【Book Review】Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

Overall Rating: ★★★★

Characters: ★★★

Plot: ★★★★.5

Writing：★★★★

       Many book-to-movie adaptations will come out this year, and this book will be one of them. I have heard millions of buzz about this book on both Goodreads and the Booktube community. Surely, my interest has been aroused, but the ultimate inspiration for me to pick up this book is the movie trailer, just like what happens to the book Me Before You. By the way, the trailer is fantastic. If the actual movie can reach as high quality as that of the trailer, then I will be extremely excited for this movie adaptation. To me, there is no better director that Tim Burton whose style fits perfectly with the peculiar and quirky feelings of this novel. To be honest, I don’t have a high expectation for this book before reading it. However, I do discover some kind of pleasure throughout my reading experience.

    First of all, let me try to summarize the plot of this book. Jacob has grown up with his grandfather’s weird stories filled with fantastical experience and old pictures of some peculiar children. As he grows up, he no longer believes his grandfather’s tales, until one night his grandfather is killed by a monster. After suffering from continuous ceaseless nightmares, Jacob is resolved to set out a journey to an island where his grandfather has directed him to go to. On that island, Jacob discovered something very peculiar and even dark. Those unusual children in the antique pictures of Jacob’s grandfather may still be alive.

    Actually, I have seen the Chinese version of this book, though I just saw the front cover. The Chinese title is called “怪屋女孩”, and if you translate it back to English, it will be “a girl in a weird house”. You will soon realize the fact that this title is quite misleading as long as you have actually read the book. Because of this Chinese title, I had fault expectations about what I am going to encounter in this book. I expect to see some kind of ghost story or some haunted house in an isolated island. Apparently, none of those imageries are true.

    I give the characters three stars because I cannot like the protagonist Jacob at the first place. At the beginning, he appears to be quite hysterical and even a little mad. I understand his circumstances and all the hard things he has been through, but I still cannot like him as a character, though I feel much better about him as the story progresses. He is brave and smart, and these qualities of him are revealed at the climax of this book. I also like other peculiar children; they are very funny and interesting.

    Although the first half of the book drags a little bit, the second half is definitely amazing. The plot twist is shocking, and I didn’t see it coming at all. The second half is action packed and exciting. Some of the scenes are quite nervous, and I gradually realize why this book is such a famous thing in the past few years. I thoroughly enjoy the plot, and I am looking forward to reading the next book.

    Frankly, I have spent almost half a month on reading this book. During this time period, I was stressed out with the SAT test, and I was sort of in a reading slump. However, after marathoning through this book, I feel my love for reading appears again. I won’t read the second book right after I finish the first book, so I decide to pick up some stand-alone before going back to the world of Jacob and his peculiar friends. I definitely recommend this book. It didn’t blow my mind, but it does have numerous unexpected plot twists that amaze me a lot.