Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I had been reading reviews of this book for a while and the time came when I couldn't wait any longer so had to buy it! I loved the idea of the book and had really high hopes for it.

When I started reading the book I got into it really easily and enjoyed what I was reading and loved the way that the creepy old photographs were given characters and also loved the idea of Miss Peregrine, partly as she made me think of Nanny McPhee.

Although I enjoyed the book, there were a few things which I didn't like and spoilt what, for me, could have been an amazing and imaginative book.

The first thing that really bothered me was the spelling mistakes all the way through the book. And I don't mean Americanised spellings, I mean incorrect spellings. This is something that really gets on my nerves. I know as well as anyone how easy it is to make a typo, but I have two words to get over this - SPELL CHECK! If you are going to publish anything, please use it and get the work proof read. Right, rant over on spellings.

The next thing that really bothered me were the constant references to the island being just off the coast of Wales and the people being Welsh. The island did not seem Welsh to me and neither did the people. I think the author would have been better off making it a fictional generic creepy island which could be anywhere off the coast of Britain. It did make me feel as though the author had never been to Wales and just decided it would be a good setting as we have a lot of peculiar people here.

I found the last third of the book hard going. The best way I can describe this is to compare with Harry Potter. Imagine reading the first two thirds of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone with the last third of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tagged onto the end. This is what I felt this book was like.

Nonetheless I did enjoy the book and thought the concept of writing a story around old pictures was unique and could have been fantastic. Although enjoyable, it was just a bit of a let down for me.