Fantasy Thursday: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Buy it Here: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children 

‘With its X-Men: First Class-meets-time-travel story line, David Lynchian imagery, and rich, eerie detail, it s no wonder Miss Peregrine s Home for Peculiar Children has been snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox. B+ Entertainment Weekly’

If you like your fantasy unsettling, this is the book for you.

I never know what to expect from Young Adult books, so I was pleasantly surprised that this book was a heck of a lot creepier than it sounded. It centers around a deep, deep mystery about the precise nature of this children’s home, and with every turn you are even more confused about who to trust.

It has an air of Young Angry Man about it,  the main character feels utterly let down by the life his family sacrifice everything for, hence why he ends up going on the world’s creepiest adventure.

If you’re looking for something different than everything else on the fantasy shelves today, pick this up.

Fantasy Thursday: The Rest of Us Just Live Here – Patrick Ness

Buy It Here: The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Taken from Amazon’s listing: “Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions… An exceptional novel from the author praised by John Green as “an insanely beautiful writer”.”

For some reason, some of the marketing for this book makes it seem like a comedy. It’s not. Not that there isn’t a beautifully dark string of humour running through it, but a comedy it is not. I was blinking back tears by the end, having fallen completely in love with one of the characters.

This is a fascinating dark look about a few normal teenagers caught up in the latest apocalypse. Refreshingly, they don’t go rushing into danger they know nothing about and manage to save the world. This is a quiet book on the real life consequences of magic, lies, and not listening to your kids.

Despite living through so many apocalypses, near apocalypses and other weird events, the adults in the story refuse to believe what is going on, or anything their kids say.

It is a step away from the world today, and yet so close it makes you gnash your teeth in pain and frustration.

Even though I think adults would enjoy it, I think older (15/16+?)* teens would find it a useful and enjoyable read, since it deals with so many issues relevant to teens today.

 

Trigger Warnings

Mental Illness  – main character has anxiety, main character’s sister has eating disorder

Abuse – main character’s family not exactly fantastic examples of human beings, are blamed for said mental disorders, probably correctly

Alcoholism – main characters father is an alcoholic

Animal death

I believe the sex scene was explicit-ish, like it was definitely a sex scene but it wasn’t Game of Thrones sort of thing

 

Tropes/Features

Gay Character

Mere Mortals Cannot Solve Disaster

Disaster Not Actual Point of Story

Magic Powers

Tragic Hero/Sidekick

Unreliable Narrator

TV Review: Outlander

Outlander – Complete Season 1 [DVD]

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‘Outlander follows the story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse, who, in 1946, is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, and immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. When she is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior, a passionate affair is ignited that splits Claire’s heart between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.’ – from Amazon

I loved the book, I loved this, it stuck remarkably well to the book, and retained it’s spirit throughout.

This is such an important book/TV show, because Claire is one of the best feminist characters around. With the exception of falling through time in the first place, things don’t happen to Claire, Claire happens to things.

She is a glorious main character, and I would urge to watch even if you’re not that interested in the Scottish Highlands, just for her and the relationships. And not just the romantic relationships, either – there’s the rebellion, prison breaks, poisoning, witchcraft trials, tax taking, murder and trying to get home that takes place. This is an adventure story with a romance at the heart of it, not a romance story.

I cannot recommend this enough. I am so excited to start watching the second season!

Tropes:

Disabled character

Gay characters

I Know the Future, Why Won’t You Listen?

Political Intrigue

Arranged Marriage

Stuck Between Two Genuinely Likable Lovers

Keeping Secrets

Jail Break

Damn the English

Unlikely Friends

New Cultures

Trigger Warnings:

Rape and attempted rape by men, male and female victims, including the main characters

Torture, both whipping and gross stabbing bits (you can fast forward most of the Jamie torture second in the last/second to last episode, everything you need to know is told to Claire by Jamie quite soon after, we watched about 1/3 of that ep cause we’re squeamish like that)

Historic and genre specific violence i.e stabbings and musket wounds

Animal death

Witch trials

Content Warnings:

Nudity, consensual sex

Swearing