'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' - Ransom Riggs

When he was a child, Jacob’s eccentric Polish grandfather told him stories about monsters. While Jacob always took these stories as truth, his father later explains that the stories are just an old man’s way of coping with experiences from WWII. Jacob wrestles with his disappointment as he grows up and his grandfather appears to grow increasingly irrational, hiding in his house with his gun collection, until one day Jacob finds him bleeding to death in the woods. To everyone else it appears that he wandered confused into the path of a large bob-cat, or savage dog but Jacob’s brain thinks he saw something else in the woods that day; an otherworldly monster which gives him screaming nightmares that must be treated with therapy. As he and his therapist try to establish that he didn’t see anything so sinister, his mind continues to puzzle over his grandfather’s last words instructing him to ‘Find the bird. In the loop’.

Jacob thinks that a trip to a remote British island, which may be associated with his grandfather’s past, could finally settle his mind. Of course you, gentle reader, will be well aware that trips to mysterious islands usually create more questions than they answer and will be unsurprised when Jacob’s curious pursuit of his grandfather’s history leads him deep into science fiction land. On the island he discovers an orphanage full of peculiar children who once knew his grandfather well. Unfortunately it is probably deeply spoilerific to reveal much more about the plot (which may leave the rest of this review feeling a little vague, sorry) so let me redirect and talk about the format of Rigg’s novel, the real unique selling point of ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’.

Riggs has used vintage photographs alongside his novel’s text. Unusual black and white, or sepia images illustrate many of the things and people that Jacob encounters, contributing an old-fashioned horror aesthetic to the novel. You can see some of the photographs in this trailer for the book if you fancy watching:

The photographs show creepy oddities, often children in old fashioned dress apparently performing tricks that force the reader to look twice to confirm what they are seeing. The innate innocence of a child in a picture is subverted by the incongruous, supernatural tricks they seem to be taking part in. It’s strange and a little unnerving to see a photograph of a child in an old-fashioned setting, or dress, because picture of children are typically a reminder of youth, a symbol of eternal life and by association the constant reinvention of modernity. The inclusion of these photographs, which attach the patina of history to small children, indicates unsettling associations between children and ageing, or innocence and darkness. It’s well creepy.

In contrast, Jacob’s narrative is written in a vigorous, modern style which fills his story with dynamic action. The descriptions of with Sharp explicit description is used, which give the reader a strong mental picture of horrors and oddities that Jacob encounters:

‘I let go of my grandfather’s body and stood up, every nerve ending tingling with an instinct I didn’t know I had. There was something in the woods alright – I could feel it.

There was no moon and no movement in the underbrush but our own, and yet somehow I knew just when to raise my flashlight and just where to aim it, and for an instant in that narrow cut of light I saw a face that seemed to have been transplanted directly from the nightmares of my childhood. It stared back with eyes that swam in dark liquid, furrowed trenches of carbon-black flesh loose on its hunched frame, it’s mouth hinged open grotesquely so that a mass of long eel-like tongues could wriggle out.’

‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ contains an interesting blend of two different types of horror aesthetics. This results in a book full of dynamic action, that will suit fans of adventure novels and old style creepiness, which will appeal to readers who like the quiet fear that incongruous oddness injects into a horror story.

Riggs is the first author I’ve seen using photographic prints in young adult fiction. He gains serious originality points for deciding to combine them with the text of a full novel. Finding just the right kind of story to fit the use of real, found old style photographs shows Riggs interest in shaping stories around technique and that experimental side of his narrative makes me excited. In fact, when I think about why I enjoyed this novel I keep coming back to the format, that creative and apt use of the images. The newness of the technique is interesting and the photographs are visually striking, but they can’t carry an entire book to glory anymore than any other experimental form can.

So, what other positive elements does ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ contain? It has a strong adventure plot, which grips and takes its characters into real situations of peril. Watching the twists unravel, spotting the villain just before the end, as the book directs the discovery and watching the climactic good vs. evil struggle play out is entertaining. Reading this novel is like reading a creepy version of a traditional ‘boys own’ adventure novel, especially with the inclusion of two significant, complicated male relationships in Jacob’s life. I’m intrigued and I want to see where the sequel takes Jacob after one satisfyingly teasing cliff-hanger.

And the world building is fantastic, although sadly it would again be a bit too spoiler to describe its specifics. The details that make up the science fiction/fantasy element of the plot are again original (despite some slightly hand wavy explanation of some of the science fiction) and fun.

Still, for me ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ was almost a skipping stone book. There was nothing wrong with it technically, in fact there was a lot right (well balanced pacing, appropriate match between format and story, confident voice) and I enjoyed reading it, but there were niggles. My reaction after finishing the story feels similar in tone to Ana’s reaction, although the little things that nibbled at me after finishing were different to the ones that prodded at her.

Let me try to give an example. I found parts of the character creation frustratingly rooted in a limited form of traditional story telling. Riggs has created a novel which is so full of innovation in other areas that when mildly stereotypical character creation is used it’s dull, lack of creativity is very visible in contrast to all the other distinctive content. I could also see the potential for less well covered sci-fi stories to be told, from the perspective of other characters in the novel like Jacob’s grandfather, which were passed over in favour of following Jacob’s fairly standard sci-fi story. I often felt like I would find those stories more unique than Jacob’s, even though Jacob’s story is quite exciting. Perhaps what I want are multiple spin off novels as well as a direct sequel.

Not a perfect book to capture my heart then, but still well worth spending my time going on this adventure with Jacob. Many thanks to the publisher, Quirk for providing me with a copy for review. Hey Jeanne, Riggs is a Kenyon graduate, maybe you want to take a look at it (not that I’m a book pusher or anything).

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