Suvudu Universe

Cairnholm seems to be the the most remote corner of the United Kingdom that Jacob Portman could hope to find. It’s a tiny, one town island off the coast of Wales. It boasts a dock for the ferry, a lighthouse, and a bombed-out children’s home that has been abandoned since World War II. It is the children’s home that Jacob traveled all the way from Florida to find.

Jacob’s grandfather had lived in the home as a refugee from Poland after fleeing the Nazis. Or so the family always thought. His grandfather had always told wild stories about the children who lived in that home. He said that they were “peculiar.” One little girl could float off the ground like a balloon. One boy was invisible. Another had bees living inside of him. And he had photographs to prove it.

Jacob had grown out of believing his grandfather’s stories. He had learned to spot the photographic trickery. But his grandfather’s death — more accurately, his grandfather’s killer — might make him believe again. Because there was a darker part to grandfather’s stories. Evil, monstrous beings who want nothing more than to feast on the peculiar children. Jacob had seen one of these monsters the day his grandfather died.

Which is what brought him to Cairnholm. After his grandfather died, Jacob became obsessed with his stories. The monster he saw haunted his nightmares, so Jacob’s therapist thought it would be a good idea for him to see the legendary home for “peculiar” children for himself. Jacob’s ever dutiful parents agreed to take him there.

There is only one room to rent on Cairnholm, a tired old place over the town’s pub, the Priest Hole — which sounds more like “Piss Hole” in the local accent. The pub also boasts the town’s only telephone. Cell service is non-existent on the island. The place is so isolated that all power comes from gasoline generators that line the streets, which are shut off at 10 o’clock sharp in order to save fuel.

Jacob’s dad is hesitant to leave him to wander the island alone, but Jacob manages to find some opportunities to explore on his own. He crosses fields strewn with sheep droppings, stinking marshes, and craggy rocks until he finds what he is looking for. The place where his grandfather had found refuge so many years ago. The place that holds the secrets to all of his stories.

But it’s nothing more than an abandoned ruin. One wall was blown away by an errant Nazi air raid and the interior has been exposed to the elements ever since. But just as Jacob is about to give up, he discovers something from his grandfather’s past, something that proves, without a doubt, that those photographs weren’t doctored after all. Something that puts Jacob right in the middle of an ancient conflict.

Cairnholm is a fictional island, but Ransom Riggs’s description of it rings true. There are, no doubt, many such islands off the coast of Wales, where the communities are tight-knit and civilization feels far away. And where a home for “peculiar” children would be tolerated, as long as they keep to themselves.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the first in a series of young adult novels. The next, Hollow City, will be released early next year.