With October comes Halloween, and for some reason I feel compelled to read books with a creepy edge, for instance the books from this October/November blog entry three years ago. While I can't read "hard core" horror, like Steven King (I don't think I slept for two weeks after I read The Shining), I do enjoy a darker fantasy novel and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs fits the bill. This book falls in the YA category, but is totally entertaining for an adult audience. Using a combination of clever storytelling and photographs, Riggs will suck you into this spine-tingling thriller. I am looking forward to reading the next two books (Hollow City and Library of Souls) later this month. Happy Halloween and Creepy Reading!
From School Library Journal (June 1, 2011)
Sixteen-year-old Jacob, traumatized by his grandfather's sudden, violent death, travels with his father to a remote island off the coast of Wales to find the orphanage where his grandfather was sent to live to escape Nazi persecution in Poland. When he arrives, he finds much more than he bargained for: the children from his grandfather's stories are still at the orphanage, living in a time loop in 1940. The monsters that killed Jacob's grandfather are hunting for "peculiar" children, those with special talents, and the group at the orphanage is in danger. Jacob must face the possibility that he, too, has certain traits that the monsters are after and that he is being stalked by adults he trusted. This complex and suspenseful story incorporates eerie photographs of children with seemingly impossible attributes and abilities, many of whom appear as characters in the story. The mysterious photographs add to the bizarre and slightly creepy tone of the book.
