Book Review: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

SERIES: Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children (#2)

GENRE: YA, Adventure, Fantasy, Paranormal

PAGES: 400

FORMAT: eBook (Kindle/ PDF), Audiobook

REVIEW ALSO POSTED ON: Goodreads

BOOK SYNOPSIS:

The New York Times #1 best selling series

September 3, 1940. Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters. And only one person can help them—but she’s trapped in the body of a bird. The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom. Like its predecessor, this second novel in the Peculiar Children series blends thrilling fantasy with vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

“A stunning achievement . . Hollow City is even richer than Riggs’s imaginative debut, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”—Boston Globe

REVIEW:

It took quite awhile before I decided to read this book. After I read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, I wanted to read this book so badly because I wanted to know what happened next. and then school happened and I became busy, so I’m just posting a review now instead of posting it on Monday. Let’s set that aside so I can tell you why a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 review is to be given to Hollow City.

NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BOOK ONE, I SUGGEST YOU READ IT AND AFTER THAT READ MY REVIEW TO REFRESH BOOK ONE A BIT. As I SAID IN MY REVIEW OF MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, THIS SERIES IS QUITE HARD TO REVIEW WITHOUT GIVING TEENY TINY HINTS ON WHAT HAPPENS SO TO UNDERSTAND THE REVIEW BETTER. Read Book One!

(Anyway, I will do my best to make this review spoiler-free. I shall try!

Hollow City takes off where Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children left off. Which is when they left Wales in boats to help Ms. Peregrine return to her normal self (as to what happened in book one). So the Peculiar Children went off on an adventure to seek help from another Ymbryne. As they were rowing their boats searching for land, they encountered a storm that separated them from each other, but luckily they found everyone in one piece. and with the help of Olive, they found land to stay on. They were looking for a place to rest and also trying to escape the Wights and their dogs. But since the youngest peculiar child, Claire (the girl with another mouth behind her head), was sick, they needed to find shelter and medicine fast. Since Claire started crying, they needed a distraction to keep her quiet. and the only way was to read her a story from The Tales of the Peculiar Book. And when Hugh found a lake, they went there fast, and what they found there was rather odd. The rock formation on the lake looked like the giant’s head on the Tales of the Peculiar book, and so they went to investigate and later on found a loop inside the hole in the giant’s mouth(well, it’s actually a rock, but they call it the giant’s head). The loop led to Ms. Wren’s Menagerie. In the menagerie, they were welcomed by a talking dog with a pipe and a talking emu-raffe( a donkey mixed with a giraffe), but unfortunately, Ms. Wren is nowhere to be found in the menagerie. The talking dog told them that Ms. Wren went to London to save her Ymbryne sisters from the Wights and Hollowgasts. So they looked for a fast way to go to the train station before nightfall, and so they secretly hitched a ride on a group of traveling Gypsies wagon. but was discovered later on. Are the Gypsies their allies? or are they wights in disguise? (I won’t tell you!!!) They were about to ride the train heading for London, but a wight handicapped them and brought them as hostages in a tent, interrogating them about where their Ymbryn was. (OMG!!! OMG!!! This was one of my favorite parts of the book, so there is no point in spoiling it for you. At London, they found themselves looking for peculiar pigeons that could lead them to Ms. Wren. Along the way, they found three more peculiar children. As they escaped a hollow, they hid in a house where they found another peculiar child and her normal sister. (When you read this part, the book cover will make sense.) After meeting the peculiar girl, they went to the carnival loop. Tried to look for her there. AAAAANNNNNDDDDD……… Yeah, they found her there. And then she helped Ms. Peregrine turn normal again. A Happy Ending… Wrong! (I’ve never been so wrong in my life!) after Ms. Wren massaged the bird…

This plot twist seriously bled my mind, and I swear I didn’t see that one coming. I was like:

” WHAT?! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUDGE!!!!!!!”

“HUH?! HOW?! WHY?! OH GOD!!”

“OMG….. JUST WOW.”

That plot twist was so on point that it caught me off guard and made me gasp and squeal in excitement and, well, frustration.

So, to put it simply, the book was AAAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAZZZZIIIIINNNGGGGG! in every way. and I loved it so much. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 is fit for this book. The first book had peculiar children that didn’t show much of their peculiarities, but here it was just WOW, just WOW, and this book is the same as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children; it still had witty and funny lines that made me laugh hard (hahahahaha). I laughed hysterically at one point while reading the book (still a hahahaha). There was a dash of romance between Jacob and Emma. It made me roll on my bed with delight; they were just so awkwardly cute in those scenes. And I loved those so much.

I still love the same characters in this book. but Bronwyn and Hugh stood out the most. (Bronwyn) Being the mother figure of the peculiars and being mature despite looking like a little girl (Hugh) being cunning, patient, and brave.

The antagonist in this book was so annoying that if I were Emma, I’d burn his face off. but I was more pissed off at a certain peculiar clown. (And the clown was one of the peculiars.)

Now I’m still having a hangover from the plot twist, and I cannot wait to read Library of Souls.

WOULD I RECOMMEND THE BOOK?

HELL YEAH!!!!!!! Like seriously, this book is amazing, and if only the people near me had a pre-owned bookset of these books, I’d be down to buy it. I do recommend buying it. I have it on PDF, but I want to have the physical copies so bad. “Read it, and you won’t be disappointed.”

I give this book a:

NOTE: PHOTOS USED ON THIS REVIEW IS NOT MINE