Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This book honesty really captured my attention the whole time and I found the plot to be very interesting. The concept was unique and I didn't want to put it down at any point. It wasn't a scary book as it's sold to be but that isn't a big deal to me plus I did find a few elements to be a bit unsettling still which I enjoyed. The last few chapters of the book especially were very exciting and fun to read.

I only have two problems with the book:

1) I did not connect to the main character at all. Jacob was boring in my opinion and I didn't care about him. He could have died and I would have been like lol okay.

Even his praculiarity was boring especially compared to the powers the other characters have.

2. The romance.... Honestly the story really could have done without romance at all first of all. It felt out of place and literally added nothing to the book, it felt shoehorned in with literally no build up as if it was just there to check off the romance box for YA novels.

Plus the romance itself was disgusting. Jacob is 16 years old and Emma while in a 16 year old body is still 88 so that's just gross to me to begin with. I'm a huge fan of things like vampire x human romances that have a similar vibe of someone older in a younger body but like... only when the human is of legal age. While Emma is not a vampire the same thing still applies. If Jacob was 18 or older I would be more comfortable with it maybe but the age difference was very gross as is.

Plus even more disgusting was the fact that Emma dated Jacob's grandfather.... yikes. It's just wrong from both Jacob and Emma's point of view... If you had to have Jacob date anyone to begin with (which again you didn't because romance felt so out of place in this book), why did it have to be Jacob's dead grandfather's ex girlfriend??? It was just a disgusting and uncomfortable mess of a romance on all levels.

Content Warnings

myrymayranen's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Jacob grows up hearing his grandpa's fantastical stories about his childhood in an orphanage for children with special abilities. When his grandpa dies, his last words are instructions for Jacob to go to the orphanage and find out the truth. On the remote Welsh island, Jacob finds the old orphanage crumbling and abandoned. His explorations lead him to discover more about the history of the mysterious orphanage and discover that his grandfather—and the world—are not what they seemed.

Honestly, this isn't really my favorite genre; though it is fantasy, it feels more paranormal. There were also scenes that I found unnecessarily gruesome. I liked the world-building, though it could be confusing at times. The first half of the book was relatively slow, but it sped up a lot towards the end. Overall, it was interesting enough but I wasn't hooked enough that I'm rushing to get the sequel.

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just my judgement of how happy the ending is because I always wish someone would tell me that before I read books):

The ending was bittersweet, and while not a cliffhanger per se, it's definitely unfinished and feels like the adventure is just starting.

Content Warnings

alisazhup's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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