History Literature / MissPeregrinesHomeforPeculiarChildren

* SingleSubstanceManipulation: Emma Bloom, who can manipulate air (such as making air bubbles to breathe underwater, or blowing powerful wind gusts). A side effect of her power is her body is lighter than air, and she would float away helplessly without a pair of heavy iron boots to weigh her down.

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:Miss Avocet is killed by a hollowgast, while she survives in the book.]]

[[AC: The trilogy by Ransom Riggs:]]

** The girl on the cover of ''The Conference of the Birds'' [[spoiler:does not appear until the very end and is unnamed]].

# ''A Map of Days'' (Released in 2018, stated to be the first book of a new trilogy)
# ''The Conference of the Birds'' (Released in 2020, the second book in the new trilogy)

This page contains tropes (and spoilers!) for the whole trilogy.

[[folder:The books contain examples of:]]

[[folder:The film contains additional examples of:]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/missperegrinesfilm.jpg]]

* AmbiguousGender: The twins, who never speak, wear full-body costumes that cover their faces, and whose faces don't indicate anything when seen. They're never referred to by pronouns, and it's further complicated by Jacob seeing them as boys in the book, yet their [[spoiler:Gorgon]] nature could indicate they're female given that [[Main/OneGenderRace the most famous ones are.]] They are played by boys, but this could be irrelevant given the lack of any gender indication in the film.

** Jacob’s male psychiatrist Dr. Golan from the novel is played by actress Creator/AllisonJanney in the film. Subverted in that, like in the book [[spoiler:Dr Golan turns out to be the false identity of a male wight- here, he can shapeshift]].

---> "Dogs always go for the soft parts first."

* NamedByTheAdaptation: The wight who had been stalking Jacob throughout most of his life goes unnamed in the book, but uses several aliases. These including "Mr. Barron" when posing as Jacob's fifth grade bus-driver and [[spoiler:"Dr Golan" as Jacob's psychiatrist]]; the later of which the other characters [[ArtifactAlias continue to refer to him as, even after]] TheReveal. The film uses the former alias as the wight's actual name.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the final confrontation, [[spoiler:Mr Barron basically ensures his own death when he shapeshifts into Jacob's form and is killed by a hollowgast]].

* RaceLift: Whilst his race is never explicitly mentioned in the novel, based on both the [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/thepeculiarchildren/images/1/18/Mr_Barron.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140626002940 photograph]] the character was based on that was included in the book and the fact that wights are stated to be so indistinctive that they can look like anyone else with simple prosthetics; it can be assumed that the wight who stalked the Portmans is Caucasian. In the film, his counterpart Mr. Barron is played by African-American actor Creator/SamuelLJackson. However, he is a shapeshifter in the film, and does take on Caucasian forms as disguises.

* OnlyChildSyndrome: Except for [[spoiler:Emma and Sam, who both have sisters,]] there's no mention whether Miss Peregrine's wards had any brothers or sisters.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In ''The Conference of the Birds'', Jacob comments upon his and Noor's arrival in Miss V' loop that he'd imagined something more welcoming waiting for them. He says that just once he'd like to see something such as a nice shade-dappled glen in a forest, "Just once, something like the portals in kids' books."

* HappyEndingOverride: The ending of ''Library of Souls'' makes it seem as if Jacob and Emma will live out the rest of their lives together. [[spoiler:''A Map of Days'' makes it clear that Emma still has feelings for Jacob's grandfather Abe. This complicates the relationship to the point that they eventually break up and Jacob meets a new love interest named Noor. In ''The Conference of the Birds'', Jacob and Emma decide that they are better off as friends.]]

** The hollowgast look like [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]].

* LookBothWays: One of the wights gets hit by a train in the 1943 loop because he wasn't accustomed to such fast-moving vehicles.

* AuthorAppeal: The books are full of strange, anonymous, antique, SpookyPhotographs that Ransom Riggs had discovered, and these photos heavily influence the structure and content of the books.

* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Emma attempts this on Jacob to make him go back to his own time period where he'll be safe. [[spoiler:It doesn't work]]. Mutually tried at the end of ''Library of Souls'', [[spoiler:and it still doesn't work]],

* DemBones: Enoch re-animates skeletons from the GhostShip to fight the hollowgast.
* DemotedToExtra: In the second book, there's Miss Peregrine, who is arrested in bird form and [[spoiler: actually, was never even in the book to begin with]], and the third demotes most of the children, who are captive for a large part of it, leaving the focus on Jacob and Emma.

* EldritchAbomination: As weird as the kids are, they look positively normal next to the hollowgast and wights...

** Jacob first manages [[spoiler:near-total control over a hollowgast]] after spending an entire night's sleep commuting with it subconsciously. The trick to [[spoiler:taking control over the entire herd of them]] is falling into a coma along with them.
** Also, [[spoiler:the crazy old man in Library of Souls counts big-time. He says seemingly nonsense about dust-mothers (Mother Dust, who without Jacob would've died in Abaton.), damned librarians (could be seen as Jacob, or even better, Abe (or Abe's soul), in Abe's case stolen by Bentham), and blessed cartographers (Perplexus Anomalous).]]
* GenerationalMagicDecline: It is believed by some that the peculiars of the story are descended from a handful of peculiars who were extremely powerful and the size of giants. As they multiplied, their powers diluted, and as they became less powerful they shrank.

** [[spoiler:He comes very close to leaving in ''Hollow City'', only for everything to go to hell when the wights capture everyone. He's not going anywhere]].

* IslandOfMystery: Cairnholm--it's got quasi-time travel, and an ExtranormalInstitute… as well as the [[RealityEnsues much less glamorous trappings of a small remote Welsh island]]. Subverted in that it's far from the only loop, but it brings Jacob into the story.

* MadeOfPlasticine: [[spoiler:Sam]], although it's justified since [[spoiler:it's her peculiarity]].

* MistakenForCheating: Jacob's father Franklin and his sister Susie always thought that their father was cheating on their mother with another woman because they found letters addressed to him from a woman who called herself "E." [[spoiler:It turned out to be Emma, and he wasn't cheating on his wife with her, having already broken off his relationship with her, even though she continued to pine for him.]]

* NoImmortalInertia: If a child leaves the loop for too long, time will catch up to them and they will rapidly age, to grisly effect. [[spoiler:When the ymbrynes destroy the titular loop at the end of the third book, the rule is subverted; each person's age is reset to their loop age, allowing them to age forward at a normal speed when taken out, though this only seems to apply to the group present at the closing.]]
* NoPronunciationGuide: The books initially offer no help as to how "ymbryne" is pronounced. They eventually provide "im-brinn", while the film makes it "im-breen". The audiobooks also use "im-brinn."

* OhCrap: In the first book, once the children realize that [[spoiler:their time loop is continuing past what it should, which means they're going to get bombed very soon due to the lack of lifesaving reset.]]

* OnlyChildSyndrome: Except for [[spoiler:Emma and Sam, who both have sisters]], there's no mention whether Miss Peregrine's wards had any brothers or sisters.

* SoulSuckingRetailJob: Jacob is stuck working in a grocery store at the beginning of the story, and he desperately wants out, but his family owns the business and turns a blind eye to his attempts to get fired. He gets out of it after his grandfather dies, with the idea that his "only job was getting better."

** A lot of the peculiar children in ''Hollow City'', once they start using their abilities to fight the hollowgast and the wights. Special mention goes to:
** Emma, for [[spoiler:burning a hollowgast's tongue off]]
** Hugh, for [[spoiler:summoning an army of bees to kill the wights that had taken the others captive]]
** Jacob, whose ability develops over the course of the story to [[spoiler:not only seeing the hollowgast, but also being able to sense them, speak their language, and ultimately control them.]]
** An interesting inversion of this trope occurs with the hollows. When they "level up" into wights, they actually become less powerful, losing their massive strength and invisibility. They still view this as a plus, however, because becoming a wight allows them to pass as human and (in their view, at least) be one step closer to the possibility of becoming immortal.

* TheShadowKnows: A hollow is invisible to common people until it's about to eat. (Read: "Until it's too late.") However, its shadow is always visible.

** Jacob’s male phychiastrist Dr. Golan from the novel is played by actress Creator/AllisonJanney in the film. Subverted in that, like in the book [[spoiler:Dr Golan turns out to be the false identity of a male wight- here, he can shapeshift]].

** In the books, wights do not have the peculiarities they had before their transformation. In the film, the wights shown still have their unique traits from when they were peculiars. For example, Mr. Barron is a ShapeShifter, and two CanonForeigner wights include a [[AnIcePerson cryokinetic man]] and half-rat woman.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The books initially offer no help as to how "ymbryne" is pronounced. They eventually provide "im-brinn", while the film makes it "im-breen".

** Also, [[spoiler:the crazy old man in Library of Souls counts big-time. Saying seemingly nonsense about dust-mothers (Mother Dust, who without Jacob would've died in Abaton.), damned librarians (could be seen as Jacob, or even better, Abe (or Abe's soul), in Abe's case stolen by Bentham), and blessed cartographers (Perplexus Anomaleus).]]

* HealingFactor: Sam, who can have entire chunks of her body completely torn apart without even a little bit of bleeding, and the wound completely heals up within a day or so. [[spoiler:Millard believes that since she never lived in a loop, and such a profoundly powerful ability would have made her famous among peculiars, that she eventually took a wound she couldn't recover from during the Blitz and died.]] A foolish fighter in the third book also demonstrates accelerated healing, but his arrogance toward the hollow he's facing off against serves him poorly.

* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: In order to keep the children safe, Miss Peregrine has hidden them away in a little pocket of time where it has been September 3rd, 1940 ever since… September 3rd, 1940. Because the loop was formed under duress, she must make sure the time loop resets just before a German bomb falls on the Home, and the children have not aged since that day, though they remember each iteration of the day. It is mentioned that other ymbrynes have created similar time loops as refuges for other groups of peculiars.

* SoulSuckingRetailJob: Jacob was stuck working in a grocery store at the beginning of the story, and he desperately wanted out. He lost it after his grandfather died, and said that his "only job was getting better."

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted in the first book, where they're used for plot reasons instead. When Jacob is traumatized and having nightmares, his parents send him to a competent, professional, realistic-sounding therapist to deal with the grief and trauma.
* TimeTravelRomance: A major problem in Emma and Jacob's relationship.

** Jacob’s male phychiastrist Dr. Golan from the novel is played by actress Creator/AllisonJanney in the film, subverted in that like in the book [[spoiler:Dr Golan turns out to be the false identity of a male wight- here, he can shapeshift]].
** The very fact that female wights exist in this version is one. In the books, they (and by extension, hollowgasts) are exclusively male for a very well-defined reason. [[spoiler:Specifically, they were jealous of ymbrynes, who could only be female, which is what led them to conduct the ritual.]]

* GroundhogDayLoop: As in the book, but the sense of repetition and the peculiars' familiarity with the day is shown with more events, like the fallen baby squirrel that must be replaced in its tree every day, and the addition of a hollow in the loop which must be killed every day like clockwork, always falling exactly into the outline drawn by Miss Peregrine.

* JudgmentOfSolomon: Invoked in a brief visual gag. When Miss Peregrine walks by the twins, they're unsuccessfuly having a tug-of-war over a teddy bear. She actually does split it, tearing it down the middle, and gives each twin half, satisfying them both.

* TimeyWimeyBall: How the loops work, at least in the movie. [[spoiler:At first when Jake enters and leaves the loop, the same amount of time seems to have passed on both sides (excepting for the reset within the loop). If anyone from within the loop spends too long in Jake's time (2016, when the loop is stuck in 1943), they will rapidly age until they are the age they would have been in 2016 (as shown with a flower). When the loop collapses, anyone inside is returned to moment the loop was created. But then when the wight who killed Jake's grandfather dies in a loop months before that happened, and the loop collapses, Abe was never killed even though it was in the personal past of both Jake and the wight. Despite the aging effect of leaving a loop in the future from said loop, doing it in the past does not seem to have a de-aging effect. And then at the end Jake is somehow able to go from 2016 back to 1942 by navigating loops (presumably without making them collapse, which their ymbrynes would not have agreed to). Confused yet?]]
* UnSpokenPlanGuarantee: Jake's plan for the final confrontation is not revealed and hence goes down almost as planned.