Ransom Riggs' "Library of Souls"

So this has never happened. This is my first "almost" book review. "Almost" because life happened. We have had a crazy busy last few weeks and I was 97 pages away from finishing this novel before it was due back to the library. I didn't get to finish it. I couldn't renew it due to others waiting on it, but I have reserved it yet again so I can finish reading it to the very end! 

For those who don't know, our youngest son has an ultra rare form of Congenital Muscular Dystrophy called Muscle Eye Brain Disease (MEB). He requires constant care. His 5th birthday was this week, along with his 4th cast on his leg/foot to correct some muscle atrophy, along with pre-exams for a sleep study and EEG to determine if what is waking him at night is seizure activity and/or sleep apnea. He also got measured and molded to make leg braces to wear after the casts come off. I spend hours on hold with the insurance company to argue over what expenses they would cover. All while my husband was working overtime out of state. It's just been me holding this house together. Like I said, it's been busy.  That's why I had no time for reading.

Although I didn't finish the book, I still feel I read enough of it to give a mostly complete review. So, here it is. 

 I remember reading the first book, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children , at night while laying on the living room floor next to my (then) 1 year old who refused to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time. It was almost 4 years ago when the "we don't sleep at night anymore" started. In my dark living room I read and was intrigued, scared (yes, actually scared while reading it as an adult) and I fell in love with the first book immediately. The second book I liked, but in my opinion was not as good as the first. This third book in the series, Library of Souls , was my absolute favorite.

Library of Souls starts up exactly where the second book, Hollow City , leaves off. I admit that it had been awhile since I finished the second book and did have to Wiki Hollow City so I wasn't so lost (it ended in a cliffhanger, but I couldn't remember the exact details). 

As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.

They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. 

Like its predecessors, Library of Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography.

I feel that Library of Souls is the most exciting and adventurous of all three books. It was interesting (unlike Hollow City in my opinion) and kept me invested. I truly couldn't wait to read it any time I had the chance. The characters were more interesting, both old and new. Riggs imagined a world so vivid and wild, dark and eerie, crazy yet believable, it was hard not to get sucked in. 

Because this is the third book in the series I don't want to say a lot about the overall plot. It took me to places I never imagined. There were twists and turns I never saw coming. The main characters have grown and matured, as they should. It was so astonishing to read and realize how much Jacob has changed since the first book. 

Once again, we get the strange photographs embedded throughout the book that go along with the story. It always amazes me to stare at them and wonder how Riggs found them and then created these amazing books to coincide with the wonderfully eerie pictures.  

I am told that the ending is phenomenal. That it is something you never saw coming, but is also a fulfilling ending to a book series. I honestly can't wait to finish this book. I will update this post once I have. 

Happy Reading!