The book "The house of strange children": reviews

In 2012, a novel by a writer named Rensom Riggs, The House of Strange Children, was published in the United States. Reviews this book received a very enthusiastic and became one of the best-selling in the country, and then in the world. Is this work so interesting and deserves praise? What do readers think about it? It is necessary to understand.

The book "The House of Strange Children by Miss Peregrine"

Reviews about the work can not be made, yet not familiar with its plot, heroes, as well as prehistory. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to these moments in the first place.

Roman Riggs was published in 2012. Two years later, the continuation - Hollow City. And a year later - the final part of the Library of Souls.

In 2016, a film was produced based on the first novel, The House of Strange Children. Reviews this picture received mixed, but more about this later.

Prehistory of writing

The main feature of the trilogy, except for the plot itself, is the design of books. The fact is that Riggs, for many years, was fascinated by collecting antique photographs. Once, in addition to his collection, he composed a story, illustrations of which served as a photo. This was the origin of the novel "The House of Strange Children".

Rensom Riggs reviews from relatives and spouses (she was already a famous writer at the time) was enthusiastic when she showed them the sketches of her new book. Therefore, he not only sent her to the publisher, but also attached photos of her collection to her. Later it was in this form that the novel was published and published, and ancient photographs helped create an amazing atmosphere for readers.

As for Miss Peregrine's school, her appearance in the story is connected with the author's memories of childhood spent at an educational institution for gifted children. Incidentally, this is referred to in the Russian translation as "strange", the original uses the word singular, which means eccentric, unusual, or specific. Therefore, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children can be translated as "The House for Miss Peregrine's Eccentric Children."

The breed of the predatory bird Falco peregrinus, into which mistress of the house of Miss Peregrin could turn, served her name. However, in Russian it is called peregrine falcon, so there is a variant of the title of the novel: "The house of strange children Miss Sapsan".

Reviews about the main characters of the book will be presented in the next section.

The main characters-children and their readers' reviews

In the center of the plot of all three books is a boy named Jacob Portman. For many years he did not suspect the existence of people with unusual abilities, which are called "strange", and about their amazing world. Having inherited from his grandfather the talent of seeing Emptiness, the boy was forced to learn to use his "strangeness" at an accelerated pace in emergency conditions in order to survive. Throughout the books, Jacob evolves from a frightened boy (who considers himself crazy) to a real hero.

This character was liked by most of those who read the novel "The House of Strange Children by Miss Peregrine." Comments and wishes of readers concerning Jacob, basically have a positive attitude. So, the young man attracts with his sincerity, as well as the courage that he discovers in himself simultaneously with the readers. As for his love of Emma, many fans of the trilogy are pleased to note that their novel is described very chastely, and this contrasts nicely with other teen romances. As for the negative, it concerns more than the third novel, in which the whole plot is mainly focused on the young Portman, and this frustrates the admirers of other characters.

Jacob's beloved is Emma Bloom. Although she looks at 16, in fact, the girl is almost 90 years old. In the past, she met with the grandfather of the hero and very heavily survived parting with him. Because of this fact, the guy for a long time doubted that Emma loved him as a person, and not as a copy of his grandfather. The oddity of Emma - the ability to create fire with their own hands, it has more than once saved the lives of the heroes of the book "The House of Strange Children."

Readers' comments about the girl are not as good as about Jacob. Despite the courage, nobility and care that she showed, many have noted that she is more like a spoiled teenager than a wise man in the body of a teenager (who in fact is). The main drawback of Emma is that the heroine often does not think about the consequences of her actions. On the other hand, the element of the girl is fire, is it any wonder that her character corresponds to this?

Another important child character is Millard Nullings, he is invisible. Because of his peculiarity, he is accustomed to feel almost invulnerable, therefore, he suffers rather hard injuries. Some readers of the book The House of Strange Children comment on this boy leave as a deeply unhappy man, unable to become visible and exist in the ordinary world.

Among the other young heroes is Horatius Somnasson, who sees prophetic dreams; A girl who forces plants to accelerate their growth - Fiona Frauenfeld; Weightless Olivia Elephanta, forced to wear heavy boots; Hugh Apiston in whose abdomen the bee swarm lives; Incredibly strong Bronwyn and Victor Brantley; And who knows how to resurrect others Enoch O'Connor.

Any of these characters is unique in its own way, but with each new book they are given less space in the story. Despite their considerable age, they are, according to their psychological development, ordinary teenagers. According to some readers, this infantilism is the result of many years of staying in the temporary loop and educational model of Miss Sapsan, who forcibly tries to drive his wards into childhood.

Reviews about the main characters-adults

The only representative of adults among those who inhabit the house of strange children is Peregrine. Comments and comments about this heroine are very diverse. Some readers admire her irrepressible care of children and are upset that in 2 and 3 novels she has been given little space. Others are vehemently criticizing Alma LePay Peregrin as a very short-sighted and authoritarian woman who does not allow her children to gain independence by locking them in time loops, which does not help them, but, on the contrary, harms them.

The grandfather of the main character - Abraham Portman - is liked by almost all readers. As he, the only one of Alma Sapsan's wards, found the strength to leave her shelter and fight with her "demons". In the book, the author does not go into details about why Abraham stopped loving Emma, but many people speculate that he could not forgive her cowardice: the girl did not dare to leave with him in real life, but remained in the temporary loop. Perhaps later she bitterly regretted it, so she took the appearance of Jacob as a chance to correct her mistake.

About the parents of the main character, the readers of the novel "The House of Strange Children" rarely respond well. The book reviews are special for realism, in depicting the relationship between parents and their children in modern society. So, Franklin and Marianne Portmans are quite wealthy people and have enough free time to deal with the upbringing of their son. But instead, each of them focuses on their own personal problems. Sometimes it seems that they have no family - and 3 children, each of which is focused on his own.

As for the other imbrins - Miss Zaryanka, Miss Finch, Miss Korolek and Miss Drozd, the author does not pay enough attention to the description of their character and motivation. They are all of the same type.

Reviews about negative characters

Concerning the main villains. In addition to the numerous servants of the Creatures, there are three of them, two of them are the brothers of Peregrine. However, they manifest themselves in 2 and 3 cycle novels. In the first book, the main scoundrel is Dr. Golan, who uses Jacob to get to the Miss Sapsan loop.

Many note that all 3 main antagonists of the cycle are "molded" by the author on a single template. They say smart, and sometimes very fair things and seem to care about the common good. But when it comes to business, they begin to behave like madmen who do not regret anybody and nothing on their way to their own goal.

With the first of the brothers Alma Peregrin - Cole - a full acquaintance occurs in the second novel, during which he successfully pretends to be an enchanted sister.

With the second brother - Bentan - acquaintance occurs in the third novel. Unlike Golan and Cole, he is a very successful inventor and researcher. But on the way to his goal, the antagonist shows no less mercilessness than other villains. However, in the finals he recognizes his mistakes and corrects them by the cost of his life. Bentan - the only antagonist of the series, who causes sympathy, readers explain this by the fact that Riggs presented his motivation and character much more in detail.

Summary of the novel

A teenager of 16 years Jacob Portman was very close to grandfather Abraham, who shared amazing stories from his childhood spent in a boarding school on one of the islands of Wales. When the boy grew up, he began to consider the stories of his grandfather as fictions, and the photo with his childhood friends - cheap photomontage.

When Abraham Portman was killed by an unknown creature right before his eyes, the boy at first thought he was crazy. On the advice of a psychiatrist, he decided to visit the place, about which grandfather told about, to reconcile with his death.

Arriving on the island, the hero discovered that the shelter where Abraham grew up is in ruins. In 1943, during the bombing of the Nazis, a shell fell on the house, and all its inhabitants were killed. Deciding to stroll through the ruins, Jacob saw a strange girl. After chasing after her, he fell into a temporary loop of the past. Here the boy met his grandfather's friends and learned about the existence of strange people with innate superhuman abilities. To hide from ordinary inhabitants of the Earth, the strange live in temporary loops, created and controlled by the imbrins. Thus, they can not grow old for many centuries.

But the strange have enemies. In the early XX century. Some of them wanted to gain unlimited power and conducted an experiment that proved unsuccessful. As a result, there were invisible monsters - Emptiness, adoring to devour people, unusual including. And the experimenters themselves have also changed. Called in the wizarding world "Creatures", they began to use these creatures to hunt for imbrin and strange children.

Jacob, like his grandfather, had a rare ability to see the Void and anticipate their approach. While he was chatting with Abraham's friends and his ex-girlfriend, Jacob's psychiatrist came to the island incognito, turned out to be one of the Creatures. It turned out that he used the boy to find Miss Peregrine's noose. Moreover, Creatures and Emptiness have learned to break into temporary loops that previously were inaccessible to them. Using new opportunities, scoundrels began to steal the imbrin all over the world, without which the loops are torn, and strange children are defenseless. In addition, remaining for a long time outside the native loop, they began to accelerate aging and within a few days reached their true age.

Trying to stop the Critters, Jacob learns to manage his strangeness and with the help of new friends kills the Void. However, the Criminals manage to steal Miss Peregrine. And although the children at the last moment have time to release an expensive mentor, however, she is "stuck" in bird form and unable to restart the loop. As a result, it is torn.

Jacob decides to break with his past life and go with Emma and other strange children in search of other imbrins.

Summary of Hollow City

Shortly after the publication, became very popular novel "House of strange children, Miss Peregrine." The book reviews were so good that the continuation was a matter of time and in 2014 the second novel of the series "The City of the Empty" was published.

The events of the sequel begin at the same place where the first book ended: strange children, along with the bewitched Miss Peregrine, try to get out of the island and find other imbrin. However, the Creatures follow them on their heels. Accidental acquaintance with circus helps heroes at the time hide from the chase. In turmoil, children lose the atlas, where all the temporary loops of the world are indicated, and now they do not know where to go.

Miss Peregrin in the image of a bird tells them to use a book of fairy tales, in which the road to some loops is ciphered. So Jacob and his friends find a place where strange animals live. It turns out that their imbrin is also stolen, and the creature and the Void are trying to attack the zoo.

The talking dog Edison, whom the travelers met in the animal loop, advises them to go to London. Following the advice, the heroes overcome a lot of difficulties and find an icy loop where many strange things hide from the Creatures. The local imbrina is trying to help Miss Peregrine to regain the human face, but it turns out that the bird that the children brought with them is not their mentor at all, but her evil brother Cole, who can also go to the bird. He destroys the noose and with his accomplices takes many strange prisoners. Jacob and his beloved Emma manage to escape, but behind them is the Void. In the finale, the protagonist discovers in himself the ability to speak the language of the Void and command them.

The second novel of the series "House of Strange Children" reviews collected not so enthusiastic as the first book. Many readers were disappointed that the whole story was centered around Jacob, and the rest of the strange children are almost not paid attention. Moreover, at the end of the book, so that they "did not interfere" - the children were abducted, except for Jacob and Emma. Also, the plot itself was criticized: for the whole novel the heroes did not advance in their searches, only travel and get acquainted with the new strange ones.

Despite all these nuances, many liked the new novel.

A summary of the work of Library of Souls

The final book appeared in 3 years, after the novel "House of strange children Miss Peregrine." The book reviews deserved not bad, but most even the most dedicated fans of the cycle, noted that it was inferior to the previous ones.

Jacob's newfound ability to speak in the language of emptiness has helped the heroes escape, but the guy realized that he can not control it. And the dog Edison joined the travelers, telling about the attack on the loop-zoo. Possessing a super-smell, he undertook to help Emma and her boyfriend find stolen friends. Together they managed to find out that the children and all the imbrin are hiding in a loop for criminals, known as the "Devil's Acres".

It turns out that the young Portman - the only person on Earth who can find them. To get help, Jacob and Emma turn to another brother of Miss Peregrine - Bentan.

By blackmailing Jacob, his brothers force him to enter the library and find the best oddities for them. However, Bentan repents and enters into a fight with Cole. Because of their actions, the library collapses, burying the brothers under their ruins.

All captives and Jacob gain freedom and defeat the Creatures. However, now the protagonist has to return home. Parents are happy about his return, but only once again begin to doubt the sanity of his son and plan to send him to the hospital. At the last moment, they are stopped by Miss Peregrine, who, along with the children, settles near Jacob.

The problems of the book

In his work, Rensom Riggs raises many important problems. First of all, this is the rejection by the society of people with deviations. So, the majority of those who inhabit the house of strange children Peregrin, reviews about the real world are not very flattering. As soon as their unusualness began to manifest, they became victims of bullying and harassment of others. Often their own torturers were their own parents. Only in the loops created by the imbrinas did they acquire a real family and the opportunity to be themselves, without fear of causing condemnation of others.

Also the author of novels in a rather unattractive light demonstrates the modern relationship between children and parents. The proximity of Jacob and his grandfather was due to the fact that the guy felt alienated in his father's house. Since both parents loved him more out of a sense of duty. They cared about him, bought everything they needed, paid for the psychiatrist, but did not understand what was happening in his soul.

"House of strange children Miss Peregrine": reviews and criticism of the eponymous film

In 2016, Tim Burton was screened the first novel by Riggs. Like most of the director's films, this one was very bright due to the addition of entertaining details.

As for the impressions that the film "The House of Strange Miss Children ..." produced on the audience, the reviews about it are very good. Those who are familiar with the source, complain that Burton too confused the plot. However, most simply delighted with the film adaptation, believing that the director very successfully placed the events of 3 books into one picture, throwing out all the superfluous, and created a truly entertaining spectacle, and Abraham resurrected in the final.

Great merit in the success of the project of the performer of the role of Alma LePay Peregrin - Eva Green. The actress managed to create on the screen a unique image, more saturated and attractive, than it was described in the book. By the way, in the film adaptation this heroine is given more space than in the novel.

Summing up numerous reviews of readers, we can say that the novel "The House of Strange Children" was well received throughout the world. The book reviews deserved positive not only at home in the US, but also in other countries. Of course, it did not do without storylines and inconsistencies in the plot, as the readers often pointed out in their comments. But, on the other hand, it is worth remembering that the genre of the novel is a fantasy, and in addition, it is designed for a teenage audience.