Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a novel by Ransom Riggs, features peculiar children with interesting and remarkable powers. These children, who possess out-of-the-ordinary abilities, are called Peculiars, and while some of their abilities are downright bizarre, there are some that are extraordinary. Come take a read at some of our choices of their coolest powers!
Spoiler Alert: This article may contain spoilers so please be advised when reading.
Book Summary
For those who don’t know, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children tells the story of Jacob Portman, who starts experiencing strange things after his grandfather dies. After discovering secrets his grandfather kept hidden, and realizing his death wasn’t natural, Jacob sets out to discover the truth behind his grandfather’s death and what his life was like before Jacob’s father was born. Jacob is then thrust into the world of the Peculiars, a strange world full of children with strange abilities who have a connection to his grandfather. Only then is it that Jacob finds out he’s just like them: he’s a Peculiar, and he’s the only one who has the power to save all of them from the thing that killed his grandfather before it’s too late.
Invisibility
While this is quite a common thing in many sci-fi or superhero works, Millard, who is invisible all the time and cannot turn it off, makes it comically hilarious. He even gets yelled at on multiple occasions for being entirely invisible — which means he isn’t wearing clothes and is just lounging around naked. Everything he holds or wears isn’t invisible — it’s just him, and he makes a good time out of it. He makes invisibility seem pretty wicked.
Fire Manipulation
Emma, who has this power in the books, can manipulate and create fire. The movie, however, gives her power to Olive and gives Olive’s power to Emma. Emma can create and utilize fire, which helps the Peculiars in many situations, especially places that are dark and require light. She can also heat her hands to extensive temperatures, even being able to weld things and cauterize wounds, which sounds pretty cool to us.
Necromancy
Enoch, who uses his ability in an albeit creepy and strange way, can bring the dead back to life for short periods. He can quite literally make the dead talk, which helps the Peculiars in multiple situations, specifically when they need to know who or what has killed something. As a young child, it is said that he used his power on corpses from his family’s business, so while he seems to use this power in a bit of a creepier way, it’s still pretty intriguing.
Light Absorption
Noor, (Spoiler Alert) who is Jacob’s second love interest in the series, can absorb and release light, which is a very similar ability to Jacob’s first admirer, who can create and manipulate fire. Noor, however, cannot create light. She can only absorb it and is said to be able to absorb light from sources as strong as sunlight or as weak as a flashlight from a phone. She can then release the stored light in an attack, which varies in power. When she absorbs light, it shines through her body, almost making her a human lamp.
Bee Manipulation
Hugh has one of the weirdest abilities of the Peculiars, but it’s still pretty funky. He can command and control bees and specifically has some of them living in his stomach. Wild, but fascinating! He also uses them sometimes just to mess with his friends, which seems like a pretty useful skill for pranking.
While there are many other peculiar abilities in the world of the Peculiars, these are some of the cooler ones they possess (at least the human ones. Peculiar animals make an appearance later on, and we think a talking dog trumps them all). Which one was your favorite?
For another article on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, click here.
For more YA fantasy recommendations, check out our Bookshop bookshelf here.
