Fic Rig (Reviewing "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children")

Started and finished in a handful of hours this afternoon/evening, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs was a particularly pleasant read.

In this novel, the gruesome death of sixteen-year-old Jacob's grandfather sends Jacob on a journey to a remote island off the Welsh coast, where he discovers that the stories his grandfather told him of his childhood are more than the mere fairy tales that Jacob had thought them to be. Using a strange and bizarre collection of vintage photographs from the personal archives of collectors, Riggs tells an spell-binding, haunting story using first-person narration, allowing reader's to unravel the mystery of Miss Peregrine and what makes her charges so peculiar alongside Jacob. Riggs blends together elements of time travel, mutant powers, and the quick action and plot twists of a thriller to create a truly delightful novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Five Defects (extremely nitpicky)

1. I wanted MORE description in some places, but this is probably because I like flowery writing and Riggs doesn't use excessively floral language or sentence structure.
2. The photos, while connected strongly throughout most of the book, sometimes seem superfluous.
3. With so many kids in Miss Peregrine's Home, I wanted more background for some of the kids beyond a statement of their powers.
4. Why do Jacob's parents exist? They play very narrow roles in the novel and seem very flat. Mom barely exists at all. And what was the point of making him the future heir of the Smart Aid empire? Some parts of the back story for Jacob aren't really important at all.
5. WHY IS THERE NOT ANOTHER BOOK, YET!?! Correction - there is another book! Why do I not have it yet!?

Five Delights

1. I love the X-Men/superpower feeling of this book without actually making it a superhero novel. It feels fairy tale like, but definitely has a "superpowers" vibe.
2. The novel keeps you guessing enough that even I didn't completely figure out who the bad guy was going to be!
3. The most gentle, non-obtrusive magical time travel ever! Cleverly hidden worlds make me very pleased.
4. The photographs are creepy in just the right way to add to the story.
5. I love any novel that has some sort of historical setting. This meets both the needs of readers who want something modern and something historical. I want to know more about the other Homes for Peculiar Children mentioned in the book. I want to know what happens beyond this novel! So excited to read the next book!