I guess sometimes writers just get tired.
This was my impression after reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
I, admittedly, wasn’t excited about reading the book initially. I was excited by an invitation to join a book club and embrace my true nerd by discussing books with others. But, when you’re in a book club, they want you to read the book. Enter Miss Peregrine.
A cross between Harry Potter (which I did not enjoy) and Nanny McPhee (which I loved), the book follows Jacob as he travels to an island near Wales trying to better understand the last utterances of his dying grandfather. On the island, Jacob discovers the Miss Peregrine’s Home and begins to realize that the strange photos his grandfather showed him as a child might not have been manipulated.
I was taken with the book when I first started reading. I should have suspected something was amiss when my favorite sentences were the first in the prologue.
“I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen. The first of these came as a terrible shock and, like anything that changes you forever, split my life into halves: Before and After.”
The lines certainly get your attention and are easily recognizable as something we’ve all experienced—the before and after of a major life event.
The book continued building from there and was an enjoyable read until the end. In the last few chapters, the story line became overly elaborate and confusing. Then, the book just ended. It was almost as if the writer just got tired of writing.
Overall, I don’t regret having read the book. Book clubs are fun, you know? It’s worth a read if you are looking for something peculiar, or if you just like this young fantasy type of read. Don’t waste your time on it if you have a list of other things you’re interested in reading.
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