Book Club Discussion: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Not yet, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

Provisions and Paperbacks, my IRL book club, read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs a few weeks ago. As I mentioned in my previous post (you can read it here), I want to share some thoughts and ideas brought up during the book club and bring my blog readers into the discussion.


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.

There will be spoilers. You have been warned.

Here are some thoughts shared during out book club discussion after reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children:

"L" says: I loved the pictures in this book, they really took me back in time and gave me a visual to put with the words. However, I had my own idea of the setting and sometimes the photos didn't come close the ideas I imagined. This is a fantastical story but I could almost see being caught up in this time warp in real life. I could visualize myself as a character in the book and wanted to. It was strange but I almost wanted it to be more creepy. There is a yearning to know what happens now...where do the children go from here? My favorite photo was of Horace

"R" says: I think that when you start reading the book the Grandfather's stories have a fairy tale quality to them and as you read you discover the hidden meanings and truths of his stores perhaps he used what he thought his grandson could understand at a young age but as he aged he should have been more honest with his history.  Toward the end of the Grandfather's life he was haunted by his monsters and his family thought he was slipping into dementia it made me wonder if his carrying the secrets and fighting the monsters drove him into insanity?  I enjoyed the book because there were surprises you would think the story was leading in one direction and then you realized your assumptions were wrong.


Other thoughts:

• we were all impressed with the use of the photographs in the storytelling. Every picture fit in the telling and they didn't seem forced into the story just because the author wanted to include them.
• we each envisioned the portal from the current day to 1940 very differently. Personally I had trouble envisioning altogether
• One of my favorite scenes was when the children were on lockdown and a few of them decided to sneak out of the house to return to the modern day and Olive is floating by the window waiting to help Jacob and Emma
• My Audible Gasp Moment: when Jacob discovers the true identity of his therapist - totally didn't see that coming at all!
• Didn't fall for idea as Emma as a love interest - maybe if the relationship with Jacob's grandfather had been different, but it wasn't so that was a whole lot of eww. 
• One of the creepiest photos - the bus driver - so sinister

Half of the group are excited about how the story ended leaving it open to more adventures of the Peculiar Children and the other half are happy to end the story as it is - rowing into the sunset.

I'd like to invite anyone to join in on the discussion and share your thoughts on Miss Peregrine's Home to Peculiar Children BUT I do ask that you only make comments on this specific book in the series and that you don't reveal any spoilers for future books in the series. Please and Thank you!

Up next: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver!!