Throughout his entire life, Jacob’s grandfather Abe, a holocaust survivor, always told him he fled Europe during World War II to escape from the monsters. After sixteen year-old Jacob discovers Abe lying in a nearby field, mortally wounded by what many later assume to be a pack of wild dogs, the old man’s dying words – a cryptic series of clues – leave him wondering if his “monsters” weren’t metaphorical after all.
After Abe’s death, Jacob searches through his things and uncovers a collection of incredibly strange old photographs of children, some of them depicted in impossible acts or malformed in unusual ways. The pictures all seem to have come from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a mysterious institution once located on an island off the coast of Wales. At one time, his grandfather was one of these “peculiar children”, and Jacob becomes obsessed with discovering why.
With his parents’ leave – and the insistence of his psychiatrist – Jacob embarks on a journey that will take him to the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s, and the boundary of reality itself.
Author Ransom Griggs, a photographer, writer and frequent contributor to the blog Mental Floss was inspired to write this strange but entertaining story while collecting found photography (lost or discarded photos of unknown origin depicting people usually unknown to the collector) from swap meets, flea markets and other collectors. Some of these vintage photographs were used for illustration, giving the book a spooky authenticity that Griggs uses to great effect. Reading the book is almost like taking peeks at someone’s private scrapbook.
If you enjoy creepy storytelling and vintage photography, then this is a book you should really consider giving a look.
