Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs

One of the novels I read this week was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.  The novel follows the adventures of Jacob Portman, as he investigates the strange orphanage where his grandfather, Abraham Portman, grew up in Wales, when he was the only survivor from his Jewish Polish family who died at the hands of the Nazi pogroms.  Jacob has been seeing a therapist, Dr. Golan, ever since he’s had troubling nightmares and general paranoia after discovering his dying grandfather; Jacob could have sworn he saw a monstrous man in the shadow, but no one, not the police, not his parents, nor his therapist seem to think it was anything more than an acute stress reaction to finding his dying grandfather. With the blessing of his therapist, Jacob and his father visit the small island in Wales where Abraham lived as a child.  Jacob then discovers that the strange stories his grandfather told of Miss Peregrine and her orphanage of peculiar children were all true.  Miss Peregrine is a time-traveler, also known as a ymbrynes, and she and her wards live in a time loop, where they are safely reliving Sept. 3, 1940 over and over apart from the rest of the world.  Jacob follows Emma into their world, meets all sorts of peculiar children, such as a boy who is invisible, a boy who has bees living in his body, a girl with a second mouth on the back of her head, a boy who can animate golems, a girl who levitates, and many more. However, it appears that Jacob has endangered them all, because monstrous hallowghasts and wights, who were responsible for Abraham’s murder, have followed Jacob to Miss Peregrines loop. It turns out that Dr. Golan was a wight, who was using Jacob as a way to discover where Abraham’s friends where. Dr. Golan is able to cross the threshold of the loop, and he kidnaps Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet, transformed into birds.  Some of the children form a rescue party, and while they are unable to recover Miss Avocet, they are able to recover Miss Peregrine, who somehow seems unable to transform back to human form.  The novel ends with the children deciding to leave their ruined orphanage and chase down the hallowghasts. Jacob confronts his father and tells him that he is planning to leave with his new friends.  Some of the peculiar children introduce themselves to Jacob’s dad, and they leave him with a letter and a photograph on Emma and Abraham together, as proof that it wasn’t a strange dream.

The novel follows the definitions of magical realism and urban fantasy, where Riggs has deftly merged the horrors of World War II Axis powers with magical elements, which include a strange form of time travel, supernatural children, and paranormal antagonists, the hallowghasts and wights. As is common in many urban fantasies, the plot follows a teen who is “unexpectedly drawn into paranormal struggles… gains allies, finds romance, and… develops or discovers supernatural abilities of their own”. This novel was very well written, with a compelling story arc, interesting and fleshed out cast of characters, a decent amount of tension and suspense, and wonderful use of found photographs and other non-textual elements.  I think the interaction between Jacob and his father, a failed ornithologist who felt estranged from his own father, was one of the emotional centerpieces of the book.  This has been one of my favorite books I’ve read this semester and I very much look forward to reading its sequel, Hollow City.  I can see how this book would be very appealing to teens who are into slightly dark urban fantasy.  In many ways, it reminded me of pieces of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book, but is very much its own story. The copy of novel I had included a brief interview with Riggs, who credits John Green as both an influence and inspiration, stating “Reading John Green showed me how ambitious and engaging young adult literature could be…”