A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Book 4)

Read all three of the first series to my son and we enjoyed them immensely. We also picked up the book of short stories and enjoyed that as well. This outing is proving very hard to get through. The book is incredibly forced. Whereas the first series felt like something that grew out of the inspiration of the photos Ransom Riggs had collected, this book feels like he decided that the only way to write it would be to follow the formula for the first ones exactly. There are characters who appear in the story for the sole reason of showing you the picture he'd found. Worse yet is that Jacob's voice has been overtaken by Ransom Riggs' own. Being a first person narrative this teenager talks an awful lot like a middle age man than an awkward kid stumbling his way through an adventure and his first outing with true love. The third strike against this story is a complete lack of cadence. As I read allowed a well written story I can often anticipate who will be speaking next and the mood and inflections of the characters before I get to the descriptors. In this book I'm have a very difficult job doing that, with random characters blurting out just to remind you that they are along for the ride, or yelling when you think they should be whispering. Of course, this isn't too big of a problem because Riggs relies heavily on "he said, she said," back and forth, over and over. Oh, and then there are the dialects. Riggs is writing accents from new places without understanding them. For example, there is a rhythm in how folks talk in the south. And he just don't seem to understand it. It's a whole lot more than just putting some twang into what you're saying.

“Map” continues the saga of Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children, with Jacob home in Florida, and Miss P. and her wards rescuing him from his parents who are about to institutionalize him. Jacob is intent on learning more about his deceased grandfather Abe, a peculiar with many secrets. Jacob’s relationship with Emma continues to develop but runs into obstacles when she confesses that she is still in love with Abe. This story thread gets tedious halfway through the book. Although it has its moments, the latest novel lacks the magic and excitement of the first three. Fans of the series will enjoy the book, but nobody should read this without having read the first three books; there are just too many back stories to be aware of. The postcards that were so weirdly special in the other books are now very ordinary, with Riggs stretching his story to match the photos, instead of the reverse. On the plus side is the stopover at the Flamingo Manor, the terror at the high school, and the discovery of Noor, a young peculiar with an amazing talent. Riggs has indicated this is the start of a new trilogy to be set in America. Let’s hope he tightens up his plotting.

I loved the book! With the exception of a slow beginning I think this was my favorite book in the series so far.SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERTThe Emma/Jacob SHIP has always been a little weird since Emma and Abe were a very real thing. I love that we really delved into this in this book and I think I might actually SHIP Noor/Jacob.Miss Peregrine freaking out then his peculiar friends turning on him really made what I hope is coming next, a possibly even bigger event.Jacob leaves them all and we learn from H that there is a book that's sounds very prophetic: Apocryphon. Seven peculiars who will emancipate peculiardom. There is a secret organization with state of the art tech and helicopters who are after the seven. We know Noor is one of said seven.H called Jacob: Baby Moses in the reeds. Think about Moses story, then think about Jacob and his journey... is he one of the seven? Is he meant to find and guide them?Then Noor took his hand...I can't wait until the next book!END SPOILERSShipping Note: The first book I got was beaten until the pages were visible in the binding. I blame whoever decided to put the book in a regular envelope, not a box. Amazon promptly sent me a second book in perfect condition and I returned the first book.

It's first edition contains a few copy edit misses which are a bit jarring early on and seem oddly sloppy. Riggs seems a bit rusty as well, and takes a while to find his rhythm with the story. Once he does, however, it's an adventure worthy of the Peculiar world, though less under the wings Miss Peregrine than ever before.Like trying to re-fold a highway or ordinance map, 'A Map of Days' can seem pretty complicated at times, jumping from timeline to timeline up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, popping into the 1930's from the 1960's and out the back door to the 2010's (and doubtless I'm not exactly accurate here). You can either try to keep it sorted out and make it make sense, or you can just accept it as it is, and just go with it.Regardless, 'A Map of Days' is a fun read that brings growth to old friends, introduces intriguing new characters and begins to explore a new continent and its new "rules and traditions and taxonomies and histories". Ultimately we are left with the promise of many more adventures from the Peculiar world of one Jacob Portman... and the suspicion that the dot on the horizon is quite possibly a furious Peregrine keeping a (worried) eye on the goings on below.

I was so excited to see that there would be more books to this series. I absolutely loved the first three, I think it is a genius way in which to write, including vintage photographs and weaving a story through them.When we left Jacob he had come home to Florida in which the peculiar followed suit and came to find him ending on what I thought was a lovely open ending. Well it did not stop there which I was about to find out. Oh how I have missed Ransoms writing. A Map of Days sat on my to be read shelf at the bottom as I was determined to read those before it. I flew through the other books in order to get to read it! It was very good motivation! On opening the first few crisp pages I noticed straight away that it was in colour. Yes colour! Then I started reading.It all went a bit downhill from there. The book itself was quite slow to start I thought, I could not tell where the story was going which in this case was not good. It just felt all a bit washed out. Where is the adventure? The drama? The banding together to become a brilliant group of kids that kick ass but keep there sanity? The character development was lacking a little and I started to not like Jacob as much. He's supposed to be the hero?! It was so disappointing to not connect to this as much as I was hoping. My only thought is that this is a lead up to the next couple of books, setting the tone and the story to then go onto something magical.I am still giving it a three stars as the concept is still amazing to me and it was enjoyable to read but just felt it lacked a lot of oomph, I am glad that this was not the first in the series as I feel most would put it down without a second thought. Fingers crossed the next is a bit more impressive.

Starting a map of days just felt getting a warm hug from lost friends. I have so much love and appreciation for this series on a personal level. Getting back into it just felt so welcoming. Not only does this book expand peculiar history ( this time in America) but also the life of Abe. Riggs continues expanding this world and just delves deeper into peculiardom. That was massive part of the story along side the subplot of the character relationships. I really enjoyed the story! I think the scenes were set perfectly. The more creepy ones were definitely my favourite.Mystery turned to ominous and ominous turned to danger. Still keeping the overall metaphor of WW2 this book also combined racism and colonialism into the American history of peculiardom. This really does create such a powerful balance in the story and just added another narrative for the next book. However as the book went on I just saw similarities with hollow city which took some of the enjoyment away. It didn’t feel like I was reading something new but towards the end it picked up originality for this series. Overall it’s very faced paced at keeps you on your toes. It’s a very good book.I never really considered of Jacob’s grandfathers life as big mystery after he left the loop. I think this was just because I got lost in this world Riggs created and the discoveries that Jacob made in the first book. Riggs really takes his readers on this journey with Jacob. Jacob is an easy character to relate to and that’s powerful along side the over all plot of this series. But in this book there are so many bread crumbed trails about Abes life after he left the loop. Jacob was just beginning to feel like he found himself and that he fitted in somewhere but at the same time he’s lost again, and feels he doesn’t know his grandfather even more so. He discovers so many more secrets, as does Emma I feel this element brought them closer. I think that’s a good balance to the story. In this story Jacob rebels and follows his own path and I feel by him doing so, it makes him feel closer to his grandfather but also opens a can of worms with Emma.Chapter 18 however really pissed me off because of how they all treated Jacob and turned their back on him, after all he’s done for them.

I strongly dislike books that just stop in mid storyline. A trilogy of books each complete in its own right is ok but in this case the author is saying “ If you want to find out what happens in the next minute you will have to buy my next book”. I don’t think that is playing fair with the reader.

A Map of Days is more of a drawing together of the events of the proceeding books in the series, in my opinion. It is not so action packed and dynamic as the previous books, but more a taking stock of what has happened so far, with promises of more to come in the future. I found the first half quite slow, before the pace built up again, but always leaves you wanting more. It is still an excellent read and I think the slowing down of pace in this book is a clever move, because I am sure the next book due out (Jan 2020) will take the pace up again. I am not going to spoil the story by telling what happens in the book, but some very clever and interesting hooks are there.

Absolutely love these books, had the first 3 for ages and didn't even know this one existed but it's a must and ALL of the books (miss peregrine, hollow city and library of souls) are so good, well worth a read! Totally different reading experience to what I'm used to but in a good way, has pictures all the way through all the book of characters and places described, all actual photos the author has collected and wrote the books around/incorporated into it!