Book Review :: Tales of the Peculiar, by Ransom Riggs

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs
Series: Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children 0.5
on October 31st 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Supernatural
Pages: 208
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Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales.

Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar - the collection of fairy tales known to hide information about the peculiar world, including clues to the locations of time loops.

Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories in this deluxe volume of Tales of the Peculiar, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar. Featuring stunning illustrations from world-renowned woodcut artist Andrew Davidson this compelling and truly peculiar anthology is the perfect gift for not only fans, but for all booklovers.

Last updated on 14 October 2023

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My thoughts on Tales of the Peculiar

This was such a beautiful collection of stories. I really love the imagination and creativity Riggs brings to his characters. If you’re unfamiliar with his books, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the first in the series, and the premise is that Miss Peregrine runs a home for kids who have special or unique abilities. They all live together in a time loop to avoid getting captured by the bad guys, as one does. Riggs started writing them when he found odd photographs in vintage stores, images of slightly mad and unexplained things happening. What’s come out of that is an incredible set of stories about these children and other ‘peculiar’ characters.

I have yet to read past the first book yet, but you don’t have to have read the entire series to enjoy Tales of the Peculiar. It’s made up of 10 short stories about peculiar people, who they were, what they did, where they went. At the beginning of each story there is a beautiful illustration by Andrew Davidson, which makes it that little bit more magical to read through.

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My fave stories from Tales of the Peculiar

In an anthology of short stories there are always going to be tales you liked more than others, and this book is no different. The majority of these stories I really enjoyed, but three stuck out and have become my favourite.

The Splendid Cannibals

A story about a town whose members can regenerate limbs, should they loose them. One day a cannibal comes to town, hungry and undernourished. A man in the town has just lost his leg in an accident, and offers it to the cannibal. Bad move. The cannibal discovers that the townspeople can grow back their body parts, and soon a whole tribe of cannibals have moved in nearby and start offering to buy body parts off people so they can afford to build bigger, better homes. As you can imagine, this doesn’t go so well.

The Fork-Tongued Princess

In Frankenbourg, a princess hides her fork-tongued and scales from everyone, and rarely leaves her room. Her father wants her to marry to a prince from another country, but when the prince sees her he calls off the wedding and makes a run for it. Eventually, her father discovers her secret and he, too, has a response of horror. News comes from across the land that there is a peculiar prince living a four-week journey away. The princess and her handmaiden set off, in the hopes that the princess can find someone to love. Is there a happy ending? You’ll have to read it to find out!

The Woman who Befriend Ghosts

When Hildy was young, her sister drowned in a terrible accident. But her sister never left her, instead the ghost of her sister stays with Hildy always, and they’re the best of friends. Suddenly, her sister is called away on ghost business, and Hildy is left with no friends. She struggles to make non-dead friends, so instead she tries to find some new ghost friends.

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These are some other really great stories in this book, and while they’re all a little, well, peculiar, they have this certain charm about them and it’s hard to stop reading once you get into them.

Have you read Tales of the Peculiar, or the Miss Peregrine’s home for Peculiar Children series?