Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is about a 16 year old, American boy who has grown out of his Polish Grandfather’s fantastic fictions about his life on an island after escaping the Nazis during World War II. Jacob Portman has lived a pretty dull life with the exception of his Grandfather’s more occurring episodes. His dementia has been getting worse and his impossible stories of his childhood in the refugee home started to become real to him. One night Jacob receives a frantic call from Grandpa Portman, asking for a key to his gun safe and how he needed to protect himself. Jacob stopped by his home only to find his grandfather in the woods, close to death and a blackened creature dashing further into the trees. Jacob soon uncovers photos and a letter while he is helping clean out his Grandfathers home. Could there really be an island off the coast of Wales with a house that was more than a refugee children’s home? Could it be possible that the stories about the levitating girl, the boy who housed bees in his body and many more, are true? Jacob sets off to discover the dangerous secrets his grandfather wanted him so desperately to know.
I loved how Ransom Riggs incorporated actual photos to make this story seem realistic and it adds a whole new dimension of (mainly) creepy. He does a very good job of knowing how much mystery should be held throughout the novel in order to keep a reader on their toes and wanting to know more. The plot is refreshingly different and I wasn’t able to guess what the next turn would be. I would recommend this to those who love fictional stories that give a feeling it could have actually happened and leaves you thinking if there is more to this world than we are aware.
Until Next Time…
~Fiction-Book-Reviewer
