The Library of Souls: Miss Peregrin's Peculiar Children #3

4/50

Third in the series of Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children: The Library of Souls

Author: Ransom Riggs

I blew through this series over the last month and am very grateful for the recommendation. I would have to say I feel two very different ways about the final installation.

On the one hand, I neglected some actual adult work I needed to do in order to finish this book. It took the characters to some extremely compelling settings and it was a very exciting final conflict. Actually, now that I've used the word settings, I'm realizing that the major strength of the author might be in creating the images of the worlds that the children are visiting. There are several satisfying bad guys and the main hero of course finally comes into his powers. 

On the other hand, the final chapter is weak. I mean, look, a lot of YA literature is derivative but this felt like the author wrote the final battle and then had no idea how to get the characters home or resolve personal conflicts so he essentially wrote two endings using a GIANT deus ex machina. I like a DEM as much as the next guy, but they need to be used sparingly and this was amateurish. I won't give away any spoilers because I genuinely think a lot of you might read and enjoy these books, I'm just saying, don't expect the final chapter to be the best in the series. 

(Chelsea and any other readers with children, when they get to be age 11 or so, they might also really like these books)

Overall, I'm very happy I read the series, enjoyed the heck out of them and I rarely allow myself "beach reads" without trying to justify them but these were just damn fun.