A Peculiar Day For A Peculiar Book

It took me three days to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs. A book that I bought skeptically. It looked horrifying, it looked like some strange children's version of a horror movie, Silent Hill or some such other-worldly story. Then it sat on top of the other books hanging on my wall, and I never truly had a desire to open it up and read. I didn't really understand what it was about - it was vague. Then one day, Scott said "Read it." And so I did.

This book is truly magnificent. It's a wondrous tale, and I very much hope it has a sequel. It is NOT a "children's book" per se, but would be appropriate for teenagers. Here lies an eccentric story accompanied by strange and sometimes disturbing vintage photographs that accompany the story. As I started reading the book started out with the narrator, Jacob, talking about his before and after. "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." After experiencing a strange and tragic event that catapults his life into an adventurous search for answers, Jacob discovers that there is more to our world than most people will ever understand, unless you are 'peculiar.'

Jacob was born to a rich mother, and a father who studies birds. His father starts various manuscripts about birds, until eventually something despairing happens and he abandons them, much like his own father abandoned him as a child. Jacob's father's father, Abe, was peculiar, that much was obvious to those around him, and in his old age many thought that he was experiencing an onslaught of dementia. In reality, the horrors that surrounded Abe were very much real, and the monsters he fought in WWII were much more terrifying than ordinary Nazis. Jacob takes after his grandfather in many ways, and when his grandfather utters a last secret to Jacob, it sets Jacob on journey to the truth.

Ordinary Jacob has a father who eventually becomes a drunk as they embark on an adventure to a distant Welsh island where Jacob is given the opportunity to find out about his grandfather's past, and where his father attempts yet another manuscript on the local bird population there. Jacob seems glad to be rid of his mother, who in turn seemed glad to be rid of her "crazy" son Jacob and his father, whom she treats as another child. "My two men ... off on a big adventure!" She yelled as their trip loomed closer, and then Jacob overheard her state to a friend "how relieved she'd be to 'have her life back' for three weeks and not have 'two needy children to worry about'." Jacob states he loves his mother, but only because it's mandatory. If he saw her on the street, she wouldn't be someone he liked much.

Once they get to the island the book takes on a darker tone, even darker than the beginning of the book where tragedy struck, and psychotic episodes ensued.



I won't lie. I found the start of the book intriguing, sometimes frightening (like goosebumps on your arms, frightening), but I found it hokey. The pictures which I believed were meant to enhance and make the text more realistic, actually turned me off, and the story seemed forced. And then boom! There is a moment, where Jacob's own peculiarities are revealed and everything makes sense, everything snaps into place, and suddenly there is more at stake than anyone reading this book could have realized - more at stake than Jacob could have realized. The book is startling, eccentric, and marvelous - simply, simply marvelous. This electric fairy-tale horror story comes together in a sense of urgency and magical wonder, and indeed we come to realize that Jacob's "before" was very much muted compared to his "after."

I really hope there is a sequel to this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone of any age who loves a good adventure. This book is heartwarming, it's touching, and it's terrifying in the most pleasant of ways. It's hopeful and despairing all at the same time, and you'll find yourself wondering why peculiar people DON'T rule the world (because being different, unique and special really makes the world luminous), and it shows you that greed will really turn someone into an all-consuming monster. It's a mixture of X-Men and Grimm's Fairy Tales, of WWII stories giving it a sense of reality, and of the horror stories that make us check the closet and look under the bed before going to sleep. Please read this book.

All this being said, today is a peculiar day. It's peculiar because I am not working, and it's peculiar because Oklahoma has been tainted with tragedy. I have been sick now for about three weeks, and yesterday I finally went to get medicine. I am feeling slightly better already, after being prescribed four different medications, but at the same time these meds are making me woozy and there are more unpleasant side effects. I stayed home today to get myself back together, and thus finished this book, turning every page with a frenzy. The idea of extraordinary events causing someone to have a before and after made me think, also, of those who lost loved ones, homes, and memories in Oklahoma this week after a disastrous tornado tore through the lives of many. Their "after" will be a lot less spectacular than their "before," at least for a while as they work to put the pieces back together. If you're reading this post, please keep the people of Oklahoma in your thoughts.