Young Adult Lit is straddling redundancy, what with all the bestsellers of its genre as of late containing the tired subject matter of vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural themes. Though Ransom Rigg's debut novel treads some of the same territory, it brings something new to the table with its eccentric, somewhat haunting, and intrepid tale of a gifted young man who comes to believe in the impossible.
"Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children" pits 16-year old Jacob Portman in a haphazard quest of self-discovery when his grandfather Abe whispers a cryptic message to him before dying a strange death. "Go to the island," Abe beseeches him, referencing a remote place in which he spent part of his youth as a refugee during World War II. Though Jacob has long since dismissed many of his grandfather's stories of the place as tall tales, he nonetheless promises Abe that he will make the pilgrimage, a bizarre sighting the night of his death propelling him forward.
Once Jacob sets foot on the British island of Cairnholm to locate the orphanage in which his grandfather stayed those many years ago, he quickly finds what he's looking for but all is not as it seems. Where the story goes from here is by turns magical and terrifying, the rules of time and space not merely bent but broken.
Many gifted individuals populate the story, "peculiar" being the operative word for much of everything about them and around them. One is invisible; another can conjure fire in her palms. There is a boy who is capable of raising the dead, and a girl who levitates. Riggs endows the book with a plethora of possibilities, much of his inspiration derived from bizarre photos (there are over 40 of them) collected from various sources that he includes in the effort to pace and enhance the story. Not that it needs enhancement - the steady tempo of and rich description within Rigg's first-person narrative is more than sufficient.
His main characters are well-rounded and likeable. Jacob is a typical teenager, coming off as a sullen slacker in the beginning but experiences tremendous growth throughout the course of the story, making the book somewhat of a coming-of-age tale. He comes to understand that he is far more responsible than he thought, that he is an honorable man (despite a falling out with a friend), a gentleman, and incredibly valiant even when fear of death threatens to paralyze him. His love interest Emma is a plucky and astute young woman who is wise beyond her physical years, ready and willing to fight as fiercely as a man to protect herself and her young and anomalous flock, her steely front belying a wounded heart. The remaining cast of characters gets limited expansion, and this is understandable. Too much history on a company that large would've bogged down the narrative, disrupting the flow and possibly boring readers. After all, the story is about Jacob - they are mere sidebars in the proceedings.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
I have only one significant gripe about this book, and it's that I'm a bit disappointed in the inexplicable turn of events the author creates in order to give his characters a happy ending. He offers no discernible explanation for the time loop failure that allows the children to start aging again as normal and this can come off as an easy out to people who want that question answered. But reason is probably too great a thing to ask in this case, considering the book's fantastical subject matter, and who could really begrudge themselves or others a happy ending? This is fiction after all, and though great fiction is often logical and pragmatic, the story and/or the author must be allowed on occasion a few minor rebellions.
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Bottom line: If you're craving the simple and expeditious storytelling that YA novels offer but don't want another formulaic supernatural tale that publishers seem to be churning out en masse these days, give Ransom Riggs a go. Though the new kid on the block, he's sure to become an old favorite.
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