Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a young adult novel about a teenager named Jacob who tries to overcome the terror of finding his grandfather’s body the night his grandfather, Abe, died. Jacob is convinced he saw a monster that night, but it is attributed to the over-active imagination that Abe encouraged Jacob to have through the unbelievable stories of Abe’s childhood. Abe told Jacob of boys who could lift entire boulders and girls who had to be tied down or they would float away like a balloon. Jacob’s father later explained that Abe spent most of his childhood on an island in Wales in an orphanage during World War II, while Abe’s family was executed during the Holocaust.

After going through some of his grandfather’s things, Jacob decides to go to the island where Abe grew up. After much convincing from the family therapist, Jacob’s father allows the trip and even comes along. While on the island, Jacob uncovers the ruins of the orphanage and more. Something about the island makes Jacob believe that Abe’s stories weren’t fictional. And something is about to show him he is right.

I read this book in about a week, which is fast for me because I’m a slow reader. The flow of the novel is perfect. There are a lot of details that are necessary for the reader to understand about the world Riggs create and he presents them in a timely manner, while still creating suspense.

There are photographs presented throughout the novel to accompany the text. The photographs, which if you read the back of the book are all actual old-fashioned photographs that were found and not taken for the soul purpose of the book, couple well with the text and outstanding stories offered by Riggs.

This is definitely set for the young adult crowd. Jacob is a teenager going through an average teenager struggle like falling in love for the first time, hating his first job and discovering skills he doesn’t know he has. But it also like the Roald Dahl books of our childhood. In fact, I could see many aspects of The Witches and The BFG involved in this novel.

Though I won’t tell you the ending, I will say that Riggs left the ending ambiguous to a series to follow, which I will buy in a heartbeat. I give Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children five stars—don’t put this book down.

Of Bees and Mist

An evil mother-in-law with an army of bees. A mist that carries away a married man to his mistress at night. Ghosts in the mirrors. A disappearing servant. An invisible best friend. Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan converts the average coming of age events, like marriage and having children, with the not-so-average fairy tale details.

Meridia grows up in a loveless home where a strange event from her past caused her parents, Gabriel and Ravenna, to mentally battle each other for years. When Meridia meets Daniel, she thinks her life is going to change for the better—until she meets Eva, Daniel’s controlling, possessive mother who has the gift of making people pity her.

Meridia and Eva have a life long battle of trying to conquer Daniel. Eva has an army of bees that cause negativity in Daniel’s mind about Meridia. The bees ruin Meridia’s womb and almost kills Meridia’s first and only child. Eva pilfers money from Daniel and Meridia making it impossible for the married couple to move away from Eva’s home.

Meridia undergoes the natural cycle of life—getting married, having a child, losing parents and dealing with marriage after the honeymoon is over with Eva manipulating every stage with her nasty bees.

This is a book I definitely judged by the cover. Literally, the artwork on the cover was the first thing to draw me to this book. When I read the book, the supernatural aspects made me decide to buy the book. However, the supernatural features were very vague. Some of the important details were overlooked had I not gone back and reread a few passages again. The mist and the bees are just a common existence within the story, but their origin is not explained in great detail, which made the story confusing at times. I feel like more time should have been directed towards the bees and the mist, seeing as they are the title of the novel.

            The sentence structure of the novel is lacking. The sentences are simple, but not in a good way. They have the quality of children’s story, which might fit for this type of novel, since it has a fairy tale theme. I wanted more artistic sentences and descriptions, since I could barely picture the characters, but another reader might feel differently.

Some of the scenes in the story are very artistic, the result of a wonderful imagination. In one scene, Daniel and Meridia find the coffin of a fawn floating on the ocean. I don’t want to reveal too much of the scene, but I will say it stuck in my mind like gum on the bottom of a sneaker on a hot day, which is exactly what an author wants to do in his first novel.

If you like the supernatural aspects of Beloved by Toni Morrison and the fairy tale stories of your childhood, then you will like this book. However, be warned now that the language is nowhere near the fabulous quality of Morrison’s work.

I feel that Of Bees and Mist would be better read with a book club or a class in which people can actively discuss some of the vague details of the book. I give this book a good, but not great.....3 stars.