MVL Book Club #6 - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

A Haunting Tale?

Not so much....

I was so excited when I first read about this book release.

I first learned of it because Joni of Cote de Texas shared this

fascinating video shot by the author when he traveled to find the perfect

spooky house for the book trailer.

This is the video she shared...

Then I quickly found the actual book trailer and I was hooked.

I had to immediately order it from Amazon.

I read it last week. I do think its a clever idea but I was not very impressed.

I think most likely a preteen would enjoy but I did not find it very compelling.

I've read the movie rights have already been sold and I can imagine it becoming

a series of books and movies.

(The New Harry Potter, I'm sure, they hope.)

There are many eerie, strange actual old photographs used throughout the book.

And all these photos turn out to be characters in the book.

I think this is a very good idea for spurring an author's imagination when 

he can't think of interesting characters on his own.

I felt although a few of these characters seemed thought provoking and inspired from the photos -

some seemed like a real stretch.  Just a forced reason to include a creepy photo.

The central character in the book is Jacob, who seems to be a spoiled sixteen year old boy of means

in America.

He has spent his childhood hearing the unbelievable stories his grandfather tells him of

a place in Wales where he was kept safe during World War II.

He loves his Grandfather dearly but as he grows older he begins to think none of the things he said

could possibly be true.

Early in the book he witnesses his Grandfather's death which seems to be caused by an evil monster 

lurking in the woods by his house.

His dying Grandfather manages to whisper a last message to him.

It is from his dying words that Jacob sets out on his adventure to learn about his Grandfather's childhood.

Although Jacob is suppose to be sixteen at the beginning of the book and seems so...

I felt like most of the time I pictured him much younger and I'm sure he will be in the movie.

I thought the dialog lacking and not very interesting.

I didn't feel the characters were fleshed out very well. 

An interesting detail would be told and then it seemed like nothing much came of it.

I do think there were a few characters I liked.

The invisible boy and the floating girl were my favorites.

I truly felt this book is just a set up or introduction for all the other books and movies 

to come in this series.

I think it might be the perfect scary book for a child of eight to fourteen but for an 

adult, it falls short of any suspense and fright.

Still I am sure the author Ransom Riggs (could that really be his name?) will become 

a very rich man from this franchise. I just wish it had been written like a real book

instead of like a movie pitch. 

But then what do I know? I read the first Harry Potter and was unimpressed too.

I never read another.

Oh...and I can't stand the Twilight books. 

I think they are very dull and I normally love vampire stuff. 

Although I did read the first three Twilight books because all my friends were reading them.

Two of them were given to me.

If I remember correctly, I liked the second one best but not very much.

The third one I barely got through because it was so boring.

The fourth I refused to read and made a friend tell me what happened.

When she did I exclaimed, "Thank goodness I didn't waste any more time on that." 

"That book sounds even worse than the other three!"

But most will disagree with me. 

Want to read a really scary book? 

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice.

That first one in the series had me enthralled right to the end.

Anybody else looking forward to Tim Burton's Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter? 

I loved Dark Shadows so much when I was a kid...Barnabus was so sexy which seems impossible to 

imagine now. 

Now that is scary! 

I'm sure Johnny Depp will add the sexiness quotient needed for the modern version.