A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs

The instant bestseller! • New York Times bestseller • USA Today bestseller • Wall Street Journal bestseller “A Map of Days reveals Ransom Riggs at the peak of his powers, leaving loyal fans ravenous for more.” –NY Journal of Books Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back where his story began, in Florida. Except now Miss Peregrine, Emma, and their peculiar friends are with him, and doing their best to blend in. But carefree days of beach visits and normalling lessons are soon interrupted by a discovery—a subterranean bunker that belonged to Jacob’s grandfather, Abe. Clues to Abe’s double-life as a peculiar operative start to emerge, secrets long hidden in plain sight. And Jacob begins to learn about the dangerous legacy he has inherited—truths that were part of him long before he walked into Miss Peregrine’s time loop. Now, the stakes are higher than ever as Jacob and his friends are thrust into the untamed landscape of American peculiardom—a world with few ymbrynes, or rules—that none of them understand. New wonders, and dangers, await in this brilliant next chapter for Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children. Their story is again illustrated by haunting vintage photographs, now with the striking addition of full-color images interspersed throughout for this all-new, multi-era American adventure.

something tells me Ransom Riggs has not been in an American high school in twenty years. how did they get in there without IDs??? how did the grenade get through the metal detectors?? (my school doesn't have any, but I imagine schools in Brooklyn do) just. how.

I enjoyed the book up until Jacob didn't listen to H and fled the ymbrynes. The end felt like a huge push to create patch up the previous storylines and create a reason to have a fifth book which I am not looking particularly forward to.

However, I did enjoy Enoch being a more involved character! I enjoy him a lot and think he's hysterical. The United States as a sort of Wild West was also interesting to me as well as the majority of the American peculiars they came across. I also find it interesting that Jacob's romantic life appears to be shifting to a modern American peculiar, but I am ready for Jacob's story to end.

I hardly ever cry when it comes to books. But did I cry when I found out that Ransom Riggs was working on A Map of Days? You bet I did.

(You can read the complete review on my blog!)

MY RATING:
This novel follows the events in the previous three books. Go read those first for the best results!

The plot built up pretty slowly, but it continued to get more interesting along the way. At about page 400, the plot just... well, the only way I can describe it is like this: if the first 400 pages was like a gentle-yet-fun rollercoaster, then the last 80 pages was like the end of the rollercoaster where your stomach just drops and you're having fun but you're also scared for your entire life.

Everything in my little heart is longing to give this book 5 stars, just because I can... but my brain is telling me that wouldn't be an honest review.

So 4 stars it is!

PROS:
- All your favorite characters are back! And in America!
- If you think the peculiars would have difficult yet hilarious times getting to know modern America, you would be 100% correct.
- Jacob, who continues to be one of my favorite characters and is secretly the male embodiment of myself.
- The pictures! Even more of them appear, and they're still creepy.
- More adventures! More peculiarities!

NOT REALLY A PRO OR CON:
- It didn't start to actually get interesting until around page 90.
- If we're going to talk about creepy levels, the pictures in this book weren't that creepy.
- While this book did seem overly long, I remained interested throughout the whole novel and there was never an “ah yes, this is just a filler scene” moment for me.
- The ending scene? I can't say much, but: the next book may be very much different than the previous ones.

CONS (I guess):
- Have you ever read a sequel, and you just knew in your heart that something was different but you couldn't describe it in words? That's what this book is like.
- While I think the idea of Jacob and the peculiars trying to live in the modern world is fun, it is very truly... different than the other books. Maybe in an out-of-character sort of way. I could feel that perhaps the author moved these characters along to fit them into the story he wanted, and I've been secretly feeling this way for the past couple of books.

Overall, as a personal preference, I choose to see through these cons when it comes to the Peculiar Children series. Why? I don't know. All I can say is that I relate to Jacob on so many levels, and I care about him enough to follow his character through whatever happens.

Sometimes you just feel that way about a character.

I'm still here for you, Jacob. Even if you sometimes make crazy choices.