These books always end weirdly... ( )

Set during the 1940 Blitz of London, this second book in the Miss Peregrine series is even better than the first. The first book, while fascinating, relied on the reader's sympathy for its nebbishy protagonist, Jacob Portman, who risks seeming like just another wannabe Holden Caulfield. For those of us who have never been teenage boys, that sympathy was a tad hard to maintain. But the second volume concerns the whole gang of peculiar children, plus other people whom they meet on the road. The first book was delightfully open-ended but somewhat uneven in pace, while the second clicks along briskly from danger to rescue to danger to escape to danger. Riggs always maintains a humane perspective, and doesn't dwell too long on gore. His main problem is that every once in a while, he has to insert a big chunk of background information to keep his story going in the direction he chooses. Sometimes his choices seem arbitrary rather than organic.

The theme of "Hollow City" -- resistance against world domination by racist, soul-splitting bad guys -- is not so new or fresh, but Riggs creates an interesting world peopled by sympathetic characters. I enjoyed this even thought its not my usual kind of read. ( )

I liked Hollow City a lot more than the first book. It had way more action, lots of adventures, turns, and twists. There were some parts that weren't that interesting and kind of dragged on but for the most part it's well paced and keeps you engaged. The ending, again like the last book, I did not see this ending coming. Totally surprised me and caught me off guard. Definitely want to know more and definitely want to read the next book. There are a lot of pics in this book just like in the first but the pics in this one aren't as creepy as the first one, a lot of them seem to be pics of places. The one drawback for me for this series is I still haven't connected with the characters. At this point I really don't care if any of them die, I just want to see what happens with the plot. I don't even care about Jacob and Emma's relationship. I mean I'm not rooting for them to break up but I'm not rooting for them to be together either, I'm just indifferent. For me, that's the only major drawback from giving this a 5 star. ( )

I really liked this book, it lived up to the first one and answered a lot of questions and left a lot to answer in the next one! ( )

I have been enjoying this series so much more than I expected. I find the overall story of the peculiar world inventive and fascinating. And in this book, what was set up in the first one really came alive. Rather than being completely lost and trying to understand, Jacob is...well, he's still a bit confused, but there's a lot to learn about, after all. As he begins to use his peculiarity with purpose, though, he gets to more involved in the mission. The other children have more of a chance to shine as well, both in personality and in ability. Though none of them is explored particularly deeply, with 10 characters going through most of the book together, I'm not very surprised or bothered.

I am fascinated by this story that is the ultimate example of using visual prompts to come up with ideas for a story. It's a common exercise for aspiring writers, especially when they're trying to come up with something to write about, and Ransom Riggs shows how well it can turn out. I still think he might over-describe the pictures sometimes, which makes those moments in the story feel a little forced, but I liked that he got away from every picture being an actual photo the characters looked at in the story, and many were just used to show us an illustration of a scene or a character.

The plot was definitely the highlight for me, as well as the world-building. I still think the actual writing could be better. I also don't understand why just about every adult they run into immediately treats them with anger and hatred. There's a scene at a train station that just seemed ridiculously unlikely to me. And I really could not care less about the relationship between Jacob and Emma—partly because she's actually a lot older than him, even if she does look like a teenager, and partly because she was in love with Jacob's grandfather. Both of these things just make it weird, in my opinion.

This book is full of "one step forward, two steps back," to the point where it feels like the characters (and, by extension, we the readers) will never be able to stop and catch their breath or have good news that doesn't turn bad. But then I got to the end, and wow! Though I'm usually not a fan of cliffhangers at the ends of books, I'm totally okay with this one! (Granted, it helps that I don't have to wait for the next book to come out.) For now, though, I'll stick with the recommendation I made for the first book: If you're thinking of reading this series because you're looking for a creepy story to go along with the creepy pictures, you may be disappointed. If you're looking for an interesting speculative fiction world with kids with super-hero-type powers that first have to save themselves, and then quite possibly the world, this might be worth reading. ( )