Hollow City
by Ransom Riggs
★★★☆
This is the follow-up novel to the hugely successful MissPeregrine's Peculiar Children. You definitely need to read that one first in
order to understand what’s happening in this one. It picks up immediately after
the final pages of the first book.
The series introduces readers to an X-Men style cast of
characters. Each one is an outcast in their world because they have some sort
of special power or ability. One is lighter than air, another can make fire
with her hands, another has incredible strength, and another is invisible. The
children are all on the run because they are being pursued by an evil group
that’s trying to destroy them.
The real twist with this series is that the book is filled
with antique photographs that are worked into the story. I know that for most
people, this aspect is their favorite part. I feel a bit differently. While I
love the photos themselves, I struggle with the fact that the story feels too
dependent on them. It felt like every time the author stumble upon a strange
photo, he manipulated the plot to work it in and it felt very forced. I get
that he is making up stories to go along with the photos he finds, but it often
felt intrusive into the bigger picture he was trying to tell. I wanted him to
focus a bit more on the characters and less on showing one more eerie photo.
I do think that this one advanced the plot in an
interesting way, but I was hoping it wouldn’t feel quite as driven by photos as
the first one did.
BOTTOM LINE: I enjoyed it, but I’m just not on the edge
of my seat in the way I feel like I should be. The novels are so full of action
and suspense and if I’m two books in and not too worried about what comes next,
that’s not a good thing. I think I’ll probably skip the next book because the
series has failed to really hook me so far.
*I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an
honest review.
