A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs (Review)

Hello everyone! I read this book back in January and I still think about to it to this day. I want to get all my thoughts into a formal review so I can at least say I put them out there into the universe. The novel in question is A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children # 4)  by Ransom Riggs.

Info

Genre: Young Adult

Read from: January 1,2019-January 31, 2019

Publication- October 2, 2018 by Dutton Books for Young Readers

Edition I read-  US Hardback

Rating- 4.5 stars

In the fourth book in the series Jacob and the gang are in America mostly, while scenes are in the place where they spent time in the previous books, I assume this is England somewhere, but I’m not sure it was ever established. As the book progresses, we learn more and more about Abe and who he was as a person. The book ran in two timelines, but I will get more into this later on in the review.

Image from Goodreads

Okay, so in the general thoughts section I want to talk about the thing that bugged me the most about this book. The book was in two timelines, and while that would work if the timelines connected, or related to each other in some way.  Never in the story I recall was the first time line brought up, and vice versa when they were in the first place the second place was not referenced. I loved the characters in this book, however; I felt that they had changed in personality from the first three books. The other thing that drove me nuts was that it featured only some characters in the book, the rest of the characters who had been supporting characters the entire series had faded to the background. I know these overall thoughts seem negative, but I loved this story and where the story took me, I love the characters in this series so much, and I was so glad to dive back into the world.   I will continue with this series because I enjoyed this novel despite the flaws I saw while reading it.

Characters 4.8/5

As I stated in the general thoughts, I feel that the character’s changed from the first three books in the series. Specifically, I don’t remember Enoch being as whiny as he was in this book; he was so whiny that I almost stopped reading the book because he was annoying I thought.    My favorite character in this series is Emma, and I was so glad she remained relatively the same in this story. Jacob, our main character in the series, had also not changed much from this book to the last one. As far as growth and change go, I found one thing I would say was growth. Jacob and Emma had feelings for each other, and towards the end of the novel, they break up. I would say this is a growth for the two characters because they saw that they were better off as friends as opposed to lovers. I was happy with this because Emma can age now, and Jacob and Emma being in a romance would be weird for me if the two of them had a romance.

World Building 5/5

World Building is one of my favorite things about these novels because while it is our world, I love seeing the world through the eyes of a peculiar. Therefore, I gave the world building a 5/5, I feel a majority of the characters in this series see the world different from the way we do today, and I love that. The only world building we had here was the peculiars seeing a modern American city and their reactions to their surroundings.  We also saw an old city, and the characters in there. I feel that world building in this series enhances the experience because we see how the characters react to the world around them and the different settings they come upon.

Writing 5/5

I enjoyed the writing in this book. I find it works best for the genre this book series is. It might not be the best writing in the world, or the kind you find in a fantasy novel, but Ransom Riggs is one of my favorite writers.

Pace 4.8/5

I will be honest here, the pacing was another reason I wanted to not finish this book. At some points the book was fantastic with the pacing, and at other it dragged. I felt like places, especially in the beginning, could have been sped up, or at least the sections could have been talked about at a faster pace. The action scenes were fantastic, I just wish the more dramatic scenes could have had the same amount of pacing.  

I want to reiterate that I enjoyed this book; I found issues I wanted to discuss in a review. I feel that at times this book suffered from first in the series syndrome where you only like the book but it could be better. I want to read the rest of the series so I can see where the story goes from here.

Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts on this book?