loving family.

Once the ball gets rolling, the story really starts to unfold. I enjoyed meeting all the characters and learning more about how the loops work as well as what life is like in these loops. It’s interesting to learn how everyone’s abilities work and the history of peculiar people and how they came to live safely in loops rather than in real time. Most of all, I love that all the kids under Miss Peregrine’s care are one big family.

I really enjoyed the story and I can see where the book and the movies will most differ from one another. I’m excited to see how the rest of the story unfolds and where the characters will go from here. It’ll be interesting to see if Jacob has any living family members who are also peculiar. I don’t know if that’s something that will be answered in the next book, but I’m excited to dive into the next installment and see where Jacob and company go next!