The Book Basilisks discussion

So, after nominating books and voting on the poll, the result of the most voted book for June's group read is Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Hope all the members will try and participate by reading the book and discussing about every aspect of the book together in here.
Because there are still two weeks before June actually start, it's alright if you want to start reading early or if you haven't started reading yet. I'm sure most of you will need the weeks to find the books or buy/borrow them. Also, those of you who has recently read the book are still welcome to join the discussions! Don't be afraid to voice your opinions on the book :)

I bought this book yesterday, so I am excited we are going to read this! Though I probably won't have any time because I have to read two other books for school and my finals start next week :( I hope I will be able to participate, but I think I can only read it at the end of June, is that a problem?

I have this book at home and I've been meaning to read it for a while now, so I'm really excited it's our read along book!

I'm only a chapter in and I'm loving it!! I wonder what they're going to get up to

I've only started today and so far it's great. And it's totally fine if any of you cannot or haven't read the book, although this discussion might not be spoiler-free.
And I also heard a movie is being produced so I'm super excited to read the book and compare it to the movie.

I really enjoyed it, personally. I couldn't put it down!

just got it today. im 75 pages in and so far im loving it!

I have just finished reading the book today! But I wont spoil anything for those of you who are still reading the book :) But I do agree, the cover and the photographs look wonderful!!

am i the only one who hasn't started reading this book yet? I'll start tmrw promise but like im really not excited bc i wanted to read this book ages ago but my friend read it and warned me abt it so it completely turned me off. I'll force myself to tho!

I've started reading it & it's very well structured

It's okay if you don't want to read it! But we'll still discuss about the book here :) Has anyone finished reading it yet? What did you rate them?

I have like 80 pages left so I'm definitely going to finish it today!

finished it!! I gave it 4 stars :) I loved the beggining of this book. it was so scary and exciting! but the ending was not the best, I expected much more and thought the climax was kind of disappointing. but overall I loved this book and am definitely going to read Hollow City !!

Hmm I'd have to disagree Karolina! I rated it 2 stars because I disliked it. It was very different from my expectations. It wasn't as creepy or scary as I hoped it would be, and the characters were terrible. (view spoiler)[The plot was also awful, the intense scenes weren't intense at all and the ending was meh. It didn't make my heart pound or be excited, instead I was just rushing through them to just get the whole book over with. (hide spoiler)] I mean the idea of the story itself is quite interesting, but for me it was just very poor execution. The story for me felt like a badly written children's book :/
Anybody else have different opinions on the book?

After finishing the book I gave it three stars. I feel that while an intriguing storyline, the characters didn't quite sell it.

The main character Jacob reads a lot older than he is suppose to be (which is 15 if I remember correctly), and Emma is poorly written. Jacob confronts her one time about her using him as replacement for his grandfather, she say no she isn't and that's it???

I feel like that has to come up in later books. Which brings me to my next portion. This entire book felt like it was just one long prolong to the actual story. Which is really sad because this story in and of itself could have been amazing, but the author decided he wanted more than one book obviously.

Over all it could have been amazing, but with all of the plot holes left wide open, it leaves me feeling like I almost have to pick up the second one. So with choppy writing, unrealistic characters, and a huge cliff hanger ending. I really can't give the book more than three stars, and that's being nice.

Edit: Spoilers for book two
(view spoiler)[ I read book two, while some characters get better characterization in the book other stay the same. Or in the case of Emma get worse. Her whole relationship with Jacob is weight on the plot and her character gets really nonexistent. Also another horrible cliff hanger ending.

Also is it me or can he not keep the visualization right for 1940's London? Half the time I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't happening in Victorian London! (hide spoiler)]

I disagree about your thoughts on the plot, Sabrina, I thought rather than making me want to read the second book because of the hanging ending, I became reluctant to continue because of the idea that we know that the writer didn't finish many plotholes just for the purpose of making a second book.

Speaking of setting, what did you guys think about the description of settings here?

I've only read 19% of the book yet and, to be quite honest, it's not even close to what I was hoping it to be. I thought it'b be at least one little bit creepy but that's not what I'm seeing (not in the begining, at least).
The characters are so plain I don't care for ANY of them.
I can't say anything about the descriptions of settings yet because Jacob still hasn't been to the island...

I honestly didn't like the book all that much. Like what Clara said, it wasn't "creepy". I guess I was expecting some more supernatural activity or something, but it didn't meet my standards. And I couldn't really get myself to care about any of the characters all that much either, which made the book tedious to read. I feel the author could have done so much more with the book, expecially the ending, but going with what Sabrina pointed out, everything in the book seemed a bit prolonged so that the book could have a sequel. Honestly, I'd give the book about 2 stars or so.

I absolutely agree Shivani and Clara! It was one of the things that really disturbed me, the fact that we all expected it to be scary or paranormal-ish or at least a little bit creepy from the cover and title and pictures but it was totally bland and boring.

I started reading this book last month and I'm still reading it because I just can't get into it? I'm just not intrigued enough.
Also, this is completely unrelated, but this week is literacy week at my school and there was a quiz in the library today, so my friends and I formed a group and won, along with a group of year 8s (12-year-olds). But because it was nearly the end of lunch, they were really rushed when giving out all the prizes. It was really loud because there were so many groups and my group could barely hear our group name being called out. And because the year 8s were closer, they literally just grabbed the good books and they were blocking my way so I couldn't even see the titles. My friends say that there were some really good books that were taken by the year 8s. But anyway, I got the last book left and it was Blue. Zombies aren't really my thing and I'm super annoyed. I complained to my friend who's in the committee who organised it, but she said there was nothing I could do about it and I spent the rest of the day in annoyance. (I'm sorry, I'm a really bitter person.)

I have to admit I had had high expectations for this book-or series, for that matter. It's got the looks for a cover, the amazing story idea, and the premise and the popularity. I've heard that this book isn't as scary as it is hoped to be. But I gave it a shot anyway because it's turning to a movie (directed by Tim Burton! Starring Asa Butterfield!).
I absolutely agree with most of you here. It definitely wasn't as dark as I thought it'd be, the characters were boring and the climax didn't even feel like a climax I thought I'd skipped out a few pages.
Throughout reading the book I kept telling myself that maybe this is how they do it in their universe, you know, the peculiar. Maybe boring and plain and dull run in their blood, despite their (somewhat cool but mostly useless) peculiar abilities.
I gave it three stars, only because I appreciate the mere idea of the story. And the creepy photographs. I wish the author had thought of a less boring way to narrate this story.
Do I want to read the next books in the series? Maybe. Just to see whether it gets better or not.
Jian: Sorry to hear what happened! But the fact that you get books for quiz prizes is awesome enough.

I agree with you all the way Rosa! And speaking of the movie, I'm super excited! I've always loved Asa Butterfield... And knowing that Tim Burton will direct this, I really hope (for the first time ever in my life) that the movie is better than the book.
Also @ Jian: maybe you should give the book a try! Zombie books can be great in my experience. It was really cool that you get to have those kind of prizes in the first place, I never get any books for free :(
But I'm thinking of buying used books online (one of the websites I've heard of is thriftbooks.com?) Has any of you ever done that? I still have second thoughts about it but it seems kind of fun to buy books online (the only place I've ever bought books online is at Amazon).

Ayunda: I've never bought books from thriftbooks, though I visit the site in regular. The prices are so low! But they don't ship to where I live, sadly. Even if they did, the shipping price alone would be twice the price of the book! Same goes to Amazon and most online bookstores. I'd recommend The Book Depository (bookdepository.com) all the way if you haven't tried it. They ship free internationally!

Thanks for the tip Rosa! Yeah the books are super cheap but the shipping is $5 so it's kind of expensive. I've never tried Book Depository though, but I've heard that many people use it too, but their books are way more expensive but with the free shipping both websites actually have the same price if you compare it!