Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
This was a fun, weird little story about found families and being brave. It was a bit clunky and a bit gimmicky. But on the whole it was pretty enjoyable.
The book follows Jacob, a rather boring, woe-is-me, rich boy who is closest with his eccentric grandfather. When said grandfather dies, Jacob sets off on a quest to discover his family history. He discovers himself along the way, becoming a little less boring and bland. But not too much. Much like Bella Swan before him, he's an excellent reader-insert character because there isn't all that much to him and he always tries to do the right thing. At one point, the author tries to tempt him with a crisis of conscience, but Jacob is so stand-up that the moment is basically over before it begins (which leaves the climax feeling a bit deflated, but oh well).
Jacob travels to an island and steps through a time loop where he discovers a house full of peculair children who have been frozen in time for seventy years, living the same day over and over. This opens up the door to some interesting time travel possibilities, sure to be explored in later books in the series, but it does result in a bunch of emotionally arrested characters who can't seem to decide if they're rebellious teenagers or wizened elders.
This is a lot of complaining for a book that I actually liked just fine. The story is exciting and a decent Nazi metaphor (which was apparently removed in the movie, which is disappointing. Like, maybe don't cast a black man as your Nazi-monster?). The powers that the kids have are all interesting and creepy. And the slow-build mystery certainly kept me engaged.
Interesting and creepy is probably what the author was going for. And he mostly succeeded. Though the black and white pictures occasionally crossed the line from moody to gimmicky. All in all it was a fine book, if not totally compelling. Maybe I'm just not the right audience for it. But at least I can cross the rest of the series off my to-read list which gives me a bit of breathing room.
The book follows Jacob, a rather boring, woe-is-me, rich boy who is closest with his eccentric grandfather. When said grandfather dies, Jacob sets off on a quest to discover his family history. He discovers himself along the way, becoming a little less boring and bland. But not too much. Much like Bella Swan before him, he's an excellent reader-insert character because there isn't all that much to him and he always tries to do the right thing. At one point, the author tries to tempt him with a crisis of conscience, but Jacob is so stand-up that the moment is basically over before it begins (which leaves the climax feeling a bit deflated, but oh well).
Jacob travels to an island and steps through a time loop where he discovers a house full of peculair children who have been frozen in time for seventy years, living the same day over and over. This opens up the door to some interesting time travel possibilities, sure to be explored in later books in the series, but it does result in a bunch of emotionally arrested characters who can't seem to decide if they're rebellious teenagers or wizened elders.
This is a lot of complaining for a book that I actually liked just fine. The story is exciting and a decent Nazi metaphor (which was apparently removed in the movie, which is disappointing. Like, maybe don't cast a black man as your Nazi-monster?). The powers that the kids have are all interesting and creepy. And the slow-build mystery certainly kept me engaged.
Interesting and creepy is probably what the author was going for. And he mostly succeeded. Though the black and white pictures occasionally crossed the line from moody to gimmicky. All in all it was a fine book, if not totally compelling. Maybe I'm just not the right audience for it. But at least I can cross the rest of the series off my to-read list which gives me a bit of breathing room.
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