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Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Genre: Dark Fantasy; possibly horror fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Reviewer: Julia


I hesitated to read this book for a long time. I would see it in the bookstore and consider getting it, but something always held me back. Sometimes I was worried that it was too "scary", and would end up being some sort of horror story. Other times I was worried that it would be too much action for me. Luckily, I was convinced to get it because 1) I had waited long enough, and 2) everyone was so excited for the movie on bookstagram that I figured it must be good.

And it is. It was wonderful. I really did enjoy it.

The story is told from Jacob Portman's point of view. As the book opens, a family incident (won't spoil it so that it is more interesting for you) leads Jacob to travel to a little known island. There he digs into the past at the ruins of Miss Peregrine's home for children, searching for little bits and pieces. But what he doesn't expect is for them to appear, and for them to drag him along in quite the adventure.


This plot does include fantasy and action, which I have not enjoyed much ever since I grew out of the whole Percy Jackson stuff. Like I said earlier, I was worried about the action in the book. Yet somehow this particular book drew me in, and I was excited to read it. I found it to be very interesting and it was hard to put my book down at some points.

I also found that this book was not too awfully scary. Sure, there were monsters, but it was like Percy Jackson and (I guess, since I did read two of the books) Harry Potter: it has things that might be frightening, but you won't get nightmares because of it. I mean, this guy isn't that scary, right?


Anyway, that brings me to one of my other points. I love how Riggs includes such interesting pictures in the book. They help to create such a beautiful story. I know that there are some cool pictures in there, but for reasons that I should probably not say (so that I don't spoil anything), this is one of my favorites (mini spoiler):


Overall, this book is exciting and the descriptions given are beautiful. A movie adaptation of the book will be coming out in September, and there are two other books in the series. I am yet to read them and, based on my thoughts on this book, I think I'll like them!

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