Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Graphic Novel), by Ransom Riggs and Cassandra Jean

I rarely read graphic novel adaptations of popular books, because they never look like the stories do in my head. But I was recently given a copy of the graphic novel version of Ransom Riggs's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and it had two things going for it: A) I had never read the original book, so I didn't have any preconceived notions, and B) I could instantly see that the artwork was top-notch.

When Jacob was little, he believed his grandfather's fantastic stories about his time at Miss Peregrine's home for children with unusual abilities. As he grew older, Jacob realized his grandfather's stories and photographs had to be fake—tall tales designed to transform the grim reality of his experiences during World War II into something more suitable for his grandchild's ears. But when his grandfather is killed by a creature straight out of a nightmare, Jacob realizes that the stories of his childhood were far more fact than fiction.

While I can't speak as to how well this book works as an adaptation, it feels like a natural graphic novel. Cassandra Jean's illustrations do an excellent job of depicting Jacob's loneliness and anxiety, the story's frequent shifts in time, and the oddities of the titular Peculiar Children. I didn't care so much about the details of the plot (it was fine, but plenty of other YA fantasies have explored similar material), but I was hugely impressed by all the characterization, relationship development, and world-building Jean managed to pack into less than 300 lightly-worded pages.