Miss Peregrine's Home For Unusual Children

I liked this book. I liked the concept, I LOVED the way the way the pictures tied the story together, I liked most of the characters, and the story had some really good points to it. I liked it enough that I would read another book in this series, should one be written. That being said, I finished it feeling like there was something lacking. I'm not sure if it was that the suspense wasn't built quite enough in the parts that needed it, or it's because the ending was too abrupt, or because so much of the story's potential was left unexplored. This book has all it takes to be something great, but about halfway through I started to feel underwhelmed. So much so, that I'm thinking about reading it again just to make sure I got it. I feel kind of like I missed something. So, I'll give you the really quick and dirty version of what happened:

Loner kid loved his grandfather in spite of grandfather's strained relationship with loner kid's father due to grandfather's general craziness

Family drama is implied

Grandfather dies

Grieving

Loner kid wants closure and to find out what grandfather was wildly ranting about and to figure out weird clues left by grandfather

Loner kid and father travel to Wales for bonding, bird watching, and so loner kid can find a place his grandfather talked about

Loner kid finds Miss Peregrine and her unusual children, finds out truth about grandfather and his craziness

Things get violently killed, monsters that most people can't see are on the loose, space/time continuum has a loop, weirdness that can only be explained by reading the book happens, loner kid finally fits in somewhere

Loner kid has to decide between staying with his family and being unhappy or running away and saving the world

Monsters! Eek!

Loner kid (now no longer a loner) decided to run away with unusual children to try to save the world.

Giant gaping opening for subsequent books

The end

It's a good story, but not greatly written- but since 1) it's better than anything I've written and 2) it's this guys first book, I'm more than willing to read more when it becomes available. There's a lot of really good concepts in this novel, and the more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to read it again sometime. It bothers me that I can't quite pinpoint my dissatisfaction, and I'm willing to admit it could have been due to my own mindset at the time. But first, I need to get back to the H.P. Lovecraft I've been reading.