Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

A sequel that unfortunately does little to expand on the potential of the series.

After the events of the first book, Jacob is stuck in 1940s England with the other peculiars, fleeing their island loop and running from the wight soldiers that seek to harvest their abilities for themselves.

Miss Peregrine is injured and trapped in her bird form, and the children have only three days to get her to London before she stays a bird forever.

Can they evade their enemies and save their Ymbryne while the Second World War rages around them?

This series has huge potential. Time travel, children with super powers, and blank eyed monsters. While the first book was light on plot and slow paced, I loved the scenario and the deeper ramifications of young Jacob falling for perpetual teenager, Emma.

Unfortunately, for most of the sequel, the characters stumble from one adventure to the next. There is no benefit to Jacob being the narrator, as he adds little to the plot. The children act like not very knowledgeable kids, rather than what they were. I got no feel for the time period. The stakes seemed low, as the characters kept making odd decisions that resulted in difficulties rather than being presented with true conflicts.

Once again, the conceit of using real photographs to inspire events didn’t work for me. Shoehorning in the pictures led to random events, and I still dislike using photographs of real people in a book like this.

Thankfully, the last 20% of the book is exciting. The mythology is expanded on, the story is finally progressed, and Jacob’s first person point of view actually has a point.

Because of the end of the book, I award Hollow City…

Hollow City is available for $6.97 ebook and $10.99 print book on Amazon.

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Click here to read my review of the first book in the series, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.