YouTube Channel: 20th Century Fox
” I thought about it, looking at the pictures and then at my grandfather, his face so earnest and open. What reason would he have to lie?”
–Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Book 1) by Ransom Riggs, Page 38
Our mystery of a story is led by our main character: Jacob Portman: a not so typical sixteen year old boy who spends his days mostly by himself, earnestly exploring any and everything that catches his attention. As an only child, his imagination provides him with a vast means to escape the routine of everyday life. The only person who seems to share in Jacob’s imaginary world is his grandfather, Abraham. Though, when Abraham begins to tell Jacob of various stories about ghosts, ghouls, and a separate world filled with insurmountable entities, Jacob is quick to dismiss his grandfather’s words as just amazing, made-up stories. It is only when Jacob finds his grandfather close to death underneath his home, whispering his last words: “Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man’s grave. September third, 1940…Emerson–the letter. Tell them what happened Yakob,” that he eerily realizes that the world as he knew it, and the prominence of those beyond it, will never be the same.
This series has largely fallen underneath the horror genre in the Young Adult world, though I believe it falls more so under the suspense/thriller category. Don’t get me wrong, it does contain some creepy, unusual and vintage photographs of children(fun fact: the author Ransom Riggs found the photographs he used in the books at garage sales and junkyards!) which may lead many to place it in the horror genre, though it is a series filled with unending mystery that will make you want to devour the entire series at once! There is also a movie based on the first novel coming to theaters September 30th of this year!
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Series by Ransom Riggs:
Book One: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Book Two: Hollow City
Book Three: Library of Lost Souls
Also by Ransom Riggs:
–Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past
–The Sherlock Holmes Handbook (with Eugene Smith as Illustrator)
Featured image via Movies.MXDWN
