“Stay safe, peculiar folk, it’s weird out there. And not in a good way.”
Caul is back. And once again all of peculiardom is in danger. Loops are being raided and destroyed all over the world, sending refugee peculiars flooding into Devil’s Acre. But things in the acre are more than a little weird as it beings to rain blood, bones, and ash.
Noor and Jacob have no idea how they survived V’s loop and ended up back on Abe Portman’s front porch, but they have no time to ask questions when a wight and hollow Jacob struggles to control comes after them.
They rush back to the acre knowing the only way to stop Caul and save their kind is to find the rest of the 7 prophesized peculiars. Naturally, the embrynes are not keen on this plan and try to put a stop to Jacob and his friends. Not ones to sit on their hands, Miss Peregrine’s children set off on the quest regardless.
With Caul leaving a horrifying path of destruction in his wake, the hollows evolving to something Jacob can no longer control, embrynes being captured, killed, or injured, and peculiars functioning on panic alone—the group has their work cut out for them.
“Heroes are rarely acknowledged in their own lifetimes,” Wreck said, flicking the finger away. “So it goes.”
I never expected to like the Peculiar children books as much as I have. I’ve read them multiple times and love the concept of writing stories around old photos. I even look through old family photos seeking out my own set of “peculiar children”. And I thought it was the series that would go on forever, so I was surprised to see this one would be the conclusion.
I find with every one of these books, the plot is generally the same. Jacob discovers/masters/develops his power, he goes swanning off toward the enemy thinking he knows best, upsetting and alienating Miss Peregrine and the rest of the children, but he does it anyway and ends up putting himself in extreme peril and needs their help in the end and vows to not take it all on himself the next time. Repeat. Yes, there are different details in each book, but they all follow that similar line of events.
“Don’t feel useless, mon garcon,” said Miss Cuckoo, “We’ll have dangerous things for you to do soon enough.”
It wrapped up a little too neatly for me. It wasn’t that they didn’t earn a happy ending, but it just felt too much like everything went back to normal and was unchanged by everything they had been through.
Despite all of that, this is such a good series, not only for adolescent children, but adults as well. It covers so many important topics in such an abstract way that you learn a lesson without feeling like you’re being beat over the head with it. I recommend it highly.
This book qualifies for my “shelfie” Bingo square: See the picture of this book in front of the shelf where the rest of the series lives (I sent my copy of the 1st one to a friend)