Well, weather is warming and fingers are busy with a selection of various projects. Reading has slipped just a bit. BUT I have managed to finish the third book in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children… Library of Souls (by Ransom Riggs). Now I must warn you… this is an impossible book to review without putting forth information regarding the first two books… and you really MUST read them in order!

Dramatic and at times heart rending, Library of Souls is full of action and angst, friendship and betrayal, love and pain. One of the things I love and hate about this book is the confusion that runs through it. There are so many possible allies and enemies. The world is a dark place in book #3 where the entirety of Peculiardom is in upheaval and distress. The Ymbrynes are all abducted, the peculiars dead, taken or destroyed by a need for what is later shown to be essence of other peculiar’s “second soul” which acts much like an addictive drug.

In this dark and dangerous scenario are Emma and Jacob and Addison the peculiar dog. There is something absolutely lovable about Addison… There are so many other characters… and so many amazing pictures to put faces to descriptions. That really is the key to these books, Ransom Riggs has such a touch and eye to combining amazing images to enthralling words. 

Book 1 was an introduction to the world, a hint a the troubles… book 2 threw us into danger and intrigue, book 3 brings us full circle to even more new and unique loops and worlds that defy imagination. Library of Souls is a dark book, but it is a book of hope and possible redemption. It is a book of adventure and battle and decisions made under pressure. 

I have a favourite line in this one… said by Emma Bloom – when asked whether or not she doubted…

Emma shook her head. “Doubt is the pinprick in the life raft.” 

I don’t know why but that resonates with me. I hope that you will hunt down these books at your local bookstore or library, they are well worth it… Go, jump into the world of the peculiar!