Hollow City by Ramson Riggs

I started on Hollow City as soon as I finished Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children because I could not wait to find out what happened. Luckily the book proved that it was worth the money because it's an excellent sequel and the tension was kept high throughout. Warning: this review is going to have spoilers for the first novel (obviously).

So the first novel ended with the children running away from Hollogasts and their Wrights. They somehow managed to rescue Miss Peregrine, though she's stuck in her bird form. Desperate to find another ymbryne who can help, the children leave their island. But the Second World War is happening around them, and there are more monsters walking in this world than they know.

What I really loved about this book was that it managed to balance the world building (I learnt so much more about the Peculiars, plus Tales of the Peculiar had a fairly major role so I wanna read it now!) with the whole "monsters chasing us" plot and kept the tension high throughout. It was really danger after danger, and when there was a respite, a bit more about the world was revealed. I thought the balance was well-done and the plot did not lag.

I also really liked that each of the children had their turn to shine. The first book was dominated by Jacob, and thought the second book is also narrated by him, the children had a significantly larger role and saved the day several times. I hope that this trend continues in the third book.

The only part of the book that I was dissatisfied with was Jacob's relationship with Emma. For most of the book their relationship wasn't really questioned. While there is some development towards the end, I thought that it wasn't paced really well. Then again, the plot + most character development was really well done (Jacob grew a lot, just not in his relationship with Emma), so I guess this was just a bit too much to handle.

All in all, I thought this was an excellent sequel. Most aspects of the book were well-handled, and though the development of Jacob's relationship with Emma disappointed me, there's still the third book for them to resolve everything. I'm more excited than ever to start on Library of Souls (and the title now makes sense to me)