City News
The Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
Review by: Christina
After fleeing their island home now infested with wights and hollows out to haunt them, Jacob and his peculiar friends began searching for a way to cure Miss Peregrine out of her bird form. Miss Peregrine could only be cured with the help of another ymbryne, but with all ymbrynes captured, there was no one left to help Miss Peregrine before she becomes permanently trapped in a bird’s body in four days time. That is, all except one ymbryne--Miss Wren.
When the peculiar children heard about Miss Wren, possibly the last ymbryne out of the wights’ control, they set off for the bustling city of London. They vowed to find Miss Wren and cure Miss Peregrine. Or die trying.
The Hollow City , the second book to the trilogy Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children , is a 10/10. I was most shocked with a plot twist where it turned out one whom they trusted most was a wight, and they had been sharing every detail of their adventure as well as the location of the last uncaptured ymbryne with him.
Being peculiar was no longer a blessing. It was a curse. Captured peculiars were surgically removed from their second soul, their peculiarness sucked out to be fed to hollows to haunt more peculiar children.
I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss.
When faced with the opportunity to return to his present home, Jacob must decide between his love for Emma Bloom, a fellow peculiar, and his old life. As the future of peculiardom takes a turn for gloom, Jacob would have the chance to leave this mess. Jacob isn’t a hero, he’s a human just like you and me. Yet as a twist in the plot disrupts the peculiars’ plans, does Jacob’s choice even matter?
I recommend The Hollow City to those who love fantasy and the occasional horror. Ancient photographs embedded within the tale often send a chill up my spine. It was even more to my surprise that many of those vintage photographs were real. The hollows, creatures of the shadows, and the wights, hollows evolved after consuming peculiar souls, were no less horrifying. Riggs has a style of writing that send goosebumps all over your arms as you read hunchbacked with a flashlight under your goosebumps all over your arms as you read hunchbacked with a flashlight under your covers. I’ve always wanted to have a superpower, something peculiar about myself. When I read Harry Potter , I thought could I be a witch? When I read Percy Jackson , I wondered could I be a demigod? The Hollow City illuminated that perhaps, being peculiar isn’t as good as I imagined and that I should be grateful for the world I live in today.
We cling to our fairy tales until the price for believing in them becomes too high.
We’re lucky we live in the present.