Hollow City

4.5 Stars
So I absolutely loved Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, it was not at all what I was expecting, but I loved it nonetheless. It took me awhile to get around to reading the 2nd installment, but once I started reading, I flew right through it. While I still prefer the first book over this one, I loved the pictures in this one. It still amazes me how well the story and the pictures fit together. I also love how creepy some of them are.

In terms of the plot for this book, I really loved all the traveling the children do in this installment, it was great to see different Loops and different ways of hiding. But the best part of this book for me what all the other peculiar children, animals, and people we met. Each one had such a unique personality that I loved seeing and reading about.

The ending of this book was even crueler and a larger cliff hanger than the first. Waiting until September for Library of Souls is going to be hard. I was not at all expecting what happened at the end and it was a huge surprise. I feel like I should have know some aspect of it, but I think all the other things happening in the book kept me from truly figuring it out.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review

After thoroughly enjoying the first book, this one was a real disappointment. It didn't hold my attention the same and it felt more juvenile, seemingly the author didn't quite know what to do with his own characters so added more fairy tale elements and it ended up feeling like a fantasy “choose your own adventure” story but without getting to choose. This is fine for a younger reader - who this book is undoubtedly geared towards - but I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of Jacob's internal diatribe and the events that were taking place.

I love this one more than Book 1! The additional characters are magnificent. The familiar characters from book 1 are developed nicely. The plot is rather plodding, but it speeds up wonderfully at the end. This series is worth your time to read. You will fall in love with Jacob and the other peculiar children. There are hints as to the back story of the peculiar universe, but it does not drown the whole story. It does a great job of setting the stage for book 3.

Where do I start... While I still love the Peculiar Children universe, I felt that something was missing in this book. Perhaps regarding to the first one this one was too predictable ? I don't know, I was just rarely surprised. I also had the feeling that this one was reaaally short.

The Peculiar Children are still really nice, each with quite a strong will and personality (in fact, Jacob is the only one with too little personality imho), and the story is still nice, just missing something and ending too soon.

I'll keep on reading, as I got attached to the universe and to the Peculiar Children, I just hope that the following volume will be a bit better :)

MUCH better reader on the audiobook version of this one than the reader on the first book.

I enjoyed this book, but it is very much a “middle” book or something. It starts midway through the action and ends midway through the action. Which means it ends with a cliffhanger and none of the major arcs are resolved.

Ik was content van boek één, en aangezien het eindigt met een cliffhanger en er al een vervolg was: in de rapte ook gelezen.

Voor ongeduldige mensen: ja, dit is ook goed, en getverdimme ja, dit eindigt ook met een cliffhanger, en neen, hier is nog géén vervolg op.

Bespaar u de frustratie dus en wacht tot deel drie uit is, of het zou moeten zijn dat dat van hetzelfde hemd een neusdoek is, enfin, ge doet natuurlijk wat ge wilt.

Opnieuw hetzelfde concept, van een verhaal opgehangen aan gevonden oude foto's. De peculiar children uit boek één zijn hun Miss Peregrine kwijt, 't is te zeggen, ze is veranderd in een vogel (wat normaal is want zij kan dat) maar ze kan niet meer terug veranderen (wat niet normaal is). Om haar te genezen hebben ze maar een paar dagen om van het ene eind van het land naar Londen te gaan, wat in 1940 niet evident is. Cue zigeuners, avonturen, Jacob die ontdekt wat hij allemaal kan doen met zijn peculiariteit, moeilijke beslissingen, onverwachte wendingen, slechte slechteriken, liefde, zelfopoffering, dood, the works.

Nu ik op voorhand wist dat het echt oude foto's en dat het verhaal bij wijze van spreken rond de foto's geschreven is in plaats van foto's ter illustratie van het verhaal, had ik soms de indruk dat het wat bij de haren getrokken was: zo van “oh ja, er komt een zeer magere man in voor die niet veel bij te dragen heeft aan het verhaal, maar dat is gewoon omdat de auteur een wijze foto van een zeer magere man had liggen”.

Behalve dat: spannend, onderhoudend, en mijn dertig of vijfendertig jaar jongere ik zou dit ook nog zeer graag gelezen hebben.

Set during the 1940 Blitz of London, this second book in the Miss Peregrine series is even better than the first. The first book, while fascinating, relied on the reader's sympathy for its nebbishy protagonist, Jacob Portman, who risks seeming like just another wannabe Holden Caulfield. For those of us who have never been teenage boys, that sympathy was a tad hard to maintain. But the second volume concerns the whole gang of peculiar children, plus other people whom they meet on the road. The first book was delightfully open-ended but somewhat uneven in pace, while the second clicks along briskly from danger to rescue to danger to escape to danger. Riggs always maintains a humane perspective, and doesn't dwell too long on gore. His main problem is that every once in a while, he has to insert a big chunk of background information to keep his story going in the direction he chooses. Sometimes his choices seem arbitrary rather than organic.

The theme of “Hollow City” – resistance against world domination by racist, soul-splitting bad guys – is not so new or fresh, but Riggs creates an interesting world peopled by sympathetic characters. I enjoyed this even thought its not my usual kind of read.

4.3

This book was just as good, if not better, than the first one. There's a lot of action going on with the story though sometimes it feels like it drags on just a tad, and the photographs used to elevate the plot are just as weird and intriguing. It gave light to a lot of questions in the first book, but still leaves so many new questions along the way. The characters are starting to develop better personalities on them, and you'll also learn more about their powers and what they're capable, especially with our protagonist, Jacob.

Overall, it's a book that shouldn't be missed by Peculiar enthusiasts. It's a well-written book by Ransom Riggs and a little bit more maturity in his writing, he can become a really great story teller/author in the future. I'm really looking forward to reading the third and final book of the trilogy - The Library of Souls.

This was a pretty fast-paced book. I read through it a lot quicker than the first book but I liked the first one better. This one didn't have the dry humor of the first. I missed that.

I usually only read realistic fiction (mostly mysteries) so this story is a stretch for me. The hollows sound so scary! I love the dog in the book though and wish I could have him. The menagerie cracked me up and that was a nice balance to the scarier parts. I'm afraid of chickens now. The ending really though me for a loop (pun intended).

At the end of the first book, the Peculiar Children rescued Miss Paragrin but she couldn't change back into human form. She had a broken wing and needed care only another ymbryne could give. They had to hurry because the longer she stayed a bird the better the chance that she would never be able to become human again. They all set off in boats for the mainland in search of the last ymbryne. They ended up in London where they evaded Hollows and dodged bombs in their search. They found a few other Peculiar Children from other raided loops and Jacob learned more about his talent.

Volume 2 of the Miss Peregrine series was a bit of a slog. The story didn't really pick up the pace until the last few pages which, of course, meant I had to start Book 3. There were some interesting turn of events along the way but the pacing was a little uneven as if the author wasn't entirely sure how he planned on resolving the storyline. Or even just moving the story forward.

As much as I enjoy the weaving of the photos into the story, at a certain point, I feel as if the story must veer off course to accommodate them sometimes and that adds to the slogginess.

Overall, this is still one of the most unique stories I've read and if you were to say, “let's write a story just for me” it would end up sounding an awful lot like this – World War II London, time travel and supernatural characters all woven together in a storybook fashion. So I should really stop whining and get back to reading the last book.

I enjoyed this one even more energetically than the first. Here is how I know how much I liked it: there are several problems with the storytelling, where the author simply ignores the difficult questions of how, where, why, and some of the defects are a bit glaring. But I didn't care! I wanted to know what happens next and more important than that I wanted to continue in the complex and compelling atmosphere which pervades the whole story. He made me care about the characters, the plot, and the words. I consider it an achievement when the writing is more compelling than the mistakes are off-putting. I look forward to reading the next book.

Первая часть интриговала, завораживала и манила многообещающим сюжетом. К сожалению, всех ожиданий она не оправдала, но тем не менее, было довольно интересно читать эту жутковатую сказку. Вторую часть я принялась читать уже будучи знакомой с героями и примерным сюжетом, и она совсем не зацепила. Вроде, характеры интересные, события движутся с невероятной скоростью, манера повествования тоже совсем не отталкивает, а вот лично мне чего-то не хватило тут. Советовать всем бы не стала, но тем, кто хочется развлечься и заполнить время, должно понравится.

I was not drawn into this novel at all, it seemed to be much more reliant on the photographs (which were not nearly as good or creepy as in the first book) than plot. There were a few flashes of excitement and the ending was pretty good but overall it was pretty poor. 2.5* rounded up because I hope the next will be better.

Also, here thanks to Kersi for getting me this book.
This is a pretty good second book for the series. Unlike the first novel this one is more adventure-like, but I'd get used to it pretty soon as I started reading. Here, many surprising things happened, things I'd never expected to happen while reading this story. The photos did a good work in underlining the story, so it was easy for me to imagine this fantastic, different world into my mind.
5/5 stars.