It is a truth universally acknowledged that the young adult fantasy books published in the last decades must follow an Harry Potter-ish pattern, introducing variations ad libitum. 
 The protagonist must be a kid set apart from his/her peers, possessing extraordinary abilities unknown to everyone and especially to himself/herself. The parents, when present, are usually tenuous, background figures, so that the protagonist can easily fit in the marvellous school for special kids like him/her, found after an extraordinary event that breaks the routine of a normal life. 
 Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children follows these rules better than others, adding to the story an haunting, gothic atmosphere much more impressive than that of many infamous vampire sagas. 
 I particularly liked the idea that the children peculiarities are not necessarily cool, on the contrary the border on grotesque more often than not and this is the reason they have to live isolated, both in time and space. 
 The imposing, disturbing house hidden in the depth of the woods, on a isolated, rainswept English island is the ideal setting that promisingly talks of ghosts, monsters and tenebrous dangers. 
 Unfortunately this is only an enticing premise that doesn't live up to its expectations. 
 For start, the protagonist is totally inadequate: Jacob is that kind of spoiled kid that enjoys complaining for no reason, and grovels in his douche bag behaviour because life made him the big injustice of giving him everything without adding adventure. When he needs to use his brain we discover that he has very little of it and his peculiarity makes him another "Mary Sue": no freakish drawbacks for Jacob, his gift is the most useful, the most coveted and one that doesn't leave any kind of physical mark. Ransom Riggs pretends to talk about diversity but in the end he prefers to hide it under the carpet (or in supporting roles). 
 Contrary to what happens in Harry Potter books, where magic is a key element that permeates every aspect of the story, the children abilities are mainly an excuse to equip the book with a set of disturbing black and white photos of what once would have been described as circus freaks. To be honest, these photos are one of the best qualities of the book as they maintain that eerie, tenebrous atmosphere that the plot progressively loses after the first chapters but, besides them, the author doesn't seem to know what to do with these peculiarities and basically forgets about them until the last chapters. 
 Miss Peregrine is a huge disappointment too . Not everyone can be Dumbledore, I get it, but this is one of the most unprepared, insipid headmistress I've ever seen in literature. With her old-fashioned clothes and sever look, she's basically a mockery with no personality and an approach to crisis ridiculous at best. 
 Of course this is not totally her fault: Riggs plot has so many holes that it is surprising he managed to reach the end of the book. If you are asking yourself how much wise it is to keep a group of children imprisoned in a time loop indefinitely "for their protection", you have spotted one of the biggest incongruities of the story and one that testimony Miss Peregrine embarrassing stupidity. 
 Moreover, the rules that govern these time loops seem quite bendable and it is never explained if the children who never abandon the loop will live forever or eventually di at some point. 
 The weakest part, however, are the monsters, whose motives are quite inconsistent and whose actions often pointless and incongruous so that, in the end they just add up to the general "unscariness" if the story. 
 As many have pointed out, a good idea translated in a very poor execution, that totally fails to convey the creepiness it evidently aspires to.