YA Review: Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs
Publication Date: September 3, 2016
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Amazon Link: HERE
Received From: Giveaway


Summary (from Amazon):
A companion to the New York Times bestselling Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, now a major motion picture directed by Tim Burton.

Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the tales.

Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar—the collection of fairy tales known to hide information about the peculiar world, including clues to the locations of time loops—first introduced by Ransom Riggs in his #1 bestselling Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series.

Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories in this deluxe volume of Tales of the Peculiar, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar. Featuring stunning illustrations from world-renowned woodcut artist Andrew Davidson this compelling and truly peculiar anthology is the perfect gift for not only fans, but for all booklovers. 

A perfect gift, reminiscent of classic bookmarking, this beautifully packaged volume features full-page woodcut illustration, gold foil stamping, a ribbon, and removable back sticker. 

Review:
Tales of the Peculiar is a set of ten short stories about peculiars. Each story features new characters and a new story. The first story, The Splendid Cannibals, is about peculiars that can regrow limbs. The second story, The Fork-Tongued Princess, is about a princess with physical disfigurements including a fork tongue and scales. The third story, The First Ymbryne, is about a bird that can turn into a human and who is also the first peculiar to create time loops. The fourth story, The Woman Who Befriended Ghosts, is about a girl that can see and interact with ghosts. The fifth story, Cocobolo, is about a man who slowly turns into an island. The sixth story, The Pigeon's of Saint Paul's, is about a fight for the sky between pigeons and humans. The seventh story, The Girl Who Could Tame Nightmares, is about a girl that can take nightmares out of people's heads. The eighth story, The Locust, is about a boy who takes the form of whatever shows the most love towards him. The ninth story, The Boy Who Could Hold Back the Sea, is about a boy who can control the current. And the tenth story, The Tale of Cuthbert, is about a giant that sinks and gets stuck. Each story is creative, fun to read, and has an endearing moral. And the hardcover edition features a beautiful gold-foiled cover, a bookmark ribbon, and full page illustrations that correlate with each story.

I've never been a big fan of short stories because it takes me a few pages to get into a story, so when I read short stories, by the time I'm interested, the story is already over. Tales of the Peculiar isn't a story that kept me reading late into the night, but a book that I read little by little each night. I enjoyed reading each story and getting pulled into Riggs' characters and worlds. My favorite story was The First Ymbryne because it was interesting getting to see how the first peculiar created time loops. Some stories were more interesting than others, such as The First Ymbryne, but I found each one to be enjoyable, and if nothing else, I wanted to see how each story would end. Tales of the Peculiar is much like Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. The stories are witty, quirky and fun, but there's also an added horror element such as in the story The Girl Who Could Tame Nightmares, which centers around a murder.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Tales of the Peculiar for any fans of Ransom Riggs looking to read more about peculiars in a short story format. I also recommend you splurge on the hardcover edition because it's downright gorgeous and will be something you'll want to come back to more than once.


Rating: