Miss
Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Graphic Novel
Author: Ransom
Riggs
Illustrator:
Cassandra Jean
5 out of 5 Stars
Note: I received Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,
the Graphic Novel, from Quirk Books. As a blogger, I was asked to provide
an honest review of the graphic novel.
I did not hear about Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs until the end of 2013. I saw people talk about the book on
Twitter and a couple of my friends told me that it was a must read. I knew that
I needed to add it to my TBR list. When the graphic novel of the story arrived
at my house from Quirk Books, I was in instant awe. The cover was eerie and I was intrigued to
read it. Due to this excitement, I set aside the book I was currently reading and
began the graphic novel.
First, let me say that I loved the
graphic novel adaptation of the book. The story is about a young man named
Jacob Portman. When Jacob was younger his grandfather used to tell him stories
about unique or what Ransom Rigg’s calls “peculiar” children. Jacob became
fascinated with the stories and the photos of unique children that his grandfather had shown him. But as Jacob grew older, he began to believe that his grandfather had
made up these stories and that the pictures were fabricated.
It would not be until the death of his grandfather that Jacob would realize
that his grandfather was telling the truth. To realize these actualities, Jacob
must set out on a journey to discover his grandfather’s past and secrets. On
this adventure, Jacob will make new friends, discover a new world of
strangeness and evil, and find his true self.
Even though I enjoyed the storyline,
I also loved the graphic novel aspect of the story. The artist Cassandra Jean,
who is also known for her work on the Beautiful
Creatures’ graphic novel, does a great job portraying the eeriness of the
world that Jacob discovers. The story is put to life with her talented
descriptions and visuals. It is her work that makes the story move forward. The
characters seem real and seem to portray human emotion. She is even able to
portray an invisible man’s emotions and thoughts without even drawing a body. The
invisible man turned out to be one of my favorite character’s throughout the
novel!
Also, I liked how she portrayed the
two worlds: the real world and the “peculiar loop.” By doing this, the reader
will get an understanding to what realm the characters are in at each moment of
the story. By adding color to the peculiar world and keeping the real world
black and white, the story became more fascinating. In my opinion, the colorful
peculiar world allowed the main character to realize the truth to the
grandfather’s past and showed a magical/strange world that was outside Jacob’s
ordinary realm. I would compare the story to The
Wizard of Oz. Dorothy live in an ordinary world, one that is black and
white, but discovers a colorful world as she enters Oz. The same can be said
about Jacob who discovers a world of wonder in Miss Peregrine’s home.
With both Rigg’s writing and Jean’s
graphic skills, I would consider Miss
Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the Graphic Novel, a brilliant
piece of writing and art. I would recommend it to anyone who would be
interested in the eerie and strange. Now, I want to pick up a copy of the
novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar
Children and the second book, Hollow
City, which just came out last week (Jan. 14, 2014). I promise you, you
will want to read about this fantastic world that Ransom Riggs dreamed up for
his readers.
