Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Series/Standalone: Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children (Book #1)
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: 353
Publisher: Quirk Books
Year Published: 2011
Format: Paperback Physical Copy (Own it)
First Line: "I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."

"A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of peculiar photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its decaying bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine's children were more than just peculiar. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow- impossible though it seems- they may still be alive."

My Rating: 3.5/5

I was recommended this book multiple times either by people I knew well or those who are very big in the YA reading community (whether through booktube, or book blogging) and I'm going to tick a lot of people off with this review and spoiler. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this book for what it was. The photographs were chilling and held me captivated in the story when I was really into reading. That being said, it took me 2 weeks to get through this book and it didn't capture my complete attention for most of the time. I want to add that this book just did not live up to the hype for me. The premise was interesting to me, until about half way through the book, when there were many "secrets" being kept from the reader. I felt that I had figured out the secrets that some characters were keeping. I also found the love interest interesting and strangely hard to support for reasons that I don't even understand. I hope to continue on with the series and see how I feel about the next instalment before passing judgement on the series, but I am going into the next book with far lower expectations. 
All in all, I think that Ransom Riggs portrays an interesting story using photographs as well as imaginative descriptions. I would recommend this book to younger readers venturing into YA fantasy/paranormal for the first time.

Thanks for reading,
Sidny