Back Cover Blurb:

A boy with extraordinary powers. An army of deadly monsters. An epic battle for the future of peculiardom.

The adventure that began with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and continued in Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls. As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.

They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. Like its predecessors, Library of Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

BOOK REVIEW:

I’ve now finished the third installment of the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children Trilogy.  Once again the book thankfully picks up where book II had left off. This book was much more interesting than the second. I found the writing similar to what was in Book I and my love for this trilogy was renewed.

Character development was even better, especially with the Protagonist. Even Miss Emma was not quite as annoying as she was in the second book. However, the way she seem to rock back and forth from being domineering to placid had me wondering what the author was attempting to do with this secondary character and if he truly understood what goes on in a woman’s head (okay, okay, no one understands what goes on in a woman’s head).  I found her bordering charming and more believable. As I had said earlier, the Protagonist’s arc was much better and written clearly showing the ongoing battle and emotional complexities going on in his head. It was finally a relief to see his own abilities come about instead of watching him pictured as a weakling who couldn’t seem to make up his mind.

The battle scenes were well-written too. I loved the love-hate relationship the Protagonist had with the horrible hollows and why. I loved the character, Sharon, but wondered why it took the third book to bring him in?

The idea that this Library of Souls existed and came about in the third book alone, was a bit perplexing considering it was the theme of the third book, but the author handled most of the story-telling regarding the Library of Souls fairly well. Again, I found a whole bunch of new characters thrust at me and again couldn’t help but wonder why they were addressed even in passing, throughout the first and second books, but I suppose this may have crowded the books too much with mundane characters that would distract from the unfolding story.

With the way the book ended, and it ended extremely well, I can’t help but wonder if the author is going to add to this trilogy and make it into a series. Would this be a good thing? I’m not sure such a strong pace of story-telling and vintage photos can keep up to a lengthening plot. I suppose like other authors, Ransom Riggs could begin the next section by telling the story from a different POV. However, I think that might actually hurt the series rather than help.

Setting description in the third book was by far much better.  I think it would have been more interesting to hear a bit more about the Library than what was said, just to hook the reader’s curiosity further, but I really can’t complain.

As far as a fantasy series, this was bang on. I felt the language was not too juvenile and would be enjoyed by all ages. The hollows involvement in the trilogy was focused on more and the interaction between the main characters and the hollows was also well written. The author nailed how the Protagonist could see and hear through the hollow’s senses (spoiler).

Check out my overall review on the series for more comments. Feel free to leave your comments below, or any questions you might have. I’ll do my best to answer them.

For this book, I give: