I just finished reading Hollow City by Ransom Riggs. This is the third book to Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children book series. This fantasy book is one of my absolute favorites, and I can’t wait to read more from this amazing author. This 458 page book keeps you flipping the pages all the way to the end. I read this book because my sister read the first one, and recommended it to me. Since the first page, I haven’t been able to put it down. If you like mystery, action, and fantasy books, then this is the novel for you. Ransom Riggs grew up on a farm in Maryland. He graduated from Kenyon College where he studied literature and got a degree in English. Riggs got his ideas to the eerie series from old photographs that he found at swap meets and flea markets. Tim Burton will be directing this book series that will come out in theaters in March 2016.     

 

In the first book of the series, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Jacob Portman grew up listening to stories about peculiar children who could fly, lift boulders, light fire with their hands, and more.  But Jacob always just thought that they were ghost stories. Until Jacob’s grandfather is killed by some sort of monster, but of course, no one believes Jacob. Jacob wants to go to Wales, where his grandfather grew up, to try to find the peculiar children. But when Jacob actually finds them, his life gets turned upside down. He finds out that his grandfather was killed by “hollows,” monsters that eat peculiars. But, Jacob finds out that he is peculiar too, and that he can see these monsters.  So Jacob has the tough decision to stay with the children, or go back to his life in the 21st century. When Miss. Peregrine, the headmistress is stolen by the wights (hollows that have eaten enough peculiars to take human form) and hollows, Jacob knows that he has  to stay and help. But then, all of the peculiar children, except for Emma Bloom, the girl who can make fire, is taken, Jacob and Emma don’t know what they are going to do. Luckily, they find a peculiar dog to help them. In the book Library of Souls, Jacob,  Emma, and Addison (the peculiar dog) find the wights lair. They want to free all of the peculiars from all over that world that have been trapped. But when Jacob, Emma, and Addison get injured trying to get into the lair, they have to find another way. So, they find someone, Miss Peregrine’s brother, actually. But the real question is, can they trust him?

 

“There was, in fact, a street sign to that effect—the first I’d seen in all of Devil’s Acre. Louche Lane, it read in fancy handwritten script. Piracy discouraged.

“Discouraged?” I said. “Then what’s murder? Frowned upon?”

“I believe murder is ‘tolerated with reservations.”

“Is anything illegal here?” Addison asked.

“Library late fines are stiff. Ten lashes a day, and that’s just for paperbacks.”

“There’s a library?”

“Two. Though one won’t lend because all the books are bound in human skin and quite valuable.”  (Pg. 97)

I chose  this passage because I find that it really sets the feel of the book. The eerie, creepy, mystery book that draws the reader in. That somehow all of these crazy things come together make sense; and create a truly amazing masterpiece. This type of dialogue is what really makes the reader want to read on, these ghoulish lines really shapes the book into something like no other. I look forward to seeing the movie and reading this series again in the future. Library of Souls is a 10 out of 10. I have not yet read a better book.