I picked this book up at the recommendation of a friend who knows I like young adult fiction. The book promises some big stuff - a mystery narrative featuring antique photographs of bizarre people. The author, Random Riggs, collected a bunch of old photos and constructs a story around them featuring mystic locations, horrifying monsters, and a lot of bizarre children.
It's a solid story; however, despite the haunting and unnatural photographs used for the foundation, the book feels a little conventional.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children could have had this really good, creepy vibe. I mean, the pictures the author chooses to incorporate into the tale are beautiful in their eeriness. Here are a couple of examples from the Amazon entry on the book:
Even the picture on the front cover is a little creepy (in case you can't make it out, the little girl is not actually standing on solid ground but appears to be floating in the air). Everything about the book's image promises to take you somewhere not entirely comfortable, somewhere a little bizarre. I hate to say it, but it's a bit like the promise of the circus sideshow - the things you see will be awe-inspiring and uncomfortable at the same time.
I think that's why I was so disappointed in this book. I obviously expected horror, and I got...
The "peculiar" traits of the children are treated like super powers. Miss Peregrine and her orphans live in a home where they can live unmolested by a population who fears their differences. Heck, I think one of the antagonists even uses the phrase "genetic superiority."
That's not to say there's not a place for a good X-Men story, and this IS a pretty good story in that vein. The characters are your typical rebellious teenagers, the "peculiar" concepts are well-executed, and there's even a pretty decent twist towards the end.
Miss Peregrine's Home is not BAD at all. If you know what to expect, hopefully you won't be quite as disappointed as I was.
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