A review by troystory
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

2.0

I seem to be rereading books I first read ages ago this year, and this is just the latest in that series. I remembered it being very weird and creepy, and very good, and so I was disappointed when it turned out to be none of those things. The writing was fine, though sometimes a little too literary for its first person perspective. My biggest issues lie with the pace, which felt really uneven, and the monsters themselves. The first five chapters of this book - and there are only eleven, so that's about halfway through - were just one long and tedious prologue. I think it could've easily been cut down. I mean, Jacob only meets the titular peculiar kids after over 100 pages. If I wasn't curious about whether or not this book was as good as I remembered, I probably would've gotten so bored that I would've stopped reading it. And then there's a few chapters that don't contribute much to the plot, and suddenly around chapter nine, the plot suddenly picks up and things start actually happening. It all just goes way too fast at the end in a way that doesn't make much sense. My other big issue is the way it feels like this book devalues trauma at its core. The hollowgasts are definitely disturbing and i loved visualizing them, but it really irritated me that there was the whole Abe-is-traumatized-by-WW2-so-he-turned-the-Nazis-into-monsters-as-a-kid-but-turns-out-those-other-monsters-are-real storyline. Like... The premise of a bunch of psycho peculiars who wanted to defy immortality and instead turned into horrible monsters, that's good on its own. But to add in the whole bit about how Abe had to escape both the hollows and the Nazis and how everyone thought he just talked about the Nazis as if they were *actually* monsters (and I say this sarcastically, because of course they were monsters too) when he was always referring to other, Real Monsters? That felt cheap. It's an overdone trope in my opinion.

Overall, I didn't like this book as much as I once did. I guess my tastes have just changed. I'll probably still read the sequel, though, since I'm curious and I have it anyway.