Map of Days By Ransom Riggs

A Map of Days is the fourth novel in the Peculiars series by Ransom Riggs. The novel opens with a prologue that sees Jacob Portman who has returned home to America after a "vacation" in Wales, in the process of being escorted by his two uncles to an asylum. His parents, who are also accompanying him, believe he has lost his mind.

Fortunately for Jacob, this is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar wards, terrifying Jacob's parents and his uncles to the point that they crash the car into the garage doors. In an attempt to calm everyone, Bronwyn, used a copious amount of Mother Dust putting them into a "velvety sleep", long enough so that they likely wouldn't awaken until the following day.

This gives Jacob time to reunite with his peculiar friends whom he hasn't seen for the past six weeks.  With Miss Peregrine, are Bronwyn, Enoch, Olive,the invisible Millard, Hugh, Horace, Claire and Emma whom Jacob has a crush on,  While his parents and uncles sleep, Jacob and his friends enjoy pizza and talk. He learns they have travelled via the Panloopticon, exploring loops that were deemed safe by the ymbrynes. They travelled to many places including Mongolia and the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and they also spent time Sharon, the boatman from Devil's Acre.

While the peculiars are only interested in resting, Miss Peregrine tells them that they must learn how to navigate the world of normals and so she assigns Jacob the task of helping them. That night Jacob wonders how he will explain his situation to his parents. He has returned to his home in Englewood, a small community on Needle Key, a barrier island in Florida, hoping to finish his schooling. But Jacob's experiences in the peculiar world have changed him. Jacob wants his parents in his life but he also wants to be a part of both the normal and peculiar world.

Leaving Hugh behind to alert them when his parents and uncles wake up, Jacob takes Miss Peregrine and the peculiars to the beach. At the beach, following a discussion with Miss Peregrine, Jacob decides that he'd like to tell his parent the truth about what has happened, rather than having Miss Peregrine wipe their minds. When they get the call from Hugh, Jacob returns home and attempts to tell his parents the truth. His mother becomes hysterical and passes out while his father becomes angry. Jacob's father then tells him the story of  how his father took him on one of his trips with a mysterious man named "H" and relates how they were attacked in North Florida or Georgia. Jacob's father witnessed the attack and fled in terror, but has only partial memory of the attack as his memory was partially wiped.

Miss Peregrine attempts to help but Jacob's father is so upset that he insists that she wipe his memory completely. To help Jacob who is deeply upset at his parents' reaction, Miss Peregrine has him take some of the peculiars shopping for modern clothes. However, Jacob inadvertently drives to his late grandfather's subdivision. Determined to pay their respects to the memory of Jacob's grandfather Abe who was killed by a hollowgast, Emma and Olive insist on visiting his abandoned home. They find the home on Morningbird Lane in a state of disrepair and decide to clean the home. In the process discover a secret room beneath Abe's study that can be accessed through a metal door in the floor. Beneath is a bunker with four cots and supplies to last several weeks. Jacob also discovers a binder titled Operations which reveals that his grandfather was not only a hollowgast hunter but was rescuing peculiar children, a job normally assigned to the ymbrynes. The log book only leads to more questions. Why were the American ymbrynes not saving peculiar children? "...Was there still a group of hollow-hunters out there somewhere, fighting monsters and rescuing peculiars? If so, I wanted very much to find them. I wanted to be part of it, to use my gift to carry out my grandfather's work here in America. After all, maybe that's what he wanted!"

Jacob sets out to find the mysterious "H", leading him on a quest that not only places him and the other peculiars in grave danger but also challenges his relationship with Emma and the other peculiars.

Discussion

 In A Map of Days, Ransom Riggs continues the story of Jacob Portman, hollowgast hunter extraordinaire. Now back home in Needle Key, Florida, Jacob must deal with his parents who believe he is insane, his fractured relationship with the normal world, and his future as a peculiar.

The inability of his parents to accept what he is telling them and the sudden appearance of Miss Peregrine and his peculiar friends forces Jacob to confront his parents and to have Miss Peregrine wipe their memories - a convenient plot device that Riggs employs to remove them from the story. With school set to begin in a week's time, the appearance of Miss Peregrine and his peculiar friends who are now free from their loop and able to travel anywhere they want causes Jacob to wonder how he will return to normal life. "Could I really imagine sitting through interminable classes and lunch periods and mandatory assemblies every day...."  Jacob questions what he wants for his life. "I had no interest in a normal career. In settling down with someone who didn't understand who I was, or in having kids from whom I had to keep half my life a secret, like my grandfather had." 

In addition his peculiar friends, now freed from the constraints of the loops, begin to rebel against Miss Peregrine's restrictive care. Jacob notices that "The dynamic between the kids and Miss Peregrine had shifted a bit. They seemed more like teenagers now -- real ones, beginning to chafe against her authority."  

Against this backdrop, along with the discovery that his grandfather was saving peculiar children in addition to hunting down hollowgasts, Jacob decides that he wants to carry on Abe's work. To that end he seeks out the mysterious "H" who sends him on a mission that ultimately almost gets Jacob killed and sends waves of discord through the peculiar world. However, Jacob remains undeterred in his determination to continue what he views as his mission to save peculiar children.

A Map of Days is an enjoyable fourth book in the Peculiars series with a storyline that's a bit easier to follow than the confusing third installment, The Library of Souls. Story line does become somewhat muddied near the end of the novel, when Jacob and the peculiars accompanying him are trapped by a gang of peculiars set in 1930's New York.

This novel sets the stage though, for a fifth book that will likely continue the adventures of Jacob and the "uncontacted peculiar" named Noor whom he rescues against the wishes of Miss Peregrine and with the help of "H" who dies in the attempt. There's also some unfinished business between Jacob and Emma who have grown apart in this novel. Their blossoming romance at the beginning of the novel is dampened when it becomes apparent that Emma has not come to terms with the loss of Abe and his living his life mostly without her. Emma had spent decades dreaming about life with Abe that being in his time, in his home and learning about him seemed to have placed his ghost between them.

As with the other novels in the series, the book contains old photographs representing characters Jacob meets in his adventures as well as some of the clues Jacob receives to help him  However, in A Map of Days, these photographs seem secondary to the story and almost unnecessary, although they do add an element of intrigue.

Book Details:

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
New York: Dutton Books     2018
480 pp.