Hollow City by Ransom Riggs | Book Review

2:41 PM Ally M.G. 2 Comments

Hollow City is Ransom Riggs’ sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Hollow City was a really wonderful book that is creepy, mysterious and thrilling and it has photographs that are usually found in antique fairs. The photographs being one of the key factors that makes this book and it’s predecessor so unique. These strangely developed photographs are the type of relics you would find in an attic of a creepy old abandon building in the middle of who knows where. Personally, it was the idea of a book with pictures that made me pick up Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Hollow City follows the same format of the first book, beautiful attention to detail, on the cover, on the paper and of course on its photographs. The most enjoyable part of the photographs is that they do not appear until after your finish reading the passage that describes the photographs. I like playing the game of “Is my mental image like the one on the photo?” usually it is because Riggs does an expectaculiar job describing every single new character and new scenery with excruciating detail (much like J.K Rowling).

Your mind slowly creates the scene and when you reach the page with the photography the scene in your mind enhances ten times more.

Right where Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children stops Hollow City picks it right up. There are no time lapses like most sequels tend to do. The reader continues on the journey with Jacob and the peculiar children as they are trying to help Miss Peregrine return to her human form.

In the previous book the reader had to be guided by Jacob as he tried to unmask the mystery of the peculiar children. The mystery of the stories that Jacob’s grandfather implanted in his mind.

 In this book the reader becomes peculiar, much like Jacob and the rest on the children, and sits in the rowboats trying to figure out how to get to London.

I do not want to spoil the story; for once I give my opinions and feelings about Hollow City then Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will be ultimately ruined. So if you are reading this right now, yes I am talking to you, and have not read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children please do yourself a favor and stop. Stop reading my words and get a copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and once you are done snatch a copy of Hollow City. But once you are done with the first book please return to me.

I assume if you are still reading you have already read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. If you haven’t….this is your last warning.

The loop has been destroyed, Miss Peregrine has been rescued from the Hollows and Wights, and the children are stuck in the middle of a body of water trying to reach main land Great Britain.

Jacob and Emma being the leaders of the now homeless children (not much to Enoch’s liking) try their best to keep the children safe.

Jacob’s leadership role is what made me enjoy his character much more than before. He goes through a massive character development as his life and the life of his fellow peculiar friends are in danger. He grows up and matures as he has learned how to use his newly developed peculiar gift to keep everyone safe from the Hollows. Even though he matures, the scared child inside him still lives, but this time he does not let it get the best of him. Jacob realizes that fear is part of his life now, and he has to learn to use it in his favor. Which is god-flipping-tastic. I love character development.

In Hollow City Riggs allows the reader to learn more intimate details about the other children. You learn more about Bronwyn’s motherly instincts, Horace’s insecurities, Olive’s innocence, Enoch’s rotten attitude, Hugh’s age and power and Millard’s intelligence. It is no longer just about Jacob trying to figure if he is going insane or not, but about a cast of characters trying to survive as they deal with their own inner demons.

Personally that is my favorite part of any story, learning about the characters and watching them grow as they handle the situations that are thrown their way.

I have nothing to complain about Hollow City, other than the ending. The massive plot twist Ransom Riggs decided to punch the readers with. I did not see it coming and it made me angry because catching plot twists are usually my superpower.

If you, my sweet reader, have not finished reading Hollow City and want to catch the twist…

Let’s just say…would Miss Peregrine really murder a pigeon whom is part of The Tales?