Book Club: Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children

Lori and Wendy do a book club where they discuss a new book every month.  I thought it would be fun to join them (and did so last month with the book of negroes).

This month we looked at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.   I have to admit, I almost decided not to join in, as my first introduction was the movie and I thought .. I'm not sure I want to read what I saw in the movie.  Some things in the movie just didn't work for me all that well.  :)

Anyways, decided to man up and give it a try.  The book is quite different from the movie and I urge you to give it a try.

LitLovers provided the questions, I, of course, provided the answers.  :)

1. What effect did the photographs have on how you experienced this novel? In fact, what was your reading experience of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children? How did it make you feel? Were you disturbed...or fascinated...or something else?  Did the book hold your interest?

I thought the photos were interesting to view.  It didn't bother me to look at them, it just raised questions in my head of....these look real, there must be an explanation to them, I wonder what it is.

I had a hard time separating how things went in the movie and how they were written in the book.

2. What's wrong with Jacob Portman? What's his problem?
As I read the book I didn't think there was anything wrong with Jacob.  He was a kid who believed one thing about his grandpa, had his dad (over time) convince him Grandpa was a great storyteller, and then learned that Grandpa hadn't been telling stories and he had to adjust to that truth and the truth of who he was.

3. What about Abe Portman, what kind of character is he? What kind of a world does he create in his stories for young Jacob? Why do the stories intrigue Jacob so much?

Abe was a man caught between a rock and a hard place.  Knowing he had to stay in his own world and time and not be in the world of others.  Loving his family yet knowing he couldn't be totally honest with them and never truly understood.

4. As he moves into adolescence, why does Jacob begin to doubt the veracity of his grandfather's stories? In what way does he think they may be connected to Abe's struggle under the Nazis?
see the above.

5. What makes Jacob think his grandfather's death is more sinister than what the official version claims.
Jacob saw something in the woods.  Something he knew to be real, yet it made no sense to anyone else.  

6. Talk about the house in Wales. When Jacob first lays eyes on it, he observes that it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself." Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story...or is its role something else—a character, perhaps?

Hard one to answer.   I think it serves as a good opening point. A big let down, and then a point of excitement and conversation.  


10. Talk, of course, about the peculiar children. Which of their oddities and personalities do you find most intriguing?

I thought the boy with the bees most intriguing.   To imagine having a whack of bees around you that can be peaceful or dangerous. I couldn't see much use for the girl with the mouth behind her head... novelty yes, but then you can't see what you are eating, there goes part of the joy of partaking in food.  Floating...wow.. HUGELY inconvenient most of the time I would think. 

12. In what way can this book be seen as a classic quest story—a young hero who undertakes a difficult journey and is transformed in the process?

I saw it as a coming of age.  Of a boy realizing the truths of his childhood were also the truths of his maturity.  That was important for him to learn.  To take of the mantle of his family.  That is what maturity does.  Doesn't always take the same form... should move a family forward... but needs, in some way, to be done.

13. Does the end satisfy? Are loose ends tied up....or left hanging? This is the first book of a planned series. Will you read future installments? Where do you think Riggs will take his readers next?

I most likely will not read additional books.  I only managed to get 2/3's of the way through this book.  Hubby read it and enjoyed it and would happily read more in the series.  I just couldn't this month separate the movie from the book and have felt mentally distracted much of the month.

 Amazon.ca: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Amazon.com: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children)

Linking up below