I finally joined the bandwagon and read this book! I've been wanting to for a while now...way before I found out they were making it into a movie. Bad thing is though...I probably won't be able to watch the movie. I get super judgmental of movies after I've read the books...to the point I can't enjoy the movie! Anyway....
We begin our journey with a young fellow named Jacob recounting stories told to him by his Grandpa Portman; a man of Polish decent who was fought in WWII and who's parents were killed prior to the war. Grandpa Portman showed photographs of his friends from his childhood, some of whom were an invisible boy and a levitating girl. Cut to many years later, Jacob is 16 and working at one of his family's drugstore chains...Smart Aid. It is during one of his work days he receives a phone call from his Grandpa, freaking out, wanting the key to the weapons cabinet. The family had long ago locked up the weapons cabinet because they feared Grandpa was losing his mind due to senility. Grandpa had been claiming there were monsters but the family just assumed he was lapsing back into memories and days of the war. Jacob would soon discover his grandfather was perfectly in his right mind. By the time Jacob gets to his grandfather's house, he knows something isn't right. After searching the house Jacob wanders out into the backyard and further into the bordering woods where he finds his grandfather...barely alive...chest bleeding from scratches that looked to have been made by an animal. That's what the police said...animal attack. Jacob, however, sees a different monster in the woods...one with tentacles for a tongue and sharp claws. Jacob knows it is this creature that has killed his grandfather. With his last breath, Grandpa Portman tells Jacob a few things that at the time make no sense to him, but eventually turn out to be clues. After the death of his grandfather, and seeing the creature, Jacob slips into a depression and honestly believes he himself is going crazy. It isn't until he goes to therapy that things kind of start improving.
Finally, on Jacob's 16th birthday, his aunt gives him a book she found when cleaning out Grandpa Portman's things. It is a book of Ralph Waldo Emerson's works and inside the cover it says For Jacob...Emerson was one of the clues provided to him from his grandfather's last words. It's not so much the book though, but rather the letter found in the book. Grandpa used to always talk about the children at Miss Peregrine's school and within the Emerson book, a letter from Miss Peregrine falls out. Jacob starts to believe maybe his grandfather wasn't making it all up. Maybe, just maybe, he needs to visit the place the letter was postmarked from to see if the school is still there. Upon the encouragement of his psychiatrist, Jacob and his father go to the island...his father to bird watch and Jacob...well Jacob goes to see if he's lost his mind or not. Once on the island, Jacob learns the location of the school and when he gets there all he finds is a ruined house with floors rotting and walls missing...not to mention part of the house completely gone from a bomb falling on it during the war. It isn't until one day Jacob finds a trunk full of pictures like the ones his grandfather showed him that he thinks he may on to something. It's also during the time he's going through these pictures that he starts to hear people talking to him. He looks up to find several children around him but when he tries to explain himself or ask them anything, they all take off running. He manages to give chase and follows one girl, Emma, into a cairn. When he enters the cairn, there's no one there, but when he climbs back out, he has stepped back into time. September 3, 1940 to be exact. Of course he doesn't know he's entered a different time until he tries to go back to the one inn on the island and they have no idea who he is, nor does he see anything remotely modern. Emma eventually finds him, holds a knife to him until he answers why he's following her, and takes him back to the school which now that he is back in 1940 is standing once again.
Back at the house, he meets Miss Peregrine who begins to explain a few things. When the war came, she created a time loop so basically they repeat the same day over and over again. All of the children are indeed 'peculiar'. Emma creates fire and light with her hands. Miss Peregrine turns into a falcon and can manipulate time. Hugh has bees that come from his mouth. Bronwyn has super human strength. Fiona can grow trees and flowers. Millard is the invisible boy. They all really do exist. His grandfather wasn't lying. The bad thing is though, if the children leave the loop and enter the present for an extended period of time, they will begin aging rapidly to their actual age so they must always remain in the loop. But like everyone, the peculiars have enemies...other than humans. They are known as the hollowghast...these subhuman creatures with sharp teeth and claws and tentacles for a mouth. They feast on peculiars and after eating so many of them they can become somewhat human and become what is known as a wight. Wights have no pupils and they try to find peculiars or really anyone for the hollowghast to feast on. Jacob's grandfather could see the hollowghast...as not all peculiars can. Monster sight was Grandpa Portman's peculiar talent...and he has passed it down to Jacob...
Jacob spends his time on the island traveling between present day and 1940 until one day another peculiar from another time loop shows up frantic. Her loop was infiltrated by a wight and the children were killed. She barely managed to escape. Turns out the wights are trying to find all peculiars who can alter time in hopes of creating a great peculiar species that could rule the world. Isn't that everyone bad guy's goal? Power? It also just so happens a wight has showed up on the island in the present time. Turns out the wight can take many disguises and has infiltrated himself in Jacob's life for basically his entire life...first as a school bus driver, then as his grandfather's neighbor, and then as his psychiatrist! He knew if he persuaded Jacob to go to the island to find answers, he would be able to follow him, find the other peculiars, and get Miss Peregrine since she can manipulate time! The children fight back though and are able to rescue Miss Peregrine...bad thing is though...she can't turn back into a human and the loop has broken. At the end, for the first time in over 60 years, it is September 4, 1960. The children, along with Miss Peregrine in falcon form, leave behind all they've ever known to go in search of other time loops and those who can manipulate time in order to form an army that can battle the hollowghast and the wights.
Knowing he never really had much, Jacob goes with them. He tells his father the truth, knowing his father may never believe him...but either way he leaves. He has a new family now...one that understands him...and one that he somehow understands. He finally has a purpose and an extraordinary life.
It takes a while to get to Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children but to me the book needed the background stuff. You needed to see Jacob struggle through his conflicts about his grandfather. Was he crazy? Was he cheating? You needed to encounter all of that just so it restored your faith is his grandfather just as much as it restored Jacob's faith. Even though we spend a lot of time getting to know Jacob's life, it was still fast paced to me. I feel Riggs had an overall goal and he knew he wouldn't be able to tell Jacob's story with one book. I look forward to following the peculiar children in their next adventure.
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