Hollow City

Hollow City
The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Quirk Books
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2014
 ISBN: 978-1594746123
 $ 17.99
402 pages

Everyone wants to be near people who understand them.  People who have common abilities are often close to others similar to them.
For children with unusual natural abilities, they quickly discover that normal people are curious about them, but also fearful.   People are afraid of those who they do not understand.  So how do these children exist in the world?
Simply, they find each other and hopefully have the protection of a caring and nurturing adult.
In Hollow City, the story of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children continues with the children being pursued by wights.  Definitely reminiscent of the German forces surrounding Britain with their submarines, the wights are chasing the children as they quietly are in a boat searching for land after their home was destroyed.  Whether the children are captured alive or killed, the pursuit is on.
The children are accustomed to having the protection of their leader, Miss Peregrine.  Unfortunately, she is stuck in her bird form and cannot change back into a human form.    The only possibility of saving her is for another ymbrynes to help.  Besides being chased, time is also an enemy since the longer she is a bird, the more she loses of her human self.
Hollow City is a page-turner that continues with these unusual children.   The character developments excel in this book.   Whereas you were meeting the peculiars in the first book; in the second the personalities as well as the peculiarities are more apparent and strangely enough, realistic.   With the life-or-death threat, the beliefs and values of each of the children is apparent now.  
Hollow City is the second book in this trilogy by Ransom Riggs.  The story would be difficult to really understand without the background of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Story being read first.   Essentially, the story continues and will hopefully conclude with the next novel in this trilogy.
As the children are pursued by the wights with the dangerous hollows lurking inside each time loop at each turn, will they ever be able to rest?
Hollow City is recommended for young adults from eighth grade.
Ransom Riggs is writes Strange Geographies which is a series travel essays for Mental Floss Magazine.   His debut novel was the first in this series, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children..
Hollow City is more engaging and faster-paced than Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children.  These books are best understood if read in order.
Do you have a secret undeveloped or peculiar talent?   Read Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children and Hollow City to discover your possible destiny.