Author: Ransom Riggs
Published: June 7th, 2011
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Time Travel
My Rating: ★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious 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 abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
My Review:
Nothing in the world is more heartwarming than a passionate and hardworking author and Ransom Riggs is one of them. It's very obvious how much work he put into his debut novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children; from the writing style to the cool yet creepy pictures in the book. This is also one of the books I flew through during the Book-Tube-A-Thon.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children started out really slow. It picked up about half way through the book and that's when I started getting into the story. I enjoyed the originality of the plot and really really enjoyed the setting, which is not always something I tend to focus on while reading, but does impact the rating I ended up giving the book. I wish I can say I loved the characters, but I only liked them. I just couldn't connect with any of them, even the main character Jacob, but the good thing is I also didn't find them irksome, which has been happening a lot lately. Mr. Riggs took his time to vividly explain the image he's trying to draw. I gave this book 3 stars, but it's more of a 3.5-3.75 and a lot of those points go to the originality of the plot,the interesting yet mysterious setting, and the cool vintage pictures the author has found. I'm excited to see how things pick up in the sequel, Hollow City.
Author: Skylar Dorset
Published: June 1st, 2014
Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: ★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS is the story of Selkie Stewart, who thinks she’s a totally normal teenager growing up in Boston. Sure, her father is in an insane asylum, her mother left her on his doorstep—literally—when she was a baby, and she’s being raised by two ancient aunts who spend their time hunting gnomes in their Beacon Hill townhouse. But other than that her life is totally normal! She’s got an adventurous best friend who’s always got her back and an unrequited crush on an older boy named Ben. Just like any other teenager, right?
When Selkie goes in search of the mother she’s never known, she gets more than she bargained for. It turns out that her mother is faerie royalty, which would make Selkie a faerie princess—except for the part where her father is an ogre, which makes her only half of anything. Even more confusing, there’s a prophecy that Selkie is going to destroy the tyrannical Seelie Court, which is why her mother actually wants to kill her. Selkie has been kept hidden all her life by her adoring aunts, with the help of a Salem wizard named Will. And Ben. Because the boy she thinks she’s in love with turns out to be a faerie whose enchantment has kept her alive, but also kept her in the dark about her own life.
Now, with enchantments dissolved and prophecies swinging into action, Selkie finds herself on a series of mad quests to save the people she’s always loved and a life she’s learning to love. But in a supernatural world of increasingly complex alliances and distressingly complicated deceptions, it’s so hard to know who to trust. Does her mother really wish to kill her? Would Will sacrifice her for the sake of the prophecy? And does Ben really love her or is it all an elaborate ruse? In order to survive, Selkie realizes that the key is learning—and accepting—who she really is.
My Review:
I initially gave this book 3 stars, but the longer I thought about it, I felt it deserved less, and I ended up settling with 1 star. I was so excited to finally read my very first Faerie book. I think that's where things went wrong ..... I was "too" excited. I felt that things started out fine and kind of went down hill from there. I found myself reading to get things over with, rather than in anticipation of the wrap-up of the story. Thankfully, the book is only 300 pages. Don't even get me started on the characters ..... well they, including Selkie, our main character, were underdeveloped and too flat and boring. The storyline didn't really develop and improve as the story progressed. I'm trying to find good things to say about this book but all I can say is, I'm thankful the pacing wasn't too bad. This book had potential ..... tons of it, but it just wasn't developed properly.
Have you read any of these? What did you think?
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