Carolyn’s CBR Review #7: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Growing up, Jacob formed a strong bond with his grandfather over his bizarre tales of invisible boys and levitating girls. As he grew up, Jacob realized that his grandfather was telling tales, masking his experiences as a Jewish World War II refugee in the guise of fairy tales. The monsters the peculiar children feared were in reality Nazis; the children themselves were only different due to religion. Or so Jacob believed, until his grandfather is killed under mysterious circumstances and Jacob swears he saw a tentacle-mouthed creature lurking in the nearby woods. Soon after, Jacob receives a mysterious letter that propels him on a journey to the remote Welsh island where his grandfather grew up. When he gets there, he discovers Miss Peregrine and her Peculiar Children who are the same age as they were in his grandfather’s stories. That’s because they are in a time loop, living the same day over and over in order to protect themselves from creatures like the one that killed Jacob’s grandfather. Basically, Miss Peregrine’s orphanage is:
although far less compelling. The book little more than a regurgitated version of XMen. Clearly the author found the awesome, uber-creepy photos first and then devised a story around them, but the narrative never reaches the level of creepy that the pictures have. All the characters are flat and provide little reason to care for him. Jacob doesn’t have any friends, probably because of his immature abrasive personality, and he spends a fair amount of time complaining of how rich his family is (must be nice). Even the mutants (sorry, peculiar children) aren’t interesting. Each has only one note to play and has no background, nothing to make them remarkable beyond the one ability that Riggs has given them that may or may not have anything to do with the picture. And thinking about these “children”: isn’t it odd that they look and act like children? Shouldn’t we see something more along the lines of Kirsten Dunst’s character in the movie, “Interview with a Vampire”–an adult stuck in a child’s body? And what is it with all these guys being attracted to ice cold women pointing knives into their bellies? Do I need to read more Freud or something? The only “child” who is even remotely fleshed out is Emma aka: The Obligatory Romantic Interest (and no one finds it odd that they’re hooking up considering she was canoodling with Jacob’s grandfather 70 years ago. Thanks Twilight). Also the book just…ends. So stay tuned for the sequel.
I had more fun writing this review than I did reading the book. Just Google Image search the cool photos.