Book Review - Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children - Trilogy
Ransom Riggs

YA/Adult/WW2/fantasy/
Easy Read

Soon to be a major motion picture

Miss Peregines Home for Peculiar Children
7 Stars
348 Pages

Abe Portman is a master storyteller, tales of the children he grew up with (who had super strength, could fly, were invisible and other such amazing talents) living in an enchanted school house during WW2. Abe himself left the home to battle monsters and save his people. Jacob Portman believed every word his grandfather spoke was gospel, until he grew up and realized the story's where really a retelling of the Holocaust. Or was it? Grandpa Abe is killed by wild dogs in front of Jacob, the fact that Jacob saw a monster right out of his grandfathers stories was just a stress reaction of course. In an attempt to come to terms with his grandfathers death and what he saw, Jacob retraces his grandfathers life travelling to the island of the "enchanted" school house hoping to meet someone who may have known Abe as a child, literally thrown for a loop Jacob finds his grandfathers long lost friends and much more than he bargained for.

I first read Miss Peregrines when it was first released, finding it in the airport and reading it all in one sitting while I flew. I always find with a reread that I get so much more out of the book than just the story, because I am not rushing to know what happens next. This is yet another novel that is between YA and adult, fast passed but not what I would deem to be action packed. I found all the characters to be strikingly real. This is one of those novels where, there is so many overlapping layers, and so many different ways to consider it and interpret it. The pictures add so much to this novel as well, putting faces to names, I look at it as the book came from the pictures vs the pictures trying to fit the book.


PS: I have now read this first novel, four times, maybe five and love it and wanted to continue the series and even started Hollow City, but I just can't get into it or its the wrong time or when I am in the mood I don't have the books on hand.
Super frustrated by this.

Totally recommend this book and the series

PPS : I wrote this review in early 2016 maybe in 2015 and its been sitting as a draft until now. So like 2 years because its 2017. I figured I had better just publish it already, I was going to just publish one post for the whole trilogy but... obviously not... so yeah enjoy!

Wrap Up - September 2016

Starting school this month meant that I wasn't sure how my reading routine would be set up. I was kind of hoping for about 30 minutes a day, I think I ended up with closer to 60 minutes on average. Probably closer to 2-3 hours on the weekend - with the first week of September being the long weekend. I am pretty happy with how it all ended up. I have been really bad with publishing TBR's this year and didn't get one out until have the middle of the month :(  so it was a combination of September and October (link here) . While 15 books a month seemed ridiculously ambitious at the time I might get pretty close to finishing, although I doubt it will be the books I had listed. Any of the novels with a  " *** " where on my TBR. And (for once) this months list is in the order I read them!

*The links over the novels is too the full book review

1. Omens, Kelley Armstrong ***
2. Bloodtraitor, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
3. Visions, Kelley Armstrong ***
4. The Lord of the Rings : the Two Towers, JRR Tolkien 
5. Deceptions, Kelley Armstrong ***
6. Betrayals, Kelley Armstrong ***
7. The Masked Truth, Kelley Armstrong
8. The Lord of the Rings : Return of the King, JRR Tolkien
9. Animal Farm, George Orwell
10. Finders Keepers, Stephen King ***
11. Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire
12. A Madness So Discreet, Mindy McGinnis 
13. 1984, George Orwell

Started 

1. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
2. Fairest, Marissa Meyer

I also read a few essays/short stories this month 

A Door in the Wall, HG Wells
The Open Window, Saki
The Verger Somerset Maugham
Rocking Horse Winner, DH Lawrence

Favourite Book this month was :

Series Review - The Lord of the Rings

JRR Tolkien

1220 Page or 55 Hours of Audiobook

+ Authors Notes

Started August 20 2015

Finished September 21 2016 
(1 year, 1 month and 1 day)

9 Stars

Hard Read

Epic Fantasy/ Classic/ Film/ Fiction/ 

The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King

It is such an accomplishment to have finally finished this series.  I have picked up these novels so many times, only to put the books down again as I was unable to get into the writing. It is however a classic and the father of so many epic fantasies, I just couldn't take it off my TBR list.  After visiting New Zealand  - where the movies where made although I didn't get a chance to do the set tour like I had hoped, I did however get to go for a tour with the horses and the trainer from the movies, Steve Olds was the best advertisement for the movies and the books. -  I decided to give the series another try and picked up the audiobooks hoping that would make following along with the book easier. It didn't take me long to give up on the novel and just listen to the tapes. But I am so glad that I got the audiobooks!
Even with the audio books this has taken me more than a year to get through the trilogy. I have listened to the Fellowship and Two Towers, twice over completely; because I felt like I missed so many things the first time around. The last few chapters of The Two Towers I must have listened too half a dozen times over, I just couldn't get the names straight... It just felt like I was missing parts over and over. So anyways it took me a year to get through the first two books, and only a month to get through the final book. The Return of the King was a perfect finale, it brought everything together in such an amazing way...words cannot describe how wonderful it is, I am speechless trying to convey how I feel about it. I have the biggest book hangover.

My only critical points are that; I can't say that I am a fan of the writing style,  I am not against it but I would never manage to get through physical copies and that makes me a little sad (although I have scene a hardcover large print 7 novel split on amazon that makes me want to try).
While Middle Earth is brought to life by Tolkien's beautiful detailed descriptions - from the Shire to Mt Doom you know exactly what the landscape is, the atmosphere, nothing is overlooked - this quality also (unfortunately) makes the work very wordy and very slow. The story (even though I know the story) was still almost lost among the rest of the information, I found at times there was a lot of confusion. A neutral point being the timeline of the novel, we jump forward and backwards, from character to character and while I know the timeline (Frodo's journey taking him a year) I had no sense of the time at most points.

I am looking forward to starting The Hobbit (probably not until the new year) and possibly some of Tolkien's other writings.

Similar Series

The Songs of Ice and FIre Series 

Wrap Up - July 2016

Once I started this list I realized I had done more reading than I thought, pretty happy with what I got through this month.

1. One Foot in the Gravc, Jeannie Frost *reread
2. Halfway to the Grave, Jeannie Frost
3. At Graves End, Jeannie Frost
4. Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Marilyn Manson *reread
5. Serial Killers the faces of evil - Magazine
6. In the Afterlight, Alexandra Bracken
7. Killer Families : murder by dads, moms, kids and spouses, Sylvia Perrin

Was really excited to get back into Jeannie Frost's, Night Huntress Series, they are quick and easy reads. I really like her characters and will post a review of it all. I did find that by the end of the third novel I just wasn't feeling it (nothing to do with the book). I didn't start the fourth, tried a different romance, couldn't get into it. Tried a few lighter novels one adult one ya, just wasn't sparking any interest. In a bit of a reading slump.

Also picked up The Stand, read just under half on several occasions, its a pretty sizable detailed slowish read. Around halfway through it now hoping to finish it in August.

Top 5 Wednesday - February 2016

February 3 - Biggest Badasses

1. Shot Gun Suzie, Nightside Series, Simon R Green
2. Archeron, Dark Hunter Universe, Sherrilyn Kenyon
3. Bekka Cooper, Diana, Alanna, and Kel, Tortal, Tamora Pierce
4. Jack Sawyer, The Talisman
5. Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum

February 10 - Books You Were Spoiled For *what spoiled them

1. Divergent (only book 1), Veronica Roth *movie trailer
2. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald *people
3. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer *people
4. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien *films
5. Immortals Tamora Pierce & DarkHunters, Sherrilyn Kenyon

The first four books where (as I am sure you know) super popular and then they where all made into movies. The final books where spoiled but they weren't at the same time, both are book collections that have multiple series within themselves, in reading other novels I acquired information that revealed the outcomes of other books

February 17 - Best Suggested Books You Loved (books recommended to you)

1. The Lunar Chronicles. Marissa Meyer 
2. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
3. Bloody Jack Series, LA Meyer
4. The Shinning, Stephen King
5. Warriors, Erin Hunter

February 24 - Worst Love Interests (male or female) 

1. Liam Stewart, The Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken
2. Ana Steele and Christain Grey, 50 Shades of Grey, EL James
3. Aiden, Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause
4. Rafe, The Darkness Rising, Kelly Armstrong
5. Gwen, The Precious Stone Trilogy, Kerstine Gier

Series Review - DarkHunter - Part 1

The Dark Hunter Verse
Books 1 - 21

9 Stars
Fantasy / Supernatural / Romance / Fiction / Adult / Erotica /

I want to start by saying that I am in love with Kenyon's writing, and that more than half of these books are rereads for me. These novels are in chronological order and while each book is its own story and can be read separately, it adds so much to the books reading them in sequence.

Review
I am reviewing the collection as one book.

The world is one of the best I have ever read, right up there with the Stephen King Universe with the complex interwoven multifaceted plots and characters. While the novels have great depth and many layers, they are first and foremost romance novels. I am reviewing them as such; meaning that I am aware they all fallow: the man (scared past, tough, unloving, distant, strong, handsome) falls in love with the woman (also has baggage,beautiful but doesn't know it) and dispite the 1001 reason why they cant be together, they end up together relatively happily ever after.

Yes the general layout is repetitive and predictable but that is romance novel 101. Each on of these stories is also very unique. To anyone who has read and enjoyed the Percy Jackson novels (once your old enough) grab up these. Focusing on ancient Greece and Rome, and slowly as the series progresses spreading out the other ancient civilizations. Kenyon incorporates the everyday realities in with the impossibly fantastical world of gods and monsters flawlessly.

Warning! These books also step over a few boundary lines into areas such as torture, sex slaves, rape. Some fairly heavy topics that are more erotica than romance.

Series Review - The Lunar Chonicles

The Lunar Chronicles

Marissa Meyer

9 stars
Young Adult/ Futuristic/ Fairytale/ Retelling/ Post-Apocalyptic/ Sci-Fi
Easy Read
All Ages

I was incredibly reluctant to start this series, I missed some of the initial enthusiasm when it was released/ first discovered and I was put off reading the novels because of all the hype. My expectations for these books where astronomical. I wanted to feel the same way about these books as I feel about Harry Potter (which can never be read too many times over, and should be read by everyone). I was not disappointed!

None of these books where what I had expected, they where true to the originals - which does make the stories outcome predictable so I have not included that in my ratings - but I still found that the story's stand on their only as something totally unique as well.

I tried to avoid Spoilers in the reviews bellow, as I review each story however there are some details that escaped.

TBR - May 2016

I am going to be making this months list really short, I have no idea how much time I am going to be able to dedicate to reading and would rather be pleasantly surprised vs disappointed in what I get through.

*I have all of these on audiobook I have been listening over reading a lot lately.

Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2015!

This was my TBR Series of 2015

The Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien --> started

The Maze Runner, James Dasher -->

Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris -->

The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer --> Completed :)

the * indicated that I started this series before 2015 

Started

1. The Chronicles of Nick, Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. Lacey Flint, SJ Bolton
3. Jason Bourne Series, Robert Ludlum
4. A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
5. The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan
6. Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken 
7. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz

Up to Date These are the book series that still have books to be published up I have read all the novels that are currently released.

1. The Maeve'ra Trilogy, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
2. Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King

Series I'm Not Going to Finish

1. Arkwell Academy, Mindee Arnett
2. Crank, Ellen Hopkins

Completed : I have tried to order these from my least favorite to my most favorite.

1. The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer
2. The Bone Collector & Skin Collector Duology, Jeffery Deaver *
3. The Dead River Trilogy, Jack Ketchum
4. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Laini Taylor
5. The Chemical Gardens Trilogy, Lauren Destephano
6. The Precious Stone Trilogy, Kerstine Gier
7. The Darkness Rising Trilogy, Kelley Armstrong
8. Divergent, Veronica Roth

Links to my previous posts about this topic

Competed Series, Trilogies, Dulogies

Unfinished Series

Book Review - Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken

6 stars
Ya / Dystopia / Action / Mystery

This is the first novel in this trilogy, and I had heard amazing things about these novels.

Welcome to the USA, you cannot enter or leave the country. It has become a dictatorship instead of a democracy and the adults live in fear of the children.
All the children in the new generation where born with a mysterious x gene, there are five different classifications ordered least to most dangerous : Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red. All of the children were put into government established camps, which are more like prisons.
Ruby lives at Thurmond camp from the day she turns 10 and while she has been classified a Green, she has a secret. Ruby is an Orange and she is terrified of her own powers. Escaping camp with the help of the government militia group known as the Children's League, is the beginning of her long journey of discovery.

I have just not been in a YA kind of headspace lately, so my opinion of this novel might flex a little with time. Overall I enjoyed this read, it had a few YA cliche pitfalls and hangups but the writing was good. I really liked the setting, how they explained the characters, the concept. The reason why the writing was just good and not great is : there are just too many unanswered questions. What caused the mutation? was it a gene? why the sudden onset, where did "it" come from? When exactly is all this taking place? Unfortunately not being given all the information and slowly finding out about the Colours piece by piece made the novel more confusing than mysterious.

Looking forward to seeing where this trilogy goes but not in a rush to get through them.

Book Review - Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken

6 stars
Ya / Dystopia / Action / Mystery

This is the first novel in this trilogy, and I had heard amazing things about these novels.

Welcome to the USA, you cannot enter or leave the country. It has become a dictatorship instead of a democracy and the adults live in fear of the children.
All the children in the new generation where born with a mysterious x gene, there are five different classifications ordered least to most dangerous : Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red. All of the children were put into government established camps, which are more like prisons.
Ruby lives at Thurmond camp from the day she turns 10 and while she has been classified a Green, she has a secret. Ruby is an Orange and she is terrified of her own powers. Escaping camp with the help of the government militia group known as the Children's League, is the beginning of her long journey of discovery.

I have just not been in a YA kind of headspace lately, so my opinion of this novel might flex a little with time. Overall I enjoyed this read, it had a few YA cliche pitfalls and hangups but the writing was good. I really liked the setting, how they explained the characters, the concept. The reason why the writing was just good and not great is : there are just too many unanswered questions. What caused the mutation? was it a gene? why the sudden onset, where did "it" come from? When exactly is all this taking place? Unfortunately not being given all the information and slowly finding out about the Colours piece by piece made the novel more confusing than mysterious.

Looking forward to seeing where this trilogy goes but not in a rush to get through them.

Book Review - Right to Life

Right to Life
Jack Ketchum

7 Stars
158 pages
Thriller / Horror / Torture / R Rated /

Sara is pregnant with her married lover's child, on her way to the abortion clinic she is kidnapped by a deranged couple. Kath is unable to have a child of her own, a baby the solution to her unhappy marriage. A child to fill the void, besides Sara didn't want the baby anyways. For Stephen she is a dream come true, a slave to his every whim, a person without rights at his mercy.
In 6 months Sara will give birth to her child, these monstrous people will keep her beautiful baby and what will happen to her? She will have served her purpose and be entirely expendable. Sara must escape if she wants to live.

This was a thrilling read, an episode of Criminal Minds put to paper! For such a short story it had lots of detail and character development. Completely unbelievable and totally realistic. Recommended read for people who like short stories.

If you liked this you might also like : 

Book Review - Watership Down

Watership Down

Richard Adams

6 stars
Fiction / New Classic / Movie / Children's book /
Medium Level Read
481 Pages

*Listened to this on Audiobook

The rabbits of Sandalwood Warren live in peace. One of the young bucks, Fiver, is psychic. He has a terrible vision of destruction coming to the Warren, most of the rabbits choose to stay but a small party including Fivers older brother Hazel, choose to leave in search of the Watership Down; the ideal place to start a warren.

This has been on my TBR list for years; I picked up the book several times and just couldn't get into the novel. I decided to give the audiobook a go, and finally I got through it.
The story is simple but beautiful, a novel worth reading, something I will one day read to my kids, the story has lots of great morals, and lessons.

Series Review - Divergent

The bookworms archenemy ; the popular books you HAVE to read, that you know are SO over hyped and media inflated (especially when there are movies involved), that you want to read but don't at the same time. Then you read the darn thing and its only OK. It's the OK that I really have a problem with, I am very rarely in the "grey area" with novels, I am a love it or hate it kind of person. All of the YA trilogies lately have been falling in the grey area and its driving me crazy.

Divergent Trilogy

Veronica Roth

Dystopian/ YA
Easy Read

Divergent
5 stars

Introducing our setting, five factions based on the five evils that cause war. Abegnation that believe it is selfishness, Erudite that believe it is ignorance, Dauntless that believe it is cowardice, ect. Amity and Candor are the other two factions. Four factions live together in a  city, Amity the fifth lives just outside the fence. The factions do not interact with each other on base levels, they do not work together, go to school together, or get married outside of their own faction. When the teens of the city turn 16 they take an aptitude test and then there is a choosing ceremony, each person is born into a faction, the choosing ceremony is the only time when a person can decide to change factions. Hence the name during the choosing ceremony each person will choose what Faction they want to devote their lives to *the Factionless also live within the city, they are essentially the homeless. To be Factionless is considered a fate worse than death.
Tris is our main character, she was born Abegnation but her aptitude test is inconclusive which makes her Divergent (she could join Dauntless, Erudite or Abegnation equally). Divergence is dangerous, although the majority people don't know of its existence and those who do don't know why it is dangerous. Tris becomes Dauntless where she meets Four who has secrets of his own... and suddenly the world as they know it begins to unravel at the seams.

I don't have much to say about this book, its a good read, its not original, there are movies. Its a dystopian YA.

BEWARE SPOILERS!!!

Wrap Up - September, October, November 2015

This list is pitifully small, I have not picked up very many new novels, although I did do quite a bit of rereading lately.

September

Off Spring, Jack Ketchum

October

Daddy's Little Girl, Tee Morris

The Doll, JC Martin

November

The Woman, Jack Ketchum

Divergent, Veronica Roth

Insurgent, Veronica Roth

ReRead's

Under the Dome, Stephen King

The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning, Jimmy Palmiotti

 The Doorkeepers, Graham Masterton

I have also started quite a few novels, with this reading block I haven't really been forcing myself to continue anything so I have a long list of partials right now.

Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken

The Stand, Stephen King

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

Watership Down, Richard Adams

Series Review - Dead River Trilogy

Dead River Trilogy

Jack Ketchum

SPOILERS !!!

7 Stars
Horror / Thriller / Cannibal / Shocker / Realism /
Easy Reads

Off Season
9 stars

Ketchum balances the impossible with the believable, the realism of the setting and the situation makes you want to lean towards the improbable. That a family of nomadic cannibals roaming the hills and coastlines between Canada and the USA, created out of the necessity to survive, could exist. Although there are a few notes that tipped the story back into fiction.

Needless to say I loved this book, its a definite recommendation for anyone who likes horror. It is an easy, quick, draw-you-in action-packed read. Lots of blood, guts and gore in revolting detail.
\There are two versions of this novel, the original and the uncut. I have read both and as with most things the uncut is much more to my taste. The "original" was modified to appeal to mass market more so than a horror fan, suggested for those faint of heart types.

Off Spring
7 stars

This kicks off years after Off Season. In a world where most sequels have taken to picking up where the last sentence of the first booked left off this is a welcome change. The Family, destroyed in the final pages of Off Season have returned. They are the new generation; the Woman, First Stolen, Second Stolen and their offspring. A couple of mothers fight for their lives and lives of their children as they literally watch other family and friends get eaten alive.

This book did not live up to its predecessor, the characters, the setting, the story is all brilliant. The downfall was lots of repetition from Off Season. Definatly still something I would recommend, its good just not great.


The Woman
5 stars

This novel picks up right where the Offspring left off. The Woman, gravely wounded, is the only survivor of the OffSeason clan, after First Stolen, Second Stolen and the offspring are all killed she wanders the beaches.
The Cleek family appears fairly average until you get a look into their dark secrets.
Patriarch Christopher Cleek captures The Women, she is an experiment to him (one of many), can he domesticate her? and what effect will having a feral cannibal in their lives have on Cleeks wife and children?

I am so sad to write that I was not impressed with this novel. I feel like it was a publisher pleaser, its not something I would expect from Ketchum. The development is sloppy, the plot has huge holes and the whole thing is really unbelievable (which is what made the first book so great!). Filled with lots of shock factors and gore but thats about it :(


+ My Previous Posts for Off Season - Book Review Published August 19/2015

TBR - December 2015

I have not published a TBR list in a few months now. I have been in somewhat of a reading slump, some of it is lack of motivation and I just haven't had the time.

The bit of reading that I have done has been rereads more than anything.

I am going to be really ambitious for December however.

• The Darkest Minds Trilogy, Alexandra Bracken
• The Darkest Minds
• Never Fade
• In the Afterlight
• The Right to Life, Jack Ketchum
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Allegiant, Veronica Roth
• Watership Down, Richard Adams

Plus continuing on with the Lord of the Rings, Audiobooks

Wrap Up - August

1. Fever, Lauren DeStephano
2. Sever, Lauren DeStephano
3. The Island of Dr Moreau, HG Wells
4. Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Tayor
5. The Days of Blood and Starlight, Lani Taylor
6. Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Lani Taylor
7. True Crime : 17 Deadly Women Through the Ages, Stephenie Glover
8. Twisted Imaginings Vol 1-4, Garry Charles
9. Off Season, Jack Ketchum
10. Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
11. The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien

My favourite novel this month was : Off Season, Jack Ketchum

Book Tag - Disney Villains

Disney Villain Book Tag

Sleeping Beauty

A book or book series in which there is an overwhelming sense of evil/doom.

NOS4A2, Joe Hill

The Evil Queen 

Snow White

A book or book series in which the villain tricks the hero.
Armory Saint John
The Cove, Catherine Coulter

Cruella De Vil

101 Dalmatians
A book or book series in which the villain brings about their own demise.

Jael, The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor

Ursula

Little Mermaid
A book or book series that left you speechless.

The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum

Capitan Hook

Peter Pan
A book or book series in which you just can't take the villain seriously.

Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

Jafar

Aladin
A book or book series in which the villain almost wins. 

Fire Bringer, David Clement Davis

Hades

Hercules
A book or book series in which you can't help but love the villain.

Lothaire, Kresley Cole

Scar

Lion King
A book or book series with familial betrayal
Roger Conte

The Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce

Gaston

Beauty and the Beast
A book or book series in which the villain makes a fool of themselves.

Draco Malphoy, Harry Potter, JK Rowling

Hans

Frozen
A book or book series with a villain you didn't see coming.
Alex, Pierre Lemaitre

Book Review - Twisted Imaginings

Twisted Imaginings Vol's 1-4

By Gary Charles

Horror/Short Story/ Thiller/ Killer/ Gore/ Graphic
8.5 Stars


I had never heard of Charles before although once I did a little googling he is somewhat of a big name in the UK. They should promote him in Canada and the US like crazy! These are such amazing stories, I grabbed all four volumes for free off of I-tunes and I am so happy that I did. If you are a fan of Stephen King or Clive Barker (I have the Books of Blood in mind) then you have to read these stories. They are so creepy and wonderfully thrilling.

1. The Circus
2. The Tunnel
3. Gypsy's Revenge
4. Mother
5. The Greenhouse
6. The Messiah
7. Voices in Shadows
8. Vomit Baby
9. The Pleasure in Pain

Sorry if I got these in the wrong order but I recommend each and every one of them, the Circus and The Greenhouse were my two favourites, can't wait to read more by Charles. Such an amazing author find!