This next book is the penultimate book in the series Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. The Conference of the Birds chronicles the continuing adventures of Jacob Portman and his friends. It opens with Jacob and Noor dealing with the aftermath of the attack on H as they try to figure out what is going on and why people are after Noor specifically. As Jacob and Noor meet back up with Jacob’s friends they pass on H’s message about finding V and the map fragment that is meant to lead them to her but they also pass on the information about the supposed prophecy dealing with Noor and seven peculiar children. Millard quickly dives headlong into trying to decipher the whereabouts of the loop depicted on the map fragment, with limited success, while Horace gets to work on verifying the existence of the supposed prophecy about Noor. However, they quickly find that things are even more complicated than they thoughts. While all of this is going on the ymbrynes are also in negotiations with the various American clans in order to try and broker a lasting peace between them. Even that quickly gets complicated when things go awry leaving them all in an even bigger potential mess if they’re not careful.
I felt like this was an interesting addition to the world of the peculiar children as it takes the events of the fourth book and ties it back into the problems of the first three books. Primarily, because of the reappearance of the wights and hollows and their plans to wreak havoc on the peculiar world. This was a problem that took a huge backseat in the fourth book as it worked on introducing the different culture of the peculiar world in the United States. However, this book blends the peculiar world of the United States with this resurging problem as it starts tying disparate elements together to help lead up to the finale in the next book. Despite this it also introduces some new elements, much like each of the previous books, though these are rather different than previous new elements. There is one point in the book where it is revealed that there is a growing movement among the peculiars of Devil’s Acre to do away with the government run by the ymbrynes. However, the supporters of this movement seem to want to do it peacefully and not follow the same pattern as the movement that ended up creating the hollows and wights. This actually ties into the other new element, the prophecy that was relayed from H to Jacob and Noor. The ability to divine the future is not new as it was originally introduced in the very first book with Horace, the young boy who sees the future in his dreams. However, what is new is that some of these people who see the future do it while awake and semi-aware but share that knowledge through the written word by writing down prophecies or narrating them might be the better description. This adds an extra layer to the peculiar world by adding the idea that there is at least some level of foreknowledge, but it is extremely buried in their archives and they tend to not give it much credit. However, all of this is expertly blended together to create an excellent and compelling addition to the series. It earns a four out of five stars.
Much like with the previous books I would wholeheartedly recommend it to young adult readers, but would suggest that younger readers be careful as it does contain some violence. If you happen to be a teenager that likes books that are either fantasy or just plain bizarre then you should consider trying this series out. As for adults, again if you happen to enjoy fantasy novels or books that are just plain bizarre then you might enjoy this series, as long as you keep in mind that it is aimed at young adults. There is not necessarily a lot that I would suggest you be careful about for this book as it has many of the same content that is present in the previous books, which is a certain modest level of violence and the typical issues surrounding teenagers. If you feel up to it feel free to share your thoughts about this book or the series as a whole in the comments.