Whimsy gives way to fear, as the children are hunted and the enemy closes in.
Creative Staff
Story: Ransom Riggs
Art/Adaptation: Cassandra Jean
What They Say
After fleeing an army of terrible monsters, Jacob Portman and his peculiar friends find themselves lost at sea, but the only person who might be able to get them ashore safely, their illustrious headmistress Miss Peregrine, is stuck in the form of a bird! Hoping to find a way to get Miss Peregrine back to normal–or as normal as a peculiar can get–the children journey to London. But no matter where they go, trouble lurks after them…
Cassandra Jean’s evocative visuals once again work seamlessly with Hollow City’s vintage photographs and Ransom Rigg’s twisting fantasy narrative to make for a wholly immersive reading experience for fans of the original novels, fans graphic novels, and fans of reading great stories alike!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I was disappointed in the overall direction of the first volume of Miss Peregrine. What started out as a compelling mystery full of wonder dropped its pretense of toying with reality and perception to go full on young adult adventure story. The psychological horror elements turned out to be a ruse, or perhaps just all in my head, and Jacob learned the monsters under the bed were real. We were left on a terrible cliffhanger with no announcement a second adaptation was coming. Well, luckily, it’s here in Hollow City, picking up right where volume one left off.
Jacob and his new friends are in a race against time and against the enemies the pursue them. Shifting between times and places, the kids struggle to escape and survive and to find help. With Miss Peregrine stuck in her falcon form they try to find a way to get her to change back, which leads them on a hunt for another who can help. Their journey takes them into another closed time loop and back into WWII England, all while being pursued and sometimes captured and attacked by the hollows.
The journey is clearly taking its toll on Jacob and his friends. The little ones start to fall sick, while fatigue weighs down heavily on the rest. Jacob walks through the story like a ghost, bags under his bruised eyes, cursed with the nagging sensation that he can detect the presence of hollows. There’s a breathlessness to the chase which solidifies the sense of urgency and hopelessness of their situation.
Despite Jacob’s inherent specialness, he finds himself dealing with not just the life or death struggle of the peculiars but the relationship between himself and Emma. He likes her and she likes him, but she’s literally old enough to be his grandmother, and if the peculiar children never find a loop to call home again they will rapidly age to what they should be and die. Emma is the one who reminds Jacob of this and attempts to push him back to his old life. I’m not sure why they seem to think the hollows wouldn’t eventually find him as well, but it’s shown that for all their tricks if one can lay low and not use their power the hollows can’t locate them.
Eventually, a destination is reached and the kids learn who the ringleader of the bad guys is. Finding out the motivation of the enemies here was a disappointment. It’s a very typical motivation, the sort of mustache-twirling plotting you expect out of comic book villains. It also feels surprisingly impersonal, which actually puts Jacob in an interesting position. It’s shown that for how powerful the enemy is, they don’t seem to know what Jacob’s abilities are. Jacob is just starting to learn what he’s capable of at the end of this volume, pushed to his limits of exhaustion. When this volume ends on a cliffhanger I’m more confident we’ll be getting the final part.
The presentation for this book matches the first in the series. Hard bound with a slipcover it should hold up well in any collection. The page count is hefty, coming in at 272 pages. Yen Press chose to use a nice, high-quality paper with a bright white finish that really makes the art pop.
Cassandra Jean’s art continues to make this book something more unique. While there are certain manga-esque elements to her art its stylistic origins are broader and far reaching. Her kids have a world-weariness which sells their plight far better than the dialog does. Her thin lines and sparse use of color are highly evocative of the strange, otherworldly feeling that the time-jumping story works with. It brings to mind faded photographs and maps that the author so clearly loves. Speaking of those photos, there are far less of them worked into the art this time around. Instead, the format is played with other ways, making use of Jacob’s exhaustion to form an image of an unreliable narrator. Everything comes together to make good use of the psychological horror implications, matching the source material far better than if Yen had gone for a more manga look. However, the artwork is sparse and often flat, with backgrounds usually absent from everything except for establishing shots.
In Summary
The middle volume is usually where longer stories falter, but with the setting and themes firmly established Hollow City can focus on its chase story, and it’s stronger for it. The whimsy has mostly disappeared, turning into a horror-thriller road trip through a WWII London under bombing raids with the threat of monsters nipping at their heels. The story beats with the heroes slowly realizing that they must stand and fight are the bread-and-butter basics of most of these adventure stories. In that respect, there is very little surprise from the structure here. More surprising is the hero is given a choice, suggesting that if he wanted to he could potentially leave his friends to their plight and return to his normal life. Jacob dodges most of the character flaws which make teen protagonists a chore to deal with, and the rest of the cast are, we’re reminded, older than they look. Having not read the novels which this is adapted from I can’t say if anything of note is being left on the cutting room floor, as this doesn’t feel particularly rushed or condensed. It’s a solid read, and I’m looking forward to volume 2 to finish the adaptation.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A +
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 12th, 2016
MSRP: $20.00
