Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Title: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Publication Information: Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2013. First paperback edition.

ISBN: 978-1-59474-603-1

Library of Congress Classification: PS3618.I3985

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

Supernatural—Fiction

Grandfathers—Wales—Fiction

Orphanages—Wales—Fiction

Wales—Fiction

Old photographs helped shape the narrative of this book. Pictures of people long dead—photos of those depicted who are unknown—the author used. He created characteristics and personalities for those shown, then wrote the book about the characters he created. Ransom Riggs discussed his use of the old photographs in the conversation with a Quirk Books editor at the end of the book.

The narrative itself is clever. Jacob sets out to discover why he was suffering from night terrors after he found his grandfather murdered. He traces his grandfather’s journey back to Wales, where he came as an orphan of war and lived for a time. The burned-out shell of the house contains secrets, secrets that Jacob learns once he time travels to the past.

Time is not linear. The children’s home’s residents have lived in a “loop” of time that resets itself at the end of the day, effectively repeating the same day. The only difference in this day is how the orphanage residents live it; everything else is the same.

The headmistress of the home is Miss Peregrine, who can turn herself into a falcon. Only birds, we are told, can manipulate time. The children, of whom Jacob is one, are peculiars—people with special abilities. These abilities include flying and generating fire from one’s hands. Wights look like normal people but have no pupils in their eyes. They serve the hollowgasts, creatures who were once human but were subverted and twisted in a failed experiment to become immortal decades before. Soulless, the hollowgasts use the wights to hunt and find the peculiars.

I know people like Riggs who collect old photographs of people whose identities are unknown. These are “orphaned” photos of people long dead. It seems strange, but it hurts no one. I do not understand the motivation, but if it helps the creative process …

It has only been since the 1830s that people have been able to take photographs of their surroundings and each other. For the first time in history, what has been and who have lived have some type of a visual record. Up until that time, only the rich and powerful could have busts and paintings made to preserve their posterity. It has only been a little over 100 years since moving pictures and video were invented, and just several decades since such technologies have been affordable to the average person. We can now preserve every graduation, wedding, or other event in our lives.

When I pointed this out to the executive director of the Historical Society, she agreed then told me that we were going to go back to not having anything survive, since everything was digital and not in hard copy. I know people who keep all their photos and videos on their cell phones. When a new phone is purchased, some data is lost. People know that they lost something, but exactly what is missing remains a mystery. We complain about this but do nothing about it. What is there to do? Does anyone complain to the phone provider? Once lost, the data is gone forever.

One solution would be to have every person’s cell phone linked to an account on a remote server (or cloud, if you like the new lingo) that synchs all the data so that, even though phones are lost, exchanged, or discarded, or the phone providers change, the information created by the person would be preserved. This would probably cost more money than we already spend on our expensive phones, and I do not know if there is enough interest in creating such a back-up. This would, however, solve the “missing data” problem. The phone would be linked to the server.

This book is the first in a three-volume set. Riggs has written a fourth book that is set in the same universe but tells a new story. It was a good book with interesting characters.