Children of the Evolution

There's nothing quite like a bookshop find.  Spotting something you like the look of.  Moving away from it, going back, your brain telling you you don't need any more books while your heart wails that this could be the best book you've ever read. Ever!

It was in these circumstances that I discovered 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' by Ransom Riggs.  The steampunk-style, grey scale cover got my attention, as did the sulky look of the child in the old photo it featured.  Who was she?  And why did she look so indignant?  My head won in the short term as I borrowed it from the library.  But I knew I'd fallen in love and a purchase followed.

'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' is the story of the disaffected American teen Jake

'Miss Peregrine's Home
for Peculiar Children'
by Ransom Riggs
(Quirk Books, 2013)

Portman and how he discovers his world is far from ordinary.  As a child, Jake's grandfather, Abraham, told him stories of his time in a Welsh children's home and the strange talents of the children he lived with; the invisible boy, the girl who could fly, the siblings who could lift enormous boulders.  He proves his tales with his tattered collection of old photographs, but as Jake gets older, he stops wanting to look and to listen.  By the time Jake is 16, Abraham has dementia and no one is listening to him at all.  But when his grandfather is attacked and killed by a mysterious creature, leaving Jake disturbed and frightened, he begins a journey that will lead to a truth far more chilling and extreme than Jake could possibly have imagined...

While I really enjoyed 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children', my goodness it's dark!  It's classified as 'young adult' book, but I think if I'd read it as a youngster it would've given me nightmares!  Then again, perhaps, as an adult, I'm reading more into it than your average teen, such as hearing echos of the Holocaust and feeling a pang of sadness at the lost identities of the photographs' sitters. (The book developed from the author's collection of unwanted old photos, bought at flea markets and often without any clue as to who they show.)

Overall, I found 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' to be a tense thriller, even though it's set on the very edges of reality.  Many older readers will see the plot twist coming a mile off, but there's enough originality and detail in the characters and their back stories to make this a very engaging adventure that feels genuinely frightening at times.  So, weirdly, while I wouldn't recommend it for the young people it's actually aimed at, I suspect many adults will enjoy 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'.  I just hope that the next book is as good as this one!

Now, what next...?

A Note on the Film

Almost as soon as I'd finished reading 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children', I started seeing adverts for the Tim Burton film.  "Brilliant!" I thought "I can't imagine a better person to direct it!"  Unfortunately, I found it incredibly disappointing.  I could list so many things that felt wrong about the film, but ultimately, I think it was a case of trying too hard to squeeze a quart into a pint pot.  By its nature, this first book in the series includes many characters, all with back stories, plus a plot to bring them all together.  Perhaps it would've made a better TV series or it should've aimed at a slightly older audience, like the later Harry Potter films.  I'm no purist and can name films that are better than the books as easily as books that are better than the films, but on this occasion, I'd stick with the book.  I'm so glad I read it first.