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.
3.6 out of 5 stars
Miss Peregrine’s home for Peculiar children wasn’t what I expected it to be. This book is for one absolutely gorgeous. The photos included through out are actually what the story was based around and I think it made reading it that much better but also impacted how epic the plot could have been.
Jacob our MC hears wild stories from his Grandfather all his life, stories about a girl who can hover and has to wear special weighted shoes and a string so she doesn’t float away, A boy who can re animate living things with other living body parts( hella creepy btw), A girl who can create fire from her hands, another that is invisible. All these children from the stories that Jacobs grandfather tells him from when he is a little boy are crazy and unimaginable. Until something happens to Jacobs grandfather and Jacob decides to find out what his life was really like as a polish child fleeing from world war 2, what Jacob stumbles upon is not what he was expecting.
I was expecting a creepy tale but this is much more of a fantasy and if the language wasn’t so eloquent I would probably class this as middle grade.
“Forgive me. I continue to underestimate the breadth of your ignorance.”
The world building is what really sucked me into this book. When Jacob travels to the island all I could picture was dull taverns and dark streets but when we enter the Children’s home every changes to a Technicolor description and I LOVED THAT.
This wasn’t a 5 star read for me only because I feel the plot line had a lot more potential and could have been faster and more interesting, same goes with the characters.
The characters are there but I couldn’t feel an attachment to them just yet. I mean I liked them but if anyone was to die I’d just be like eh shit happens.
Hopefully as we go on more adventures in the next book I warm up to the relationships and the personalities start to shine a bit more.
I can understand why a lot of people LOVE this series but I felt it was lacking in a few areas and I just wanted MORE from each of the characters.
Of course I’m going to continue this series and after seeing the Movie trailer finally I think it looks really really good!
Have you read this? What were your thoughts? Did you expect it to be creepier?
I think I was hoping for more of a horror/fantasy and this is defiantly more a Fantasy. That teaches me to stop judging books by their covers XD
adoptabookaus 
I read this around Halloween a few years ago and I was definitely expecting something a lot creepier. There were a few parts that were kind of suspenseful, but nothing I would classify as “scary.” To be honest, if it wasn’t for the creepy front cover and pictures inside I wouldn’t really even think of this as something that’s supposed to be a scary story. Great review!
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Thanks Holly!
This is exactly what I thought, I went into this blind and just judging by the looks I was expecting something more like American Horror story XD After seeing the trailer I think it looks a lot more like a fantasy and describes it better.
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I remember reading it about five years ago and loving the creepy gothic pictures that accompany the text but also being pretty neutral on the rest of the book. Like you, I thought the characters and plot could have been better. I wasn’t tempted to read the sequel, but I’m interested in hearing your take on it!
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If I had bought this as a standalone I don’t know if I would be AS motivated to pick up the next book but I have the box set so I might as well 🙂 I’m hoping it’s faster paced then this one, hopefully I like it 😀
I think if the pictures weren’t included the story would be pretty flat but I love that the photos are real and the story is based around them.
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Haha Box sets are great motivators! 🙂
So true about the photos! I actually loved them so much that I told everyone at the library who asked me about the book, “Even if you don’t want to read it, pick it up and look at the pictures!”
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Yes! I showed all the photos to my partner and he thought they were amazing and can’t wait to see the movie 😀
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The series is on my TBR. Enjoyed reading your review of it!
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Thank you! Hopefully you enjoy it when you get to it 😀
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Great review, Casey 😊! I read this a while ago and I adored it! I’m not really sure why it was marketed as a horror or scary, because it’s definitely not either of those things haha. I think I may have enjoyed it more because I went in totally blind and only knew there were photographs. I really enjoyed the second book too but I haven’t read the third yet.
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Great Review. I have this on my TBR and have been planning to read it before the movie. I also assumed that its horror.Glad you enjoyed it though despite the issue with the characters and plotline.
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It was pretty good but I think my expectations were a bit to high, I’m excited for the Movie! Hope you like it even though its not Horror 😀
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