Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children by Ransom Riggs

I have this very bad habit. I'll see a book that looks great and that I want to read, then forget about it. Especially so if I see reviews of it everywhere, I just kind of tune everything out. And I'm pretty sure that this book falls under this category. It's a mistake I regret making. This is a very compelling book, and before I knew it, I'd already finished reading it.

Basically, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs uses a series of photographs to trace the mystery of the Peculiar Children. It all starts when Jacob's grandfather Abe dies, and no one but Jacob saw the monster that killed him. This being the 21st century, he is diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder and eventually, convinces to let his parents to let him visit Wales in order to find closure (or you know, find out the truth behind the monsters).

When he gets there, it doesn't take very long before he finds the Home and its inhabitants. But his arrival has put all of them in danger, and the rest of the book deals with the children and how they deal with the threat.

The pictures were fascinating and enhanced the pleasure of reading the book. They were probably all faked in some way, but while reading, I wanted to believe that the photos were real. That the interpretations of the photos were true. But then, I'd get to the monsters and think "at least this is only fiction." It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and this book proves that pictures can enhance the pleasure of reading a book.

While the plot may be a little slow at times, the book uses that to build up suspense. There was also a plot twist that I didn't see coming. Generally, the plot was strong, although I'm not quite sure as to the purpose of inserting the family troubles of Jacob into the book. It created a secondary plot that in my opinion wasn't fully resolved.

I heard that a sequel is in the works and I can't wait to read it. While I'm sure there are those that think the ending is an unnecessary cliffhanger, I thought it was more of an open ending (in the same way Huck Finn is an open ending). I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, but I didn't pull out my hair wondering "what's happening???" at the end. In fact, I didn't even know there was a sequel until I read about it.

Don't be like me. Remember to read this book.