Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

    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

The review will be up in just a few moments here and on my Tumblr! Happy Friday!

   Until Next Time...

   ~Fiction-Book-Reviewer

Update #42

I will be reading the New York Times Best Seller, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. My review will be up on the morning of the 20th.

Until Next Time…
-Fiction Book Reviewer

Review: Life First by R.J. Crayton

   Life First takes place one hundred years into a post apocalyptic nation. After the pandemics wiped out eighty percent of the world’s population, the new government made a law, Life First. If an individual needed an organ or blood, it was to be given to them. A married pregnant woman is held in the highest regard because she is the giver of life. Children are told through statistics when they should or shouldn’t sacrifice to save others. The citizens have to give blood every two years to maintain a steady blood supply as well as have their blood type logged into a data base if someone was ill or in need of a donation. Kelsey Reed, a woman in her early 20s is marked for a kidney extraction surgery for a man who is in need of one and she seems to be the only match. In the days leading up to the surgery, she stays with her Father, a lead gubernatorial candidate and sitting state senator. The night before the appointment, she makes an attempt to flee with the help of her boyfriend Luke and the man who witnessed her pregnant mother’s death, Dr. Grant. The attempt fails and Kelsey is sent to a holding facility until her trail. There it is revealed she is pregnant and wouldn’t have been able to have the surgery done if she had gone to the appointment. If she is found guilty, not only will her baby will be stripped from her and given to another family but she will also be sentenced to death through donation. Her uterus will be removed and she will be sent to a long term holding until she is matched with someone who is in need of any kind of vital organ. With the help of her father, Luke, Dr. Grand and her Uncle Albert, Kelsey hopes to avoid a guilty verdict.  If not, they will have to put their risky escape plan in motion.

   Life First is a different outlook on the future of a society after an apocalypse claims billions of lives. Rather than focus on the first year or so after the outbreak, RJ Crayton takes the story a century into the future. The prospect of the government taking on a law like Life First after the pandemic is very believable. The author did a fantastic job of making this novel as realistic as possible, that is, until the tail end. I try not to give parts of the ending away but this is a scene that I have to address. If you plan on reading Life First for yourself, stop reading this now. In the last handful of chapters, Kelsey and Luke make a daring escape from the short-term holding facility. They make their way to Kelsey’s apartment. There, Luke invited their small group of family and friends to witness a small wedding ceremony. Kelsey and Luke apparently had enough time to change into a Tux as well as a white dress. This scene seemed so unrealistic and the whole time I’m thinking, “Shouldn’t they be on the run to Peoria?” Good thing this was not the very ending to the book or else that would have ruined it for me. Overall Life First is well written and for the most part, very convincing that something like what happened to Kelsey could very well happen to any one of us.

Until Next Time…

~Fiction-Book-Reviewer  

Update #41

   Up next for a review is Life First by RJ Crayton.  This book is the first of the Dystopian series and contains 262 pages of content. This novel is about a young woman living in a world where the apocalypse happened over a century ago and eighty percent of the population had perished. A new law was formed, Life First. This law stated that if one person is in need of an organ, the match for that donation would have no choice but to give it. Now, whether it was a vital organ or not, that depended on if you were being held in a long term holding facility. Death by donation instead of death by lethal injection. Kelsey Reed gets word she is to donate one of her kidneys and she decides to run. The punishment for denying a donation? Being brought to a short-term unit where it'll be decided if she'll be placed in long-term or set free. The review will be up on Tumblr as well as Blogger on April 22nd.

Until Next Time...
   ~Fiction-Book-Reviewer

My Tumblr Blog: http://fiction-book-reviewer.tumblr.com/

Review: The Happening by Harvey Yoder

   The Happening retells the unbelievable tragedy that struck an Amish community on the morning of October 2^nd, 2006 and the overwhelming forgiveness from the victim’s families as well as the outpouring of love from around the world. That morning was just another ordinary, beautiful morning in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania as families were readying themselves for the day. The main character, Rebecca Sue is an embodiment of the group of young girls that had survived the Happening as well as changing the names used in the book is a way of preserving the privacy the Amish community wanted. That morning at 10:25 Mr. Roberts rode in a borrowed truck to the small white school house where class was in session. The children ranged from first grade to eighth, twenty-six in total. Mr. Roberts came into the school house with one thing on his mind, to get revenge on God for taking his daughter away from him. An hour later, eleven young girls where shot. Only five survived. Soon an out pour of love and support came rushing to the families of the victims. What was even more astonishing was the forgiveness of the Amish community. Mrs. Roberts and her children reached out to each of the victims’ families, visiting their homes, being greeted with open arms. This tragic event was handled with so much grace and understanding from the community. The people of Nickel Mines had forgiven Roberts but the absence of their loved ones cannot be replaced.

   The author of this novel, Harvey Yoder, did an amazing job of retelling not only of that fateful morning but the love and forgiveness in the aftermath. I’ve read books that share a version of terrible events and the authors would focus the majority of the story about every detail of what had happened. This was a different perspective and included different focal points that I enjoyed. Not only was the event described through a young girl’s eyes but shows an example of tremendous strength within a community. Their faith was unshakable though this time and in doing so, inspiring millions.

   Until Next Time…

~Fiction-Book-Reviewer

Update #40

For the next review I will be reading The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy, written by Harvey Yoder. This book is based on a true even that struck the heart of the community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Mr. Yoder tells a story of an Amish school shooting on the morning of October 2nd, 2006. The review will be posted on the 25th of this month.

Until Next Time...

~Fiction-Book-Reviewer

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