Tales of the Peculiar
First and foremost, thank you to Penguin for the review copy! You've inadvertently created another Riggs fan.
Believe it or not this was my first time reading Ransom Riggs. Strange (peculiar?), but true. What was particularly great about this collection is that it did not suffer for my having not read the rest of the series. These short stories stand perfectly well on their own. Ranging from the macabre & creepy to the heartfelt & touching, each of the stories included were creative, well realized, and delightfully weird. Told in the style of old fairy tales these could have easily fallen out of a Grimm collection. Each tale is populated with bizarre characters, surreal imagery, and of course a moral to each story. I have no doubt these will age well - as with their more traditional counterparts these stories feel timeless. Sure to appeal to both young and old readers, Riggs has hit the mark with this peculiar collection.