Miss Peregrine’s Home Book 1

The original inspiration for my online blogs was to have a space and time-constraint free online book club people would participate in with comments. I apologize for going off topic. I write books (available for sale at http://www.FH7publishing.com), read books, and review books online and my personal life does have impact on my book choices and review style.

I just read the ending of Miss Peregrine’s Home, the first book of the series that inspired a popular movie. I can say it is a great book, and outshines the movie. Strange how books and movies have nothing in common sometimes! This is a book of that type. Kids, a school, and magic are the only book portions making it to the screen. It was an obvious ploy to make Miss Peregrine’s Home a knock-off copy of Harry Potter, and seemed sort of like off-brand cereal at the grocery store. Do you like Fruit Loops why not try Fruity Puffs? Miss Peregrine’s Home deserves a better movie, and should not have been made to look so much like Harry Potter. It is far more about World War II, surviving trauma, and finding the urge to work and have meaning in life. A depressed older teenager with no work drive or friends refuses therapy medication and leaves and abusive therapist, gets friends, meaning, focus, and overcomes fear time traveling to World War II. There is no Voldemort or Hagrid in Peregrine’s Home.

The last time I saw this extreme disconnect was when I read True Blood books. NOTHING to do with the TV show in pretty much at all parts of the books. The sassy cook named Lafayette? On the TV show he had dialogue in every episode. In the books he was in there for about two sentences.

I am reading a few books on screen writing for movies and TV as I was first reading the Miss Peregrine’s Home series of books. I cannot help but see the books as a stunning commentary on book versus movie formatting. For movies and TV there is a constant push to make things light, filled with comedy, and packed with popular characters. In books you can contain much more information inside the character’s heads, and explain backstory. Readers also expect more depth and metaphor in their media, and do not just expect rich pretty people to have rich pretty problems. The moral to this story is to read the books when you can, and don’t just watch the movies.

For more writing reviews add me to friends here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233803.Andrea_E_Menzies