Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Most recently adapted into a chilling, gloomy film by the infamous Tim Burton, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is yet another entertaining and engaging young adult novel to recently hit the shelves. Starting his story with a number of 'peculiar' children being housed in an orphanage, Ransom Riggs has created a mysterious, deranged and completely horror-filled tale. The inspiration for Riggs' work was a collection of eerie vintage photographs of young children and teens with peculiar features. While the plot of this novel is a little slow moving at times, it definitely doesn't lack in adventure and mystery. Riggs begins the novel on a strong note, writing humorous descriptions and peppering the narrative with some clever World War 2 analogies. Although Riggs' writing style is very simplistic, he never fails to create beautiful and haunting imagery, indicating his suitability for the dark fantasy genre. The 'peculiar' characters Riggs slowly introduces throughout the story have all sorts of weird and wonderful talents and traits that defy the bounds of logic and common sense. The protagonist, Jacob, will become a highly relatable character for young teens and adults, with Riggs introducing some important issues regarding mental health throughout the novel. This novel could be considered 'scary', and even disturbing at times. However, Riggs sys away from graphic depictions of violence and this chilling tale is a must read for all young teens and adults.