I read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a zillion years ago when it first came out.
I had mixed feelings.
I want mixed-media books to be better than they often are.
The book starts great, declines in quality, and ends on a sequel hook.
I HATE WHEN THOSE THINGS HAPPEN!
TELL A COMPLETE STORY!
Still, I liked the book and its creepy, off-putting tone.
And…it’s almost Halloween.
Creepy and off-putting sounds perfect to me.
(Thanks to Megan for your post.)
Abandoned House
A book that you once abandoned but then gave another chance and ended up enjoying
Pride and Prejudice, like most classics, bored me to death.
I was not a teen who inhaled classic literature, which makes me suspicious of Rory Gilmore’s characterization. What teen likes old books that much?
I crammed the book in a single afternoon for a school project and ended up liking it.
Though it’s not my favorite of Austen’s novels, I buy all the copies I can.
Vintage Photographs
A book you would have loved to see illustrations in
I like a good illustration.
I wanted pictures in the original Avalon: Web of Magic books.
So many exciting things, from unicorns crashing Homecoming to Kara meeting a masked marauder, happened that I wish I could have seen.
The series’ reprint included illustrations.
MY DREAM CAME TRUE.
I mean…not completely.
The art style was pretty cartoony, whereas I preferred the trippy realism of the original covers.
Say there was a re-re-release of this series. Photorealistic art with models, please?
Or like…line drawings?
Take a page from My Lady’s Choosing. That book had great artwork!
Loop
A series you wouldn’t mind reading on loop
Reading The Raven Cycle on loop would be…thematically appropriate…
Peculiar Children
A character’s ability that you desire to have for yourself
I’m jealous of any character with supernatural baking abilities.
Cady from A Tangle of Knots makes everyone she knows the perfect recipe for their personality.
That’s AMAZING.
I want to do that SO BADLY.
Miss Peregrine
Your favorite character that is a leader
While I’m not a fan of Little Women, I’m all about Jo.
I enjoy enthusiastic tomboys who can talk their friends into anything.
I can relate.
Jacob
Your favorite story where a regular kid discovers an extraordinary world
I hate to do this twice in one post…
…but here’s the thing:
Finding a forest full of magical creatures as a teenager would have made my life complete.
Emily does just that in Circles in the Stream.
So many “regular kids” in magical stories are boys.
Emily, a normal girl, meets a giant purple panda who changes her life.
THAT WAS ALL I EVER WANTED.
Emma
A fierce and fiery character
Yeaaaah, Liraz!
Literally made of FLAME!
The proud warrior/ice queen trope is kind of my jam.
Listen, internet: all of your fantasy casts for this series are terrible…
…but I would take Gwendoline Christie as Liraz.
You made a great choice there.
Millard
A book that seems to be invisible but needs to be read by more people
No one is freaking out about The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You!
That’s so WRONG!
It’s fun, it’s fluffy, and it’s hilarious. I THOUGHT PEOPLE LIKED THAT IN A BOOK!
It’s. Great.
Buy it. Read it. Cry.
Olive
A book you bought that floated to the top of your TBR
I haven’t purchased this book yet.
I shouldn’t. I need to save money for class.
But I want it.
And it’s only $9.99 at Elliot Bay!
Once I buy Tash Hearts Tolstoy, I’m going to read it.
Hugh
A book that stung and caused a lot of feelings
Oh, Tiger Lily.
(This was the retelling I forgot the other day.)
I like Pan. I’m a Pan fan.
By the time I read this book, I’d learned that Christian characters, in books, are almost always bad guys.
That is certainly true here.
My heart is broken.
I reeled with this book’s heaviness for days.
The ending is so sad, but Tiger Lily heals.
Wow…thinking about this book brought up a lot of memories.
Enoch
Without spoiling, a book character that you would bring back to life
An awful, unnecessary death occurs toward the end of this book.
I somehow FORGET every time I reread this.
This death ruined a covert ship I had going.
That is unforgivable.
Bronwyn
A physically strong character
Oooh, watch Wolf carry Scarlet in his arms through the forest!
That ability alone shouldn’t be enough to turn me on.
………it is.
Hollowgasts
A book you read that felt like an experiment gone wrong
Teens love dystopia, right? And love triangles?
What about terminal illness? Or child marriage?
How do they feel about slavery? Or sister-wives? Or basement corpses?
We’re envisioning a new trilogy, you see…
Wights
A book that felt like it consumed tropes that you’ve seen done in other books
How ya been, Eragon? Grand? You felt grand lately?
As an adult, it’s easier for me to see that Eragon is a fine first effort.
I’m not perfect. I once wrote a hacky, cliched, katana-filled garbage adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.
And Christopher Paolini adapted “Tolkien writes Star Wars” for youngsters.
But his book became a best-seller…and it should not have.
Narrative Paradise 