Hollow City

What's inside (8 sections)

1. Adrift and then ashore
2. Miss Peregrine in a cage of feathers
3. Loops, oddities, and talking dogs
4. London in 1940
5. Caul and Bentham
6. Why the photos help and hurt
7. Key takeaways
8. FAQ

I picked up Hollow City because the first book left everyone in open water. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children had ended with the house burned, the loop broken, and the kids crammed into small boats. I wanted to know if Ransom Riggs could keep that tension going. The sequel came out in 2014 from Quirk Books, about 400 pages, and it starts almost at once, in September 1940, with no safe place left.

That immediacy hooked me. There is no recap where everyone sits around explaining. Jacob Portman is rowing. Emma Bloom tries to keep a flame alive in her hands in the rain. Bronwyn Bruntley lifts when lifting is needed. Miss Peregrine is a bird and cannot change back. The group is exposed in a way they never were before, and you feel it on page one.

Adrift and then ashore

The opening is short but I liked it more than I expected. The kids flee Cairnholm island after the wight attack. Jacob counts heads in a foggy, seasick way, trying to act older than he feels. Emma keeps charge. Bronwyn carries Claire Densmore when Claire cannot walk. Millie Nullings, who is invisible most of the time, keeps talking so the others know where she is. Hugh Apiston worries about salt water getting to his bees. Fiona Frauenfeld stays quiet. Horace Somnusson has dreams that might mean something. Enoch O'Connor complains because that is what Enoch does.

They land on the Welsh coast in bad shape. No food and no dry clothes, and no ymbryne except a falcon who should be a woman. Jacob keeps thinking about his father back in Florida, and how far he has come from school and a normal life. He is sixteen and has agreed, without quite saying it, to live inside old wars with kids who age slowly.

Miss Peregrine stuck as a bird drives everything. In the first book she was the protector and the clock, the strict headmistress who kept the loop reset each day. Here she is light and hollow boned, perching on Bronwyn's finger. She seems to understand them but cannot speak or turn herself back. Emma says only another ymbryne can fix this. That means finding Miss Wren, who keeps a menagerie loop somewhere near London.

I found that setup clever and cruel. Riggs takes away the one adult who knew the rules and forces the kids to cross wartime Britain with half remembered directions. They have a torn letter, a story about Miss Wren, and Jacob's growing ability to sense hollowgast. That is not much.

The wights close in fast. Jacob can see the hollowgast when others cannot, because his grandfather Abraham could, and that skill grows here from a flicker into something he can almost steer. In one early scene in the woods he feels pressure behind his eyes and knows one of the eyeless things is near before anyone hears it. Emma trusts him. Enoch does not, at first. That friction felt honest. Enoch is used to being useful with his jars, and now the new boy from Florida is the radar.

Miss Peregrine in a cage of feathers

What stayed with me is how Riggs treats Miss Peregrine. She is not a symbol here. She is a patient. They keep her in a coat pocket, feed her bits of fish, worry when she goes still. Bronwyn, strong enough to lift a boulder, carries her as if she might break. Jacob talks to her at night because he cannot sleep.

There is a sad logic to it. An ymbryne who turns into a bird to manage loops gets trapped in that shape when she stays too long while hurt. Only another ymbryne can talk her back into human form. Riggs never gives a textbook explanation. He lets Enoch guess and Emma correct him while the bird tilts her head. I liked that restraint. It keeps the magic physical.

The kids also face what happens if she dies. Without her, no loop to hide in. They age forward and get sick. Claire, maybe seven or eight with a second mouth at the back of her head, gets feverish and cries for normal food. Millie gets thin enough that her voice shakes. Even Bronwyn starts to slow. Time catches them in a way the first book only hinted at.

The stakes here are bodily. Cold and hunger. Wet shoes. A fast heartbeat in a boy's hands.

Jacob does not turn into a hero at once, which I appreciated. He fumbles with his power. He misreads a trail and leads them into a bog. He argues with Enoch about whether to bury a dead sheep. He wants Emma to like him and also wants to go home, and those wants sit side by side. That indecision makes his braver moments land harder later.

Loops, oddities, and talking dogs

Once they leave the coast, Hollow City turns into a road book. The group moves from loop to loop, hoping each one holds food or a clue to Miss Wren. Riggs uses this stretch to show how varied loops can be.

One loop holds a menagerie for peculiar animals. I loved this part even when it slowed the chase. There is a talking dog named Addison who smokes a pipe and speaks with formal manners. There are chickens that lay patterned eggs and an owl that seems to judge Jacob. The keeper is gone and the animals run a loose household. Addison knows about Miss Wren and about wights posing as soldiers. He agrees to walk with them because dogs in this world keep promises.

Another stop is less kind, a house where time stutters or a wood where a hollowgast has fed. Riggs drops a vintage photograph in at these moments, a boy with bees in his mouth, girls in strange masks, and lets the picture steer the scene. Sometimes it works. Hugh getting a moment with bees that recognize him felt earned. Sometimes you feel the seams, and that push and pull defines the middle.

The Romany camp sequence is where the travel peaks for me. The kids, filthy and starving, meet traveling people who feed them. The family shares stew, lends coats, asks few questions at first. Bronwyn helps with heavy work. Fiona coaxes green things to grow near the caravans. Emma lets herself sit by a fire for one night. Jacob notices how normal the kindness feels after days of running, and how strange it is to be stared at for torn clothes rather than peculiar friends.

That night matters because it shows they are still children. Horace wakes shouting from a dream. Millie, invisible, lets someone brush her hair because she misses being touched without flinching. Riggs lets them bicker about food and who sleeps closest to the bird.

And it returns. Wights check train stations and wear uniforms that fit the year. Hollowgast move through woods and water. Jacob learns to feel them as a cold spot, then as a shape. In one fight near a river, Emma throws fire while Bronwyn swings a branch and Hugh sends bees toward eyes that are not there. It is messy and not cleanly won. Someone gets bitten. They run again.

My complaint about this third is pace. The menagerie is fun but long. The stops blur. After the fourth narrow escape I started skimming hedges and barns. Riggs writes action clearly, but the pattern repeats. I kept thinking, get to London already.

London in 1940

When they reach London, the book sharpens. It is September 1940 and the Blitz has begun. Bombs fall at night. Families crowd into Underground stations with blankets. Riggs puts peculiar children into that history without letting them fix it. They are there because Miss Wren was last seen moving through loops that open onto the city.

Jacob sees St. Paul's with barrage balloons above it. Emma, who can make fire, has to hide her hands. Enoch goes quiet around fresh rubble where people have died. Bronwyn lifts rubble off a trapped woman because she can, then cries because she cannot stay. Those pages hit me.

The hunt for Miss Wren turns into a hunt through doors that should not open. A phone box that leads to a loop. A basement that is bigger inside. Riggs is good at doors. He makes you believe a narrow alley in bombed London could hold green summer if you step right.

Miss Wren, from the traces they find, is not what Emma expected. She is rougher and less schoolmistress than Miss Peregrine. She keeps peculiar animals because she prefers their company, or so Addison says. She has been moving and leaving false trails because wights hunt ymbrynes on purpose now.

London forces Jacob to grow. He lies to a policeman. He steals bread and eats it anyway. He holds Claire's hand during a bombing and says the noise is far away when it is close.

There is a strong set piece in an Underground station where a hollowgast hunts among sleepers. Lights flicker. Jacob feels the cold pressure build and tries to warn Emma without screaming. Hugh lets bees out under a blanket. Millie, invisible, crawls between bodies to drop a coin as a lure. It almost fails. That near miss is why this book rises above a simple chase. Riggs lets plans half work.

Caul and Bentham

The last hundred pages change what the series is about. Until now the enemy was plain, monsters with tentacle mouths and the pale men who control them. Here Riggs gives them names and motives.

Caul is Miss Peregrine's brother. Bentham is another brother. Both got tangled in old experiments that tried to make peculiars live forever by twisting loops. The attempt went wrong years ago and created hollowgast in the first place. Wights are hollowgast who ate enough peculiars to pass as human again. That cycle becomes explicit here.

Caul wants the Library of Souls, a hidden place where stolen peculiar souls are kept in jars, a kind of bank of second lives. Bentham lives in a strange casino loop, half showman and half scholar. He helps Jacob's group and also uses them.

This reveal gives weight to the chase. The wights hunger, and they also collect ymbrynes to find the Library and finish what Caul started. Miss Peregrine as a bird is not random bad luck. She is a target. Still, the news arrives fast, in talky scenes after long running. Bentham explains. Caul boasts. Addison translates. Jacob listens. After so much movement, pages of backstory feel heavy, even when the backstory is good.

Emma pushes back, which helped me stay with it. She asks why ymbrynes kept secrets if sharing them could have saved lives. Enoch asks how to kill Caul if he sees them coming. Riggs gives no clean answers. He lets the adults be flawed.

The cliffhanger sets up the third book directly. Miss Peregrine stays in danger. Miss Wren is found but not safe. Several kids are taken. Jacob learns his ability may go past sensing, toward speaking to hollowgast or binding them. The Library of Souls is named as the next stop. I closed feeling pulled both ways, glad the threads tightened and annoyed that a rescue was held back for book three.

Why the photos help and hurt

You cannot talk about Hollow City without the pictures. Riggs built the series around found vintage photographs and prints them where they belong. In the first book the trick felt fresh. Here you see the method.

When it works, it works. A photo of a boy with bees convinced me before the text did. A stern girl with a doll matches Claire at once. The dog photo makes Addison instantly believable. You look at the foxed edges and stiff poses and think, these kids existed. That shiver carries scenes that would feel silly otherwise.

When it fails, you feel Riggs bending the road to reach the next picture. A pond appears because there is a good diving photo. The menagerie, which I enjoyed, still feels built to house animal photos he had bought.

Is that fatal? Not for me. I prefer a lumpy book with true strange images to a smooth book with stock magic. But readers who want tight plotting will get restless near page 200. The London chapters fix a lot. The Caul and Bentham chapters fix more. Push through the episodic travel and the payoff lands.

Other gripes are worth naming. Horace's dreams foreshadow but also withhold info until Riggs needs it. Millie stays invisible so long I forgot she was in a scene until she spoke. Fiona gets little beyond growing plants on cue. With ten kids marching, someone has to fade, but I wished two had been left safe somewhere so the rest could breathe.

Still the core holds. Jacob sensing, Emma burning, Bronwyn lifting, Enoch needling. Their tired banter on the road is the best talk in the book. Enoch tells Jacob he smells like Florida. Emma tells Enoch to shut up and checks his cut. Bronwyn tells them to eat. It is family talk, worn and warm.

I read the last fifty pages late with rain on the window, which helped. Bombs over London, a bird in a pocket, a boy who sees monsters, a girl with fire in her fists. Riggs commits. He keeps the year right, keeps the slant toward young readers without softening fear, keeps the pages moving.

Would I hand this to a teen? Yes, with a note. Book one is a mystery with horror edges. Book two is a war trek with more bites and burns. Kids who scare easily may find the hollowgast rough. Kids who love maps and animal sidekicks will forgive the slow middle for Addison alone.

For me this is a middle book that acts like one. It widens the world, trades safety for speed, and sets a bigger board for book three. Miss Peregrine stays a bird longer than you want. London burns while they run. The photos stare out, insisting they were there. I finished tired, annoyed at the cliffhanger, and ready to keep going, which is likely what Riggs wanted.

FAQ

Is Hollow City part of a series?

Yes. It is the second book in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series, published in 2014 by Quirk Books after the 2011 first book. It continues Jacob's story and sets up the Library of Souls.

Why is Miss Peregrine stuck as a bird?

She stays too long in falcon form after the wight attack on Cairnholm and cannot change back alone. Only another ymbryne, such as Miss Wren, can restore her human shape.

Are the vintage photographs real?

Yes. Riggs builds the story around genuine vintage photographs printed in the book. Peculiar animals, masked children, and odd portraits shape scenes like Addison the talking dog.