Sean Barrs 's Reviews > Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This book is so insanely popular, and whilst it is not without merit, I think it’s totally underserving of the amount of hype it has received.

Now let me explain: the idea of combining words and photographs to tell a story is undeniably original and clever, and here the distorted black and white snaps fit the eery gothic vibe of the narrative. They work well together but ultimately become a little problematic. At times, it felt like the story was pushed to breaking point as the narrative was twisted around the photographs. It’s almost like the photo dictated where the story was going, and the events were stretched around it. There were a few instances where this was particularly bad, and it gave the direction of the writing a totally random feel. It was bizarre.

If you take the photographs out of the book, and leave the writing as it is, ultimately, we are left with an average young adult story about escapism with very poor characterisation. There are other books that deal with this theme much better; thus, this would no doubt become a little lost in the saturated market. The photographs are the unique selling point, and without them the book would flounder. My point here is that the writing is quite weak and by itself would not be strong enough to carry the story. I find this a little problematic: the writing should be enhanced by the photographs, not become completely reliant on them.

I do think this is a creative and remarkable way to tell a story but ultimately the execution was a little poor. I don’t think Riggs’ prose was quite up to scratch nor his ability to give his characters any real depth. It felt amateurish, difficult to get into and the story did not work for me. For me this book is a curiosity, nothing more.

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