Wednesday, February 18, 2015

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


Synopsis: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.

A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography

My thoughts: I really liked this book! I thought it was well-written, dynamic and the pictures while you read were truly mesmerizing and intriguing.

                What I liked: the pics, the romance that develops during the reading, the theme, the strong headed girls, their superpowers. The way this story is told was made in such manner that it was almost impossible to put it down.

                It kind of reminded me of X-men: there are two types of people in this world – according to the book – the common folk (like you and me) and the peculiar, people who were born with a special ability that made them special. In the past, both types lived happily and in peace, the peculiar in some cultures viewed as demigods. But recently, they were hiding as a chance of survival: from the common folk who didn’t understand the talent of the peculiars and because of that, felt threaten by them; and from their own kind, but evil version, known as hollowgast, that hunt peculiars down and eats them.

                In order to survive, they lived in loops in time: it is like a worm hole that no one can see or feel, and only peculiars are allowed to cross. In those loops, time has stopped in a specific date and it would rewind itself every night. For en example, if there was a loop in a part of Nagasaki when the nuclear bomb crashed, and the bomb exploded at midnight, when it hit it, time would stop and return to the first ray of light of that same day, preventing peculiars children from dying in that bomb explosion. The day wouldn’t change either, nor the actions of everyone else of that day: if the loop was in December 10th, once it rewound it would still be December 10th, and everybody else – apart from the peculiar children – would repeat their actions day, after day. I know it sound very confusing, but once you read it, you’ll get it. LOL

                The romance was cute, but a little disturbing. However, I can’t explain more without giving too much away.

                What I didn’t like: there wasn’t a specific thing that irritated me. It was, in a few parts, kind of predictable, but in others I was really surprised to see how creative the author was.

                I will not give five stars because I didn’t feel that compelled in it. It wasn’t something that made me read it day and night non-stopping, or better said, even though I read it quite quickly – I had a lot of spare time this week – it wouldn’t be something that would keep me down 24/7 if I didn’t have time at all.

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