MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN || RANSOM RIGGS

It is no secret that Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is one of my favourite books of all time. When I first saw it in Waterstone's in Belfast, I was instantly intrigued by it just from the cover (and from the movie poster that I saw in a nearby cinema). I started reading it on the bus home and did not want to put it down once I got home. If I could walk and read at the same time, I would have done so then. The book captured my imagination with an unrelenting grip and even to this day, I'm pretty sure that it hasn't let up. This series continues to spur my imagination.

From the moment that I finished the book, I was continually making parallels between it and Sanctuary. I could easily see Miss Peregrine being friends with Helen Magnus and using loops to hide and protect peculiars/abnormals from the unaccepting populace. That's the reason why you can see Helen Magnus in these photographs. I wanted to see Helen Magnus and Miss Peregrine in action together and so I launched Photoshop and made those kinds of photographs happen. 

I recently read this book again in anticipation for the upcoming release of the fourth book in the series, or the first book in a new trilogy that is set in the same world, A Map of Days. I fell back in love with this world and with the characters that had so captured my heart, especially Miss Peregrine. She will always be my favourite character and I'm very much looking forward to reading Hollow City and Library of Souls again considering that I know what is going to happen. It is very exciting to know what is coming and feel that rush of anticipation of finally getting to that part.

Despite there being a movie adaptation of this book, I prefer the book. The movie changed a plethora of details that did not need to be changed. The producers changed the children's ages and abilities around, they introduced new characters and aspects of characters that did not need to be there. Emma did not need to have her powers switched considering how pivotal her powers are in the trilogy and how fiery Emma's personality is. The fact that the producers completely butchered the book and put it back together in some kind of Frankenstein bastardisation took any enjoyment that I might have had. The movie adaptation had the potential to be incredible with the cast and locations that had been chosen. It failed to meet that potential. 

The casting of the movie for the children and Miss Peregrine was close to perfection and the house that was the facade of Miss Peregrine's home was exactly the house that I had envisioned. Yet, it frustrates me to no end that movie producers go to the ends of the Earth to find the perfect cast, the most fitting locations and then they completely obliterate the flesh and blood that is the book. What good is it having the bare bones when the flesh is for the wrong kind of creature? That is what this movie adaptation did. 

The book is everything that I wanted in a paranormal fantasy book, though, I would have liked more of Miss Peregrine herself. 

The things that make Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children stand out are undoubtedly that photographs that are interspersed throughout the books that help the narrative. Ransom Riggs collects photographs of the weird and wonderful and he uses them to inspire and construct the storyline. The photographs are all peculiar in one way or another. I love them all. Some of them are outright strange and others are fascinating. The photographs all helped to cement the imagination and act as a guide. I will say that the photograph used for Miss Peregrine was one that I did disregard because I felt that Eva Green was perfect for Miss Peregrine and so my imagination kept conjuring Eva Green instead of the base photograph. 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a book that is written in a way that my imagination is fired up with each word and my attention is captured in an unrelenting grip. Very few accomplish what Ransom Riggs does with this book series. As soon as I finished reading the first book, I instantly flew to the next two without stopping. I could not wait to see what happens to Miss Peregrine and her wards. Riggs took me on some incredible twists and turns with characters that I truly became invested in and deeply cared for. 

I honestly cannot wait for A Map of Days to be released. It is the continuation of the original series but with the new setting of the United States of America where peculiars exist but with fewer ymbrynes and even fewer rules. It sounds like it is going to be an epic journey. I'm ready for it. I have my seatbelt fastened. My tray table stowed. My seat back up and all of my electronics on Flight-Safe mode. Let's go!