Hollow City by Ransom Riggs is the second novel in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. I reviewed the first book, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, back in August. You can read that review here.
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As with its predecessor, Hollow City by Ransom Riggs uses a mix of vintage photography and haunting prose to craft a creepy, atmospheric novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but a few warnings to the squeamish: there is blood, animal death, character death, sexual assault (inappropriate touching from an adult to a minor to frighten and intimidate), impalement, and monsters. There’s probably more that I’m forgetting, but those are the big ones.
Premise
Jacob Portman and the Peculiar children leave the time loop on Cairnholm to try to find a way to help Miss Peregrine, who is trapped in bird form after her rescue from the wights’ submarine. They make the treacherous trip from Cairnholm to the mainland by rowing three small boats. Then they have to make the even more dangerous journey to London through war-torn Europe in 1940.
As if the war didn’t make things dangerous enough, the wights and hollowgast are dogging them every step of the way. The Peculiar children have to use every ounce of wits and power they possess in order to survive, and they have a time limit. If they take longer than three days to find another ymbryne, Miss Peregrine will be stuck as a bird permanently.
Setting
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs is mainly set in England in the year 1940, during the second world war. However, given that the children are searching for an ymbryne, who control time, they venture in and out of time loops to other times. They face disappointment after disappointment, as most loops have been abandoned after raids from the wights. However, they do find a hidden loop whose occupants direct them to London and Miss Wren—the only ymbryne yet to be captured.
The Peculiar children arrive in London during the middle of the Blitz. Most of London’s children are being evacuated to the countryside for safety when they arrive to search for clues of Miss Wren’s whereabouts.
Characters
I was pleased to see that many of the Peculiar children were rounded out further in Hollow City. We already got to know Jacob, Emma, Enoch, and Millard well during the first book, but we got to see sides of the others that we hadn’t seen before.
Bronwyn
Bronwyn, whose peculiarity is super strength, was fleshed out the most in Hollow City. We learned in the first book that she was a strong, impulsive, brave girl who thinks fast on her feet. In Hollow City, we also learned that she is gentle and maternal. With no adults, Bronwyn is the one who takes care of Olive and Claire, comforting them when scary things happen. She carries them when they’re too tired to keep up with the older kids. I love that she calls Olive “little Magpie.”
In sharp contrast to Enoch, who doesn’t seem to have any compassion whatsoever, Bronwyn is the most averse to causing harm to others. She hates the suffering around them when they arrive in London and really struggles with the fact that they can’t stop to help.
Horace
While Horace isn’t as heavily featured, we did learn more about how his power works and the sort of information he can get about people through his prophetic dreams. It’s thanks to his power that they were able to convince Melina to join the group (and not kill them). He is one of the more timid members of the group. Horace faces his fears to do what needs to be done in the extreme circumstances the group is in.
Hugh and Fiona
We still don’t know much about these two, but we learned that they met before entering Miss Peregrine’s care. They are also a couple, which was hinted at in the previous book. I look forward to learning more about them, especially Fiona. I’m a sucker for plant powers.
New Characters
We also got to meet some new faces, though I’ll only mention the ones that stayed until the end of the book here (without spoiling too much).
Melina
One of the few survivors of a raided loop. Melina has telekinesis powers and zero tolerance for Enoch’s nihilism. She joins the group in London on the search for Miss Peregrine, reasoning that it’s better than staying in her loop and waiting for the wights to find her. She is very protective of Joel-and-Peter.
Joel-and-Peter
Joel-and-Peter are a pair of Peculiar brothers who are “joined in the head.” They can hear each others thoughts. They are from the same loop as Melina and fled into the crypt when the wights attacked. Both boys are blind and use echolocation to see. They are always arm-in-arm. Joel-and-Peter hate to be separated to the point where they break into hysterical, supersonic screaming if they are forced apart. Along with Melina, they join the group in London.
Addison
A Peculiar dog with the ability to talk. While he doesn’t join the group, he is a notable character.
Final Thoughts on Hollow City
There were two absolutely shocking twists in this book that I enjoyed very much. I am excited to see how they’ll get out of their predicament in Library of Souls and how Jacob’s power will continue to develop, since nobody seems to know much about it.
I also really liked that Jacob and Emma continue to have a cute, respectful romance while also having those tough conversations about their circumstances—he’s from the present and she can’t survive there—as well as working together to protect the younger kids. They’re basically the co-leads of the group, and they work together really well. Even Enoch, who started out questioning all their decisions (largely due to Jacob’s presence), comes to trust them.
So I definitely recommend this book if it sounds like your jam.
