Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs [Book Review]

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs

Publisher: Quirk Books
Book Design: Doogie Horner
Year of Publication: 2011
Format: Softbound
Number of Pages: 352

 (Photo Credits: www.bookzone4boys.blogspot.com)

If I were a parent shopping for books with my son or daughter, I honestly wouldn't have bought him or her a copy of this novel. I can see on the cover that this is a New York Times Bestseller. Yes, the currently popular young adult novelist John Green says the book is "Tense, moving and wondrously strange...an unforgettable story."

However, the cover is just scary. I got the chills the first time I saw the black and white cover with the demented looking girl that is levitating. It doesn't help that the title hints at the child being peculiar, and that there is a home full of them in the novel.  You thought, your friends were real. Well, these are the friends you'll be making in this young adult book.

(Photo Credits: http://www.facebook.com/MissPeregrine)

And you thought your friends were weird. Now you might be wondering why I'm reviewing a book I haven't actually read. Actually, I did end up buying a copy for myself because more than the quirkiness of this book, published by Quirk Books, the cover did really spark my interest. Why is such a scary looking book a national bestseller in the US?

Fortunately, I made the right choice because Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is one of the best young adult novels I've read in a while. It starts of quite normally somewhat like how a John Green novel would. There seems to be nothing weird or peculiar happening for several chapters that I began to wonder if the novel's cover and title were just marketing gimmicks.

 Watch the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children book trailer

The beginning wasn't bad, it was just nothing special. Then something happens and the storyline just leaps out of the page. After that its just one punch after another, one twist and then a bigger twist to follow. This book surprised and amazed me in the same way that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Hunger Games did.

Ransom Riggs is one of those authors who has the right combination of imagination and writing skill to make a whole fictional world come alive. A word of warning though as the novel does tackle serious issues from family problems, to death in the family, to mental sickness, to peculiar children.

There are also monsters and stuff, which is quite normal for young adult novels, but might be taken more seriously because of the closer-to-the-real world setting of this book.

 This kid's definitely too young to be reading this book.

(Photo Credits: http://www.facebook.com/MissPeregrine)

However, this is definitely a great read for young adults who are a bit more mature because they will appreciate the adventure and understand the meaning of the story. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel of this book. If Ransom Riggs can keep up the good work, we might have the next great young adult trilogy, at the very least.

This young adult novel is being adapted for the big screen. It's scheduled release year is 2013, and critically acclaimed movie director Tim Burton is currently eying the director's seat. I'm a huge Burton fan and if he does take on the project, that would be amazing! 

For more information, you can visit the book's official Facebook Page and the Quirk Books page.