I’m embarrassed to say this book has sat on my shelf for a year and it was seeing the movie trailer that prompted me to pick it up. I didn’t realize I was missing out on such a gem!
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a combination of fiction text and vintage black and white snapshots of strange-looking children. The story starts out with Jacob’s grandfather telling him tales about growing up in an orphanage along with an invisible boy, a floating girl, and other children with special talents. As Jacob grows older, he stops believing in these stories, assuming they were spun by his grandfather’s imagination. A life-changing event makes Jacob change his mind and he sets off to discover the truth about his grandfather’s stories.
The book is billed as YA but will appeal to adults, too. It has the same dark flavours as Harry Potter and the fantasy/horror aspects of Neil Gaiman’s works. Peculiar? Yes, but the result is an unforgettable creepy story.