Review #2: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Rating: ★★★★

As a child I read a lot of fantasy books, the Harry Potter series being my favourite amongst all. I was of the firm belief that no fantasy series would ever be able to outdo, or even come close to the magic that J.K.Rowling could spurn. However, I can say, that even if this book is not as good as the Harry Potter series (I might be biased), it is definitely one of the best fantasy books I've ever come across.

The one thing that really sets apart a good book of such a genre with the rest of its lot, is the element of suspense. The element of reality. The ability to make the reader believe, for that brief moment, that whatever happening in the book, is not just happening in a La La Land, but can actually happen. Ransom Riggs has managed to do just that. I'd watched the movie before reading the book, and I can definitely say the book is top notch better than the movie.

What makes the fantasy of this story relatable to is that from the very beginning, a very relatable story begins. A grandfather telling his grandson stories of an orphanage where the children had mysterious abilities, and the child begins to believe that it was real, but soon grows out of the belief with age. Isn't that what happens to most of us? And to be fair, grandparents do generally make up these stories.

But not in this case. And the story goes on from there, when the tragic loss of his grandfather, under mysterious circumstances, leads Jacob to the same orphanage that his grandfather had been brought up in, he does not realise the peculiar ride he is going to embark upon.

I genuinely enjoyed this book because of it's pictures as well of all the peculiar children, which makes it harder for me to believe that fiction might not be so far away from the truth after all, in this book's case. So in case you're ever going to read this book, I suggest you sit back, enjoy this book, fall into the magic of reality vs fantasy, and try and figure how different can this story actually be from reality.

#books #fantasy #movie #peregrine