REVIEW: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
SERIES: Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1
GENRE: YA Paranormal
RATING: 3.5 stars
GOODREADS ~ AMAZON ~ AUTHOR ~ TWITTER

MY THOUGHTS:
I'm going to be completely honest and say the only reason I picked up this book was because of the film trailer. This book series has received many praises for a while across the book reviewing community but I never really had an urge to pick it up until I saw the trailer. Even then, it wasn't really the plot that intrigued me, more the fact that I wanted to see the film but felt like I had to read the book first.

As someone who doesn't read or enjoy much fantasy or paranormal, I thought the Miss Peregrine's was a great introduction to the genre. The characters, as peculiar as they are, were likeable and I felt like each one had a strong individual personality. The whole idea of the 'loops' and time travel was sophisticated enough to be interesting and unique but wasn't too complicated that I couldn't keep up and for that Ransom - I salute you! It's often a hard balance to get and please both hardcore fantasy/paranormal fans as well as newbies.

Now I'm going to contradict my whole previous paragraph and say that it's quite hard to confine Miss Peregrine's to a particular genre. Yes the main plot will fall under fantasy or paranormal but there are strong historical references and, especially nearer the beginning, some contemporary elements. This combination meant that although at times the pace was slow, there was still enough variability for me not to get bored.

The reason I dropped my rating was because although I didn't get bored whilst reading it, I never really had the urgency to rush home and curl up to delve back into the world. The plot, though interesting, was slightly lacking. Most of the book is spent with Jacob exploring the loop, the home and being introduced to each of the characters. Although this was important and enjoyable, I felt like the only substance to the book was in the last third and the other 2/3rds weren't really memorable. Maybe this is because I had seen the trailer so have am already familiar to the world but when it comes down to it, I have no deep interest in carruing on with the series.

I may continue in the future but at the moment I feel like I would prioritise exploring new plot lines than sticking to this one. I am however, very excited to see the film and how Tim Burton has portrayed it in his unique eye!