Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - review by Joel Gould

Original Book Cover

Movie Poster

This Friday night, September 30th, 20th Century Fox will release Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, based on the YA novel by Ransom Riggs, first published by Quirk Books in 2011.

To paraphrase Elvis, the king of rock and roll, 50 million fans can’t be wrong. After consulting many tastemakers, the New York Times, The New Yorker, GoodReads, NPR, etc, I pulled up the Apple’s iBook Young Adult top paid book list on my phone. Three out of the four top slots were penned by one Ransom Riggs. This book held the top spot. Admittedly, my willingness to trust popular taste has burned me before. In the halcyon days of pre-streaming Netflix, five red stars brought the DVD of The Notebook into my living room. Yuck. In the case of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, however, the mob is prescient. This book really is all that and a bag of chips.

How should I review a book that has already been so read and so loved?

I could extol the virtues of the author’s vivid use of simple language: “Dr. Golan tented his fingers and pressed them to his chin.” I could describe the enchanting parallel dimension that Riggs conjures - how it folds into our world and is also a rubbernecking train-wreck. I could deconstruct the unusual plot pacing and rhythm: the way it marches, strolls, sprints, and then stops, leaving you wondering, “Where could it possibly go from here?” And then, like a NYC subway, it lurches forward, causing you to grasp instinctively for an anchor. I could explain the unusual tension generated by the noirish and occasionally grotesque vintage photographs; how they wondrously drive the book and simultaneously tie it to the day-to-day lives of people. Will some young readers look at the faces of the peculiar children in these pages and detect a family resemblance?

Instead, I offer a question that suggests an interpretation the author defies you to maintain:

Do any details in the text contradict reading Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children as a first person account of onset childhood schizophrenia? On the surface, many details relating to Jacob’s life support this: mounting paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, a family history of mental health problems, and a belief in a unique ability to see monsters and converse with gods.

For reference, consider the TED talk by Elyn R. Saks, professor at University of Southern California, discussing her experience and her book, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (2008).

In a few days, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children will complete the major rite of passage in its journey from debut novel to media franchise. Could it rival Harry Potter? Too soon to tell. At the very least, I predict it will make many peculiar children (including this one) particularly happy.

For those that enjoy the "Conversation with Ransom Riggs" that follows the story in the 2016 edition, here are two additional video links: