Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Could not finish it. The main character is very annoying. He keeps stopping and asking himself banal questions, and by the time he finally figures out whatever quandary of emotion or plot he is trying to unravel I am banging my head on the desk, since the author makes it quite obvious to the reader what is happening in the plot. I'm not a fan of this style of exposition where the character's thoughts are things like-“Wow, the weather here sure does change fast!” And “Hmmm I wonder how I missed all of these footprints on the path earlier. I'm sure that means absolutely nothing.” I exaggerate, but you really are left with the feeling that the story is being told through the point of view of someone who is quite dim-witted.

It's a shame, it started off so well, and I really enjoyed the creepy feel of a ghost story. About half way through I am starting to lose patience with it though. I find it incredibly bizarre that the author chose a new passion for ornithology as Jacob's dad's excuse for them taking that trip. It seems like she could have come up with just about anything else. Maybe Jacob is 18 and tells his parents he is going to backpack around Europe with friends or something. Maybe his dad is an anthropologist and wants to interview isolated island people. Maybe he just likes British beer. There's a scene after Jacob and his dad arrive on the island, where they go for a hike and stumble upon the nesting grounds of some sort of supposedly rare seagull. Jacob's dad immediately becomes entranced and wants to spend hours staring at them, conveniently leaving his mentally unstable son free to wander around by himself. Really? Doesn't it seem weird that he suddenly develops an overwhelming passion for birds?

I was listening to the audiobook, which is also part of the problem. He speaks too slowly and overly enunciates. He is also very bad at accents, it is quite distracting when he attempts to do Welsh and other British accents.