Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

27 June, 2012 Reviews 20 comments

I liked it but it had some major flaws in it that dragged the rating right back.

I feel decidedly unsatisfied after reading Miss Peregrine’s. When I went into the book I was expecting something vastly different to what I got. I had been misled by the blurb.

“A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography,Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows”

The above is the blurb of the book taken from Amazon Kindle. Now in my opinion, the book that that specific blurb is selling is awesome. But Miss Peregrine’s isn’t that book.  My problems with the book, whilst they might appear mundane, made me feel detached from the reading experience. The first of them being “A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage.” Cairnholm isn’t mysterious… it’s Welsh, there is a difference. The orphanage wasn’t abandoned… It was bombed. There are some pretty fundamental differences between what the blurb said and what was written.

And as for the writing, well how can I put this politely… It needed going over with a fine toothed comb to wheedle out all of the fuck ups. Let me paint you a picture with words. There is a country, bordering England, called Wales. This is a beautiful country of rolling hill, heather covered peaks, slate mountains and, in the countryside especially, farmers. These are, for the most part, good people. People who use phrases like “taking the piss” to mean a jest, a jape, a general jokey happenstance. They use the term “taking a piss” when the males go to a urinal. There is a huge difference in context. So when I’m reading and a character says “I was taking a piss” I thought “ew, the dirty fucker why not use the lavvi” only to be told they meant a joke… Research fail on the authors part. If he had asked a Welshman about this he would not have fucked up.

The story started out strong. It was reading very much like the ghost story I was expecting until it was revealed to me, the reader, that Miss Peregrine’s is a special place, for special children, led by a special adult, whilst being hidden away from the rest of the world. At this point I headdesked… Hard. The story had gone from a well thought out, atmospheric, tense ghost story… to a generic “we’re speshul so we’ll hide” story, a’la Harry Potter, X-Men, The Worst Witch, Animorphs, Vampire Academy… the list goes on (One aspect that did redeem it for me was the time travel through loops, that was actually a nice touch there). I didn’t see any indication, either in the tone or the writing itself, to suggest that maybe the children had been quarantined on the island either. OK maybe they could’ve been seen as dangerous but they aren’t really any more dangerous than a regular person.

As the story progressed though, it managed to rebuild the sinister tone that the author had so effectively destroyed with one swift revelation. The children were at risk and they weren’t going to take it lying down. But as the story got better, the writing got worse. There were missed words, clumsy structure, inconsistent pacing (due to factors I will go onto in a moment) and some truly, glaringly obvious, revelations that were obviously intended to shock the reader.

The pictures were the reason that the pacing was inconsistent. The story would start flowing, it would build up momentum, and then I was treated to a lengthy description of the pictures, and then I was shown them… after having them painstakingly described… Now I’m sorry but in the quiet words of the Virgin Mary “come again?”… If I’m having the pictures described to me, in detail, in the prose then why do they need to punctuate it with their presence? How can a reader be expected to carry on with the same flow when the mood has been killed more effectively than a steel toed boot to the nards? They were unneeded and added nothing to the story. They should be axed. Completely.

However, I did enjoy the story when I got my teeth into the meat of it. It was almost original. It had a strong start and an almost strong cliffhanger for the next book (which I probably will read despite all the problems with this book). I just feel that if Ransom Riggs (I suspect a pseudonym because no parents are that cool) had actually done a little research rather than build the story around these found photo’s then it could have been something truly wonderful, where as right now it falls into a decidedly “meh” category. I’d read it again to refresh the story but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it to any serious readers.

I was lied to by a blurb… again… I expected far better.

Happy Reading

Archer

This review was previously posted on Goodreads and has been adapted to the blog.

20 Responses to “Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs”

  1. Keertana @Ivy Book Bindings

    First and foremost…welcome to CuddleBuggery Archer! 😀 Fantastic review!(: I’ve been hearing a lot of different opinions on this novel and although I’m still not sure whether or not to check it out, I won’t be fooled by the blurb! Plus, if the writing is as you described it then I can’t see myself liking it very much. Nevertheless, I’m thrilled you joined CuddleBuggery and I look forward to your future reviews! 😀

    ~Keertana
    Ivy Book Bindings

  2. AshHadAns

    I read this book and thought the same thing. It could have really been an epic read, one of my favorites, but it was just missing something. I felt it wasn’t as good as its potential was. Great review, welcome to the blog! I look forward to reading more from you!

    • Archer

      @AshHadAns: Thanks AshHadAns. I’m looking forward to writing more. I think it was missing quite a bit atmospherically. I can see what the author was aiming for, but he could quite get the tone. Glad you enjoyed the review

  3. Kayto

    I felt much the same way, with the exception of the photos. They were why I was interested in the book in the first place, and I loved how they were worked into the story. But then, I heard about it from others, including that the photos were unaltered–something the book itself never actually told me, I think. Without the pictures, I would have thought the story not as interesting.

    On the other hand, I agree wholeheartedly that they messed up the pacing and the descriptions were often redundant. Was never able to quite find the right words, though, so thank you for that!

    • Archer

      @Kayto: I totally get that the pictures worked for a lot of people… I think I would have appreciated them more if they were not described in such great detail before I was shown them, if that makes sense.

  4. Lissa

    A lovely review to kick off your officially joining the Cuddlebuggers.

    I’ll probably read this in the future, if only because I am fascinated by these photos, but I do not expect great things.

  5. Ellen Faith

    I am seriously starting to get sick of blurbs twisting the story around to make it more interesting. I get blurbs are meant to sell, but come on! Blah.

    Great review, Archer!

    Although I’ll still probably read it because I’m curious like that damn cat.

    • Archer

      @Ellen Faith: Thank you Ellen!

      Yeah this was a serious case of the blurb selling a different book… and doing it very, very well. I know that there will be people out there who will enjoy it, but to me it wasn’t what the blurb sold.

  6. Kara @ Great Imaginations

    Ummm, this is a great review. While I didn’t agree with everything you said, I definitely understand where you are coming from. It’s definitely not a perfect book. It’s flawed but overall I enjoyed it.

    I agree the research needed work, but I really loved the writing. I didn’t mind the excessive description. But that’s kinda my thing and I know it doesn’t work for everyone.

    Anyway, welcome to Cuddlebuggery. You seem to be fitting right in. 😉

    • Archer

      @Kara @ Great Imaginations: Thanks Kara. I get what you mean. Normally I’m all for descriptions. I read a lot of fantasy so it goes with the territory, but to be told about a picture… and then shown the picture… I just felt it to be a little jarring. Like I said I will probably read the next one and see how it goes. I can see why it is appealing it just tried too hard to fit with photo’s for me.

      • Kara @ Great Imaginations

        @Archer: I definitely think the photos could have been left out and it would have had the same impact, so I totally know what you are saying. They didn’t add much except for maybe a little creep factor, but then you find out the kids aren’t really creepy at all…meh.

  7. Tien

    Congrats on your first post 🙂

    The cover is creepy and I will not be reading this book from this alone (yes, I judged books by the covers all. the. time.) :p

    Sorry to hear it’s not as creepy as it was made out to be though!

  9. Jose Perez

    I really like this book, I like how they started the book with mystery.I really love mystery books but I feel that they could of done better with the introducing the peculiar children. I dont really like how they act they could of been more scared of Jacob.

  10. Emma Bloom

    Disgusting review! I have not heard anything foolish than that. The book you wrote about is super and my favorite. Just terrible! You just make up your mind! Apparently somebody pays you for that. Your review seemed odd. You have no idea that people almost always read the reviews before reading a book! If you do not like something better, keep silent next time! A terrible, terrible, terrible review of the wonderful book!