Review: Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #2) by Ransom Riggs

I was lucky enough to get to see Ransom Riggs back in January, when he was here with Rainy Day Books.  It was very interesting to hear him talk about how he started collecting the old photographs that he used for these books.  Enough that when I went to a flea market/antique store a few months ago I actually ended up buying old pictures, thinking maybe I could try to do a story like that myself.  I don't know that I will.  Maybe I should just send the ones I found to him and let him see if he can do anything with them.  That is where I actually got this book, got it autographed, but not personalized.  And then I took it in and donated it to the high school library where I work.  I just didn't know when I'd get around to reading it, even though I did enjoy the first one for the most part.  But, it just wasn't the kind of story that sucked me in right away, so it was harder to pick up and read.  Once I did, it still took a bit to remember bits of it, but eventually I got back into the story where it was at, and was able to read it quickly at that point.  There will be just a few spoilers in this review since it is a sequel but only if you haven't read the first one yet.

Jacob is our main character.  And he was from the present day.  But stumbled into what is called a "loop" which is kind of a time loop, that was used by children that were called peculiar.  The one that was near where his grandfather lived, and when he did that, he ended up getting involved with the group of children that were with Miss Peregrine.  And they are now being hunted by another form of peculiars, called wights.  These wights have captured all the other headmistresses like Miss Peregrine. They were even able to get her, until Jacob and his friends got her back.  But now they can't seem to get her to turn back from a bird. So they journey to London to try to get help.  They must deal not only with the dangerous wights, but also monsters called hollows, and other people that might be out to get them, as well as World War II that is going on at the time. 

As with the first book there are photographs worked in.  This time there are many that aren't as peculiar as the last book, but they fit in mostly with the story.  And we are left at the end hanging a bit, so that now I'm ready to read on in the next book.  Which I have no idea when it will come out.  One really cool thing though, is that supposedly Tim Burton might be making a movie of the first book, according to the author when I saw him in January.  I can think of no one else that would be as perfect to do this.  So I recommend this to those who read the first book and were intrigued with the characters and keeping up with their adventures. 

Ransom Riggs with me.

3rd Time is the Charm

So I still have 100 pages left to read of my ARC of The Dream Thieves, so I'm not going to be ready to write the review till tomorrow.  Now normally I can get through 100 pages really quickly, but even the fact that Maggie Stiefvater's writing hooks me and doesn't want to let me go when I pick the book up, her books take me longer to read.  Why?  Because they are so detailed and so much to read, so much to catch, that they are not books that I can skim over and skip parts.  I want, need, however you want to describe it, have to read every little detail, every word.  And so, like I said before, it'll be tomorrow before I'm done.  So, I guess to tie my blog over with a post till then, I'll just have to talk about going to see Ms. Stiefvater speak tonight about this very book!
It was so neat to see her again!  So thanks to Rainy Day Books for hosting her visit and kickoff to the tour for her new book.  While we heard some of the same stories, (the wolf trainer), we also got to hear many new ones.  And as usual, she is such a great speaker, so funny!  Someone I wish I could hang out with in real life.  One main thing she started off talking about is how people always want to know which of her characters are most like her, or are her.  So then she went through all the main characters in The Raven Boys.  Afterwards she did a fun reading of one part of the new book, and even had guest readers!  One was Tessa Gratton, another author I really enjoy, in fact, I got to be the host for her during the Authors are Rock Stars Tour.  Along with Ms. Gratton were her parents, her dad was also in the reading, playing Mr. Gray, which was quite funny, until the parts where it kind of became awkward, as Maggie was reading the part of Maura, Blue's mom in the story, who may be interested in Mr. Gray.  Here is a picture of that scene:

After the reading, there was time for questions.  I waited till it seemed most others had asked their questions, and also after a mention of a deleted scene from a story.  And then I asked if the character who had an afghan, and was supposed to have my last name, that was in the first draft of The Raven Boys, might make an appearance in the 3rd book.  Happily at that point she remembered me, and explained to the rest of the audience what I was talking about.  Yay!  Then, after about half the people lined up for autographs, the other half got to go outside and start spray painting the Mitsubishi that she brought, that from her stories, was probably purchased accidentally while she was doing research for The Dream Thieves.  If you haven't seen the video about it yet, check this out:

I forgot to take a picture of the car tonight, and by the time I got to go out and paint something, it was dark outside.  So nothing else to add for that.
But I was in the first group to get autographs, so I'll share my pictures with Maggie and Tessa.  I only wish Brenna Yovanoff had been there as well, like she was last time, I brought two of her books to get signed.  And I also forgot to bring the copy of The Scorpio Races I just bought specifically to get signed.  Oh well, I guess it leaves me something to bring next time I see her!  I also told her about how my picture of her and Brenna and Tessa from BEA 2012 is going to be in a biography book about Maggie that is specifically for school libraries.  And while she and Tessa both told me not to give up on maybe my last name being used some day in one of her books, to keep bugging her about it, they said now I was kind of connected with her in print!  Anyway, below are my pictures, first with Maggie Stiefvater, then below that with Tessa Gratton.

So it was another rock star night for me!  Which means I'm not too upset that I was unable to finish The Dream Thieves today.