Hollow City - Ransom Riggs

   2014; 428 pages.  Book 2 (out of 6) in the “Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : YA; Dark Fantasy; Time-Travel; Coming of Age.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    They are a motley crew.  Ten English children – peculiars, all of them – plus one damaged peregrine falcon are now fleeing for their lives, with deadly wights and hollowgasts in close pursuit.

 

    Oh, and there’s also one American kid with them – Jacob Portman.  He can not only see hollowgasts (something nobody else – both normal and peculiars – can do), he can sense their presence before they come into view.  That makes him very handy to have around.

 

    The falcon is a peculiar as well, a “ymbryne” to be precise, and she's none other than the children’s headmistress herself, Miss Peregrine.  Ymbrynes have the ability to shapeshift into birds and, more importantly, control and manipulate time itself.

 

    Unfortunately, ymbrynes can only do their time tricks while in human form, and at present, Miss Peregrine is stuck in her bird shape due to a broken wing.

 

    Hmm.  It looks like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is about to become as dead as a dozen dodo birds.

 

What’s To Like...

    For the most part, Hollow City is set in and around London in 1940, which means during World War 2 when the Germans were bombing the daylights out of England on a daily basis.  It is the second book in Ransom Riggs’ incredibly popular “Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children” series, and timewise, immediately follows the events that closed out Book One.  Surprisingly, only three days elapse between the start and finish of Hollow City.

 

    The book chronicles three interrelated plotlines: a.) getting Miss Peregrine’s wing fixed so she can change back into a human; b.) locating another ymbryne, since they’re the only ones who can heal Miss Peregrine; and c.) freeing all the other ymbrynes that are currently held captive by the evil wights.  These are daunting tasks for a bunch of kids, peculiar or not.

 

    As was true in the first book, Ransom Riggs incorporates a whole bunch of bizarre, vintage photographs into the story.  You’d think photoshopping was involved but they were taken long before the computer age, and I trust the author when he swears that they weren’t doctored in any way.  I was happy to see that these pics were included in the e-book version (I read Book One in the paperback format), and can attest that they were easily expandable and in sharp focus.    

 

    There’s a handy “Cast of Characters” in the front of the book, showing most of the peculiar children plus some associates of Jason’s.  Included are photos for each of the peculiars, along with a list of what “gift” each one has.  I frequently consulted this section to look up which peculiar could do what.

 

    There are a couple of time-jumps in Hollow City, and also a coming-of-age aspect.  Jacob experiences his first kiss, his first romance, and his first set of relationship issues.  The “Armageddon chickens” were neat, so were the gypsies, and the character named Addison is a great addition to the series, and hopefully a recurring one.

 

    The book is written in the first-person POV (Jacob’s).  There are 13 chapters covering the 397 pages of the story, which averages out to about 30 pages a chapter, but that includes a lot of space taken up by the photographs.  The cover image ties into the storyline; you can read more details about it in the second excerpt below.  The ending is suitably exciting, has a twist in it that I never saw coming, stops at a logical place and sets up Book 3.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 7,075 ratings and 3,934 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.05*/5, based on 220,005 ratings and 18,007 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I think we’re being punished.”

    “For what?” said Emma.  “We’ve been perfect angels.  Well, most of us.”

    “The sins of past lives, maybe.  I don’t know.”

    “Peculiars don’t have past lives,” said Millard.  “We live them all at once.”  (loc. 690)

 

    It made no sense that Sam’s body was functioning in any capacity.  Stranger still, her wound wasn’t even bleeding, and there was no gore or bits of entrails hanging out of it, like I knew to expect from horror movies.  Instead, Sam looked like a paper doll that had been attacked with a giant hole-punch.

    (…) “Excuse me,” [Enoch] said, crowding into their personal space, “but could you please explain how it is that you’re alive?”

    “It’s nothing serious,” Sam said.  “Although my dress may not survive.”

    “Nothing serious?!” Enoch said.  “I can see clear through you!”

    “It does smart a little,” she admitted, “but it’ll fill in in a day or so.  Things like this always do."  (loc. 3534)

 

Kindle Details…

    Hollow City presently sells for $9.99 at Amazon.   Books 1, 3, and 4 are also $9.99, while Book 5 is $8.99 and Book 6 is $11.99.  The first two e-books are also available in Graphic Novel format, and there is a “Companion Book” titled Tales of the Peculiar, which is an anthology containing 11 short stories set in the Peculiar world.  These three options are all priced at $9.99 apiece.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Huskers (n., plural) : persons who perform music or other entertainment in the street or public places for monetary donations.

 

“I love sad stories,” said Enoch.  “Especially ones where princesses get eaten by dragons and everyone dies in the end.”  (loc. 1086)

    There are some things to quibble about in Hollow City, but no show-stoppers.  There is only a smidgen of cussing (I counted a mere nine instances in the whole book, none of which were f-bombs) and don’t recall any R-rated acts.

 

    The pacing felt somewhat slow.  Wights and hollows are constantly hot on our heroes’ trail, yet we spend a fair amount of time hanging out at a menagerie, then with the gypsies, then later at a deep-freeze.

 

    We cross paths with a number of other peculiars, but a lot of them get developed, only to fade away.  The part about Cuthbert’s head seems totally extraneous.  But I think this is inevitable,  and due to Ransom Riggs diligently working as many weird photos into the story as he can.  I’m certainly glad he did so.

 

    The ending, although exciting, doesn’t tie up any of the three main plotlines.  When you compare where our band of adventurers are at the end of Book Two to where they were at the end of Book One, there’s not a lot of progress.  I wouldn’t call Hollow City a standalone story and recommend that you read the books in this series in order.

 

    8 Stars.  There are about 30 pages of “Extras” at the end of the e-book, consisting of: 1.) Photo Credits, 2.) Acknowledgements, 3.) A Conversation with Ransom Riggs, 4.) an excerpt from Book 3.  The “Conversation” is well worth reading, as it gives insight into the approach Ransom Riggs used to write Hollow City.  He also reveals some of the bizarre photographs used in the next book.  For me, they were effective teasers.