Author: Ransom Riggs 
Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Publisher: Quirk Books

With its odd sepia-tinged photographs, Gothic design, and wickedly fun title, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children bills itself as a creep-fest, and winds up being a bit more traditional than expected. The premise is killer, and the book is dripping with mood and just enough imaginative twists to carry along what becomes a fairly standard coming-of-age YA character arc. That is to say, the novel's first half builds up a truckload of anticipation by posing a few deliciously irresistible questions to the reader. When the payoff is reached, the result isn't fully satisfying, but that's not enough to derail an engaging, inventive debut from blogger and independent filmmaker Ransom Riggs.

The prologue and expository first few chapters of Peculiar are dynamite, laying out the kind of weird, creature-filled premise J.J. Abrams has become famous for. Teenager Jacob Portman tells the reader about his eccentric grandfather Abraham, a Holocaust survivor from Poland who filled Jacob's childhood with wild tales about the titular peculiar children he spent time with at an orphanage on a remote island near Wales to escape the war in his native Poland. "As I got older, though," Jacob explains, "I began to have doubts." After Jacob discovers his grandfather's mutilated body and chases after the monster he believes was responsible, he becomes convinced all the stories were true. Clues lead him to Cairnholm Island, where he attempts to discover the truth behind the stories. To reveal any more about Jacob's journey would risk revealing too many plot spoilers to fully enjoy the novel. Suffice it to say fans of Lost, Stephen King, or spooky literature in general will appreciate Riggs' sensibilities. Those worried about gore needn't fret; Riggs creates his chills with atmosphere, not violence, so while the novel has its haunting moments, it's not grotesque.

One extra-literary element Riggs incorporates is worth mentioning. To accentuate the peculiarities of the children at Miss Peregrine's home, Riggs includes dozens of photographs of them. Whether fairly straightforward "gifts," like a girl who can levitate or a boy who can't be seen, or more alarming characteristics like a girl with a mouth in the back of her head or a boy whose torso is made of bees, these photographs are indeed peculiar, and a brilliant addition. Far from being an extraneous add-on, the photographs become part of the fiber of the narrative, since they represent actual photos alluded to by Jacob, Miss Peregrine, or other characters in the novel. It's a brilliant device utilized to draw the reader into the unique world of the novel.

And this world is a strange one. Once Jacob gets to Cairnholm, Riggs saturates the setting with fine details about taverns, cairns, and the bog land of Great Britain to create an unforgettable experience. Perhaps the most eye-opening part of the novel, however, is the fact that all the photographs utilized in the novel are vintage photos, culled from Riggs' numerous visits to a host of collectors who deal in this type of photos. Whether the photos inspired the novel, or Riggs sought them out to match up with an already-concocted narrative is unclear. If the former is the case, then Riggs' work becomes even more inspired. It's like a creative writing class exercise: scatter a dozen photographs on a table, then concoct a story out of them. The result is a promising debut that's the perfect goose-bump concoction for summer. 


*This review first published on July 18, 2011.