#tcotb spoilers

[ymbrynes-and-peculiarities]

About Francesca (TCOTB spoiler)

I know I've said a few times that Francesca (the ymbryne-in-training) might betray the ymbrynes and side with Caul, but I never paid attention to what kind of bird she is. I just checked, and she's a bittern, and turns out bitterns are actually considered to be secretive birds. Now I'm wondering if that's some kind of foreshadowing or not

[teratocore]

*thinks about how Jacob was supposed to be a librarian in The Library Of Souls as per his peculiarity but as of TCOTB the library is inaccessible at best so he’s basically a peculiar with no peculiarity and how the last interaction he had that we know of was with Caul in the end of TCOTB*

*wakes up in a cold sweat*

Ransom’s bringing back the Library.

[a-tad-bit-peculiar]

she’s back! she’s b

[agentsofmarvel]

My Thoughts on TCOTB

⚠️ Spoilers! ⚠️

okay, so my jemma heart was crying throughout the book. noor & jacob are kinda cute but jemma better come back or i’m throwing hands.

i’m so glad we got to see more of the other children in this book! i missed my babies!

fiona. Fiona. FIONA. FIONA IS ALIVE THANK YOU RANSOM SOMEONE BETTER GIVE THIS GIRL HER TOUNGE BACK SO SHE CAN FINALLY SNAP.

miss. peregrine being so done in this book. she’s literally “y’all always not listening to go out and fight, so i’m bringing you to the fight myself.”

sis i love bronwyn. the way her & hugh came to save jacob, with her yelling “mr.jacob!” i literally screamed.

enoch got some feelings in this book. his sweet side came through a little bit and i loved it.

IM ABOUT TO GO AFTER ABE’S GHOST BECAUSE THIS MAN TOLD EMMA WHEN SHE CALLED TO SAY GOODBYE THAT SHE “INTERRUPTED DINNER” AND HUNG UP.

all the new ymbrynes!!!! ms.blackbird, the return of ms.wren! yes!!!!

the way these kids rally to protect their “mother” made me smile and helped me realize why i love each character so much!

hugh calling fiona “sweetheart” and “love”!!! my boy finally got his love back :)

“But your our mother, or as close as we got.” tears. so many tears.

“and decorate devil’s acre with their heads!” these children i swear. hugh will stop at NOTHING to get Fiona back (and neither will this fandom).

millard & horace had such bigger roles and i’m HERE FOR IT.

millard asking about lily!!!!!!!!

I thought V would be a lot more present, not appear and die within a few pages.

noor & v’s relationship, talk about plot twist.

OKAY BUT RANSOM: WHAT DID MELINA EVER DO TO YOU THAT YOU HAD TO DO HER DIRTY LIKE THAT!?

okay, feel free to add on more & thanks for letting me rant :)

[the-bathmat]

FIRST OF ALL talking about tcotb

if jacob keeps trying to make out with every single girl he meets we RIOT. i just can't with this bitch. just got out of a pretty fucked up relationship with the baddest bitch on earth and like two seconds later he's already in another one with the second love of his life in like the last two years of his miserable little 17-year-old existence. get a hold of yourself jacob. jeez. keep it in your pants

noor isn't my cup of tea. I've already said i dont like the way jacob just decided he would die for her and love her forever right away. also i find her kind of boring. tragic backstory (complete with the ymbryne taking care of her thing she found out in devil's acre, which was honestly pretty cringe), very powerful peculiarity, kind of dull, plain and absolutely void of personality? sounds like a wattpad character to me.

also are you sincerely trying to tell me everyone thinks sharon's ideas are garbage. like for real. the man literally has the only brain cell in all of peculiardom.

ransom riggs let enoch o'connor kiss challenge. maybe it's time we let HIM make out huh? like the man needs it. let him find someone who makes him laugh, patiently listens to him rambling about death and london 24/7 and forces him to change his shirt at least once a week. he'd have the glow up of the century!! or at least he would stop flirting shamelessly and awkwardly with literally every girl he meets

loved enoch in this book btw, cares about his friends but is still a believable little bitch. no longer just the comic relief guy i felt he was in the last book. he's a 10/10

okay horace in this book is as precious as he's always been but he's just... kinda there?? like yeah he helps with the prophecies but jacob didn't seem as obsessed with him as he generally is so we didn't get any of his golden quotes :// which is very sad because as a quite hardcore horace stan i would have appreciated them. like jacob you're failing me

hugh oh my god i positively screamed when he showed up i love him so much he was the ONLY ONE who gave the SLIGHTEST fuck about fiona and he's so sweet. he just ran at her while she was possessed or some shit and called her "love" and "sweetheart" like please i want a boyfriend like him

FIONA!!!

emma? yeah she talked like four times and all she said was "im jealous 😡😡🤬" so like okay. never thought I'd say that, but i miss her talking to jacob and stuff. it didn't really work between them, but at least she was interesting

F I O N A

claire is so good. like as a character. not my favourite because she supports the ymbryne dictatorship but BEAUTIFUL characterization

LOVED the power dynamics and the politics

LOVED the ending

F I O N AAAAAA

[gellavonhamster]

Thoughts on The Conference of the Birds, MPHFPC #5, spoliers under the cut

okay, first things first because I cannot hold it in: FIONA. OUR GIRL IS BACK. I LOVE BEING RIGHT

I felt like Jacob/Noor was rushed - it all happened too soon after Jacob broke up with Emma - but then again, there’s some interaction between them that that is described just briefly, like when they talked the whole night about their past, so I guess it could be said that there had been more foundation for their romance than it appears at first sight. Besides, it is definitely better for Jacob to be with someone who is not still in love, consciously or not, with someone else. He and Noor have a lot in common, from actually being the same age to wishing to live in both normal (going to college, etc.) and peculiar worlds. I do not really care for this romance, but I don’t mind it, and it could be a good thing for them both. I did not like, however, that as soon as Emma stopped being the love interest, she started to have significantly less to do in the story. Still, I appreciate how much Jacob still cares about her and admires her after they’re not together anymore.

I liked the cliffhanger at the end (of course, it makes me mad that I cannot learn what happens next any time soon, but doesn’t that mean that it is a good cliffhanger?), but the whole deal with the postcard that preceded it was remarkably stupid. I get that both Jacob and Noor are seventeen-year-olds with little to no self-preservation instinct, but literally everything about that situation was screaming “this is a trap“. If it was necessary for the plot to separate them from the others, it could have been done differently, without making them seem completely naïve.

I expected V to be a bigger deal in this book. I also wanted to see her interact with Emma. So on that front, I am disappointed.

back to the good things: FIONA AND HUGH. Fiona, having suffered so much, but still alive, Fiona in a white dress surrounded by flowers, Hugh trying to reason with her even though she was being mind-controlled, his soft “Sweetheart, no...“, the way he carried her in his arms after she was rescued. I am LIVING. The best ship in the series, you can’t change my mind. I am so happy for them.

lots of Horace, which is great. I love my dapper son who wears a cravat into battle and knits bulletproof sweaters for his friends. Also, it was extremely sweet when Jacob looked at him being all optimistic and thought that after the battle he should tell Horace how much he loved him. IT’S ABOUT THE FOUND FAMILY

quite a lot of Enoch and Millard, which is also great, especially the way Enoch kept on being the embodiment of that “having ‘feelings’ is ruining my reputation of being a heartless bitch“ post. I love how Jacob is often annoyed with them but there is always some fondness underneath that annoyance. IT’S ABOUT THE FOUND FAMILY [2]

I really enjoy the American Gothic vibe that pervades the series starting from Book 4. Middle-of-nowhere deserted towns, long road trips, cowboys and rifles... I also enjoy the recurring topic of the adult heroes/authority figures being less noble than the kids expect them to be - Abe telling Emma on the phone that she’s interrupting the family dinner (+ Jacob wondering if his grandfather was, in fact, an asshole), V abandoning Noor, Miss Peregrine showing her more ruthless side, the ymbrynes treating Jacob and the company as children right until their skills are needed in battle, when it suddenly becomes okay to treat them as adults. I do not know to what extent that particular topic will be explored, but I like it a lot so far.

It’s a good book, although probably not as good as I expected it to be after the previous book turned out to be so much better than I expected it to be. Overall, I really enjoyed it, and the things I liked about it overweigh for me the things I didn’t. My opinion could change later, however, after the initial joy of finally seeing more of this world and these characters again wears off. I’d like Book 6 to be the last one of the series - the longer it continues, the bigger the possibility that the next installments will be weaker and less interesting - but I am not sure it is possible to cover all the rest of the prophesized “emancipators of the peculiardom“ and the eventual confrontation with Caul in one book so that it does not feel rushed and cursory. We’ll see, I guess.

[shadow-cooper]

...Is no one going to mention just how fucced up the scene was where Caul was in Jacob’s head, leading him to the back of the ambulance where the dead guy was laying with his head bashed in? The song that was playing was “With a Little Help from My Friends,” which played when Jacob, Emma, Enoch, Bronwyn, and Millard first ran away from Miss Peregrine in AMoD. Idk what that’s supposed to represent or what Caul was trying to hint at, but IM SCARED

[oneofthepeculiars]

What’s. Uh oh? -Enoch 2020

[bitchinlyras]

finished reading conference of the birds today and it’s gotta be my least favourite of the series so far.... (spoilers below!)

it felt like it had no real plot - like the v thing got left behind pretty quickly only to be quickly and unsatisfyingly resolved at the end - and the whole wights plot was confusing and apparently what they did to stop it was pointless??

and the conference was such a small part?? like why was that the title???

noor as a character is.... fine??? she’s enjoyable enough (but pales in comparison to the other kids) - her perculiarity is so fucking cool - but her relationship w jacob was developed pretty quickly, and it felt like the jacob/emma stuff was undermined in doing so - it felt like setting up a jacob/noor endgame as jacob seemed to have barely any residual feelings towards emma, which like come one do you expect us to believe that?? (describing their relationship as “victorian and chaste” like what???)

i’m totally not biased bc emma is my favourite character but like she needed to be in it MORE, like she’s the most interesting character (imo, once again not biased lmao), and she was sidelined and underwritten for the majority of the book which was to its detriment

this one seemed much shorter than the last two, and it sort of suffered from it imo?? anyway i hope the next one is an improvement and the conclusion we deserve!!

anyway scream w me in the comments friends

[rubyof-thesea]

okay so I just finished tcotb & I have Many Thoughts of course but it’s gonna take a while to absorb & sort through everything so for now I’m just gonna post the notes I took while reading to get some of them out there!!

Spoilers under the cut!!

-Noor saying “hey asshole” & promptly attacking the dude through weaponized sneezing lmao I stan

-Two swears in two pages? Again, I stan

-“Hi. So there’s like, four guys with guns coming for us right now” I love her. I love her

-Rat man!!!!

-Somebody listen to rat man he has a point. 2020 is year of the rat show him some respect

-I’m actually surprisingly kind of okay with this whole noor/jacob thing that seems to be building???? I mean it definitely would be better as just a friends/siblings dynamic but I’m really enjoying their interactions so far. I think a lot of it is because I’ve come to find Jacob a lot more likable through his interactions with her, seeing him react to watching somebody go through the same thing as him & try to help her through it

-Melina deserved better!!!!

-Not really a big fan of the whole “ymbrines watching over her whole life” thing with Noor. Almost feels kinda cheap somehow.

-Poor Enoch, always stuck witnessing people be heterosexual

-FIONA??????

-This Wild West town loop is just confirming my theory that a ren faire would be the perfect place for a loop entrance bc so much weird shit happens already that it wouldn’t even make a difference

-“He was sweet-natured despite his best efforts to be a jerk all the time” my favorite character trope

-Finally some Emma content pls let them actually be friends now

-FIONAAAA

-Fiona having a specific flower that she grows without thinking makes me so happy- real life flower nymph right there

-You know what I’ve changed my mind. It feels like the moment Jacob actually decided he had caught feelings for Noor their interactions got so boring

-“WHATS. UH-OH.” Lmao I stan Enoch

-Bronwyn so casually getting the little ones to bed before they discuss committing Crimes I love her

-Be! Gay! Do! Crime!

-I love Emma. I miss her

-Noor’s little humming thing is so cute I’m in love with her

-Oh my god Hugh calling Fiona ‘sweetheart’ & ‘love’ and running to her even though she’s clearly still possessed this is peak romance

-Ngl I’m kinda living for this aesthetic. Flowing white dress? Ancient eclectic graveyard?? Intricate spirals of flowering vines carpeting the ground around her??? Almost killing your boyfriend while mind controlled & only regaining control at the last second???? *chefs kiss*

-Wait wait wait wait pump the brakes why the hell would he cut out her tongue before he had everything for the ritual. Also why was she even in that dress in the first place

-The blood dramatically spilling out of her mouth & onto her white dress? Titus Andronicus vibes

-Oh fuck off jacob as if Emma shouldn’t be there to meet one of the last living connections to Abe & get some answers. This is important to more than just you & noor & you know it

-Why are they acting surprised that V’s loop is so deadly wasn’t that already established???? Like I could’ve sworn

-I’m not really vibing with this whole last chapter. I feel like it should’ve just ended with them finding the postcard

-Motherfucker. I knew it was coming but still. V had the potential to be so interesting 

anyway that’s all for now!! I have work in the morning & need to get to sleep but I wanted to put these out there while they were still fresh!!

[cartoonsandkpop]

Map of Days expanded the world so well and established new conflicts and dynamics to what we thought we knew. Conference of the Birds did not add any new ones or really even expand on the gang plot or V plot or ymbryne dictatorship plot or the modernization of the children plot or Jacob’s parents not accepting him plot or the Miss Peregrine is mad plot or even the kids are getting older and don’t need her as much plot... It sort of just ran back to the kids vs the wights. Which is okay bc that was being set up too but instead of mixing, other plots seemed dropped to prioritize Caul. 

It just feels rough to go from probably the best book in the series to the worst. CotB had lots of good writing in it too. I loved the scene in the deadrisers village as well as the descriptiveness of the very beginning and end scenes. Which makes the plot not holding up even more unfortunate...

[ymbrynes-and-peculiarities]

TCoTB Random Thought #1 (spoiler alert)

*waves hello after months of inactivity*

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing fine!

I had a random thought about The Conference Of The Birds, something that's been bothering me since the first time I read the book (big spoiler ahead)

After Murnau basically cut out V's heart, he was described as holding "something small and dark". But the thing is... a heart isn't supposed to be small? Or dark? But we know that he took the heart, otherwise the resurrection thingy wouldn't have worked...

So, my thought is that perhaps ymbrynes come with two hearts, a small one corresponding to their bird form and a human heart (I mean, peculiars have two souls so why not two hearts?). Yes, I know that it's highly unlikely, but I want V to still be alive so bad that I'm making up weird theories 😂

Thoughts?

[teratocore]

Just finished the conference of the birds and mr Riggs sir this is unacceptable.

[a-tad-bit-peculiar]

Thoughts on Book Five.

WELCOME TO THE SHITSHOW EVERYBODY BUCKLE THE FUCK UP (spoilers and some capslock under the cut, lads!)

Alright, I have too many thoughts, so I’m going to sort them into a list, starting from ten and counting down to one. Also, as a disclaimer: I really enjoyed this book! I can’t wait to see how the series ends, but I have lots of things to complain about. So, here we go!

Also, no hate to anyone who liked these parts. This is just my personal opinion!

10. The Kids

I LOVE all of the content focusing on the kids and their personalities! The dinner scene where everyone is talking about the resurrection soup is a really good Enoch scene, plus there’s SO MUCH good Hugh in this book! 

On the other hand, I noticed a few negative things about Emma and Millard.

Millard felt really bossy and arrogant, or at least, Jacob thought he was. Multiple times throughout the book, his enthusiasm and passion is twisted into something annoying and condescending. On top of that, Emma was turned into nothing but her relationship with Abe. She doesn’t do anything but mope over her failed relationships, which brings me to my next point.

9. Jemma vs. Portdesh (aka the romance plot)

What the actual fuck.

Jacob Magellan Portman, please quit thinking with your dick. It’s okay to be single. You don’t need to get into a relationship with every heartbroken girl you find, okay?

My main few problems with Portdesh are these:

For one, Jacob just dropped his feelings for Emma far too quickly to be reasonable. For instance, I’m a teenager around Jacob’s age, and I just went through an incredibly messy breakup (not going to go into details due to privacy on my partner’s part). It’s been almost two months--which isn’t a lot of time, mind you--and I’m still dealing with the repercussions. Jacob dropped Emma far, FAR too quickly, rendering an ENTIRE BOOK SERIES OF EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT completely null. I’m not saying that Jacob and Emma should get back together, I’m saying that Jacob isn’t dealing with his feelings in a realistic way. He’s a teenager, and an incredibly dramatic one at that. Love is messy and imperfect. It’s okay for him to be heartbroken and single. Let him have negative feelings.

Also, there’s the whole thing about him doing the exact thing Abe did to Emma. Again.

For another: NOOR’S CHARACTER IS SQUANDERED BY JACOB.

Noor Pradesh has the potential to be an amazing, relatable character--it’s just that Jacob is in the way. Instead of being her own person and allowing for solo development, Noor is thrust immediately into the role of “love interest for protag.” Instead of Noor reacting on her own to situations, she always traces it back to Jacob, because Epic Teen Romance. Please, Jacob. Quit making her into this perfect trophy girl. Nobody wants to read about that.

This book barely passes the Bechdel test, and the only reason it does is because Miss Peregrine exists.

8. Caul and the Prophecy

I’m honestly really disappointed. Caul was dead and gone. The ‘oooo he knew all along’ thing feels lazy and bland. I would’ve much preferred if Leo was the main villain; the dangers of peculiar America were much more interesting to me than reviving Caul. Also, Leo just being suddenly chill feels like a total letdown. I really hope he’s planning something nasty in secret, otherwise the whole Niece Monologue would have been for nothing.

About the prophecy, I have a single thought: cheap. I’m honestly not too interested in where it leads at this point, as it feels impossible to resolve well in a single book. I mean, come on. There are SIX MORE saviors to find. In ONE. BOOK. Riggs better have something great hidden up his sleeve.

7. Hugh’s desperation

Now HERE”S how you write some heartbreak, folks! Jacob needs to take a few notes from this man, because Hugh definitely cares more than Jacob seems to.

Despite what Jacob tells the reader, however, I feel that Hugh’s completely justified in his feelings.

NOBODY gave two shits about finding Fiona in books four or five. Everyone just accepted it, gave a sad little nod, and moved on with their lives. Hell, the only mentions of Fiona were when Hugh was upset and Jacob felt bad for him.

Miss Peregrine wore black forever because of Victor, and yet here we are. Not caring about Fiona.

As much as I love Miss P, I smell some unintentionally written favoritism.

6. Abe

Are we gonna just never tie off all of the loose ends related to Abe? Like, what the fuck happened to Leo’s niece? Is there anything else he’s hiding? Was Emma rightfully jealous of V? Are there any other agents who worked with him? Are there any more peculiars mad at him? How does Jacob feel about him? Is Abe just...a bad dude now? 

Abe being written off as a bad guy seems wrong to me. He tried so hard to protect people, and this is how he’s repaid. Such a damn shame.

5. V

(Haha, number five is V. I’m hilarious.)

Oh, want a new and interesting character who’s revealed to be an ymbryne with a badass shotgun? One you’ve been looking for for literally the entire book? Who was arguably more important than the titular event? Who you can already tell you’re going to love, just by how she’s written?

Oops, too bad, she’s dead now.

4. Horace’s cravat

The best goddamn thing in this entire book.

3. The Deadriser Loop

Jacob should’ve taken Enoch with him instead of Noor. Bonding opportunity: wasted.

2. Sharon and the Anti-Ymbrynes

Now we’re fuckin’ talking. The loop protesters are SO intriguing, I really want to see more of them! But please, Ransom Riggs, don’t just write them off as fools!

Jacob needs a reason to act so reckless. One of the reasons the fanbase is beginning to dislike him is because he acts so selfishly all the time. If the protesters were used as a springboard to drive Jacob into going against the ymbrynes, he’d be much more justifiable. ESPECIALLY if the protester group is gradually shown to be bad, not immediately.

1. Fiona

Fiona Frauenfeld I missed you so goddamn much.

Fiona is LITERALLY my favorite character in this entire series. Yes, even in front of Enoch and Horace. She’s so interesting and complex, and the fact that she’s coded to be neurodivergent (PTSD) and is CANONICALLY MUTE is so, so great!

It’s just...even with her being so wonderfully reintroduced...

She feels like a scapegoat. 

Who was the one to go missing? Fiona. Who was the one presumed dead? Fiona. Who was the one who got her tongue cut out by wights? Fiona.

I know I’m not explaining my thoughts well, so I’ll put it this way:

It feels like a bit of a cop-out to have the mute person lose their tongue, but maybe that’s just me.

Despite that, though, I missed her and Hugh so much.Their reunion broke my heart into a billion pieces! I’m glad she’s back, and I really hope she gets lots of screentime in the next book! Her tongue being gone seems like a great opportunity for character development, and my fingers are crossed that Riggs plays with that in book six.

Fiona I love you sweetie mwah...

And that’s it for my thoughts! Once more, I really enjoyed this book! I’m just picking it apart because I love this series so much. Ciao, dudes!

[sunel0]

Coming here, I'd imagined something more welcoming waiting for us -- perhaps a nice shade-dappled glen in a forest. Just once, something like the portals in kids' books.

- Was Narnia a loop?

[bi-kingdom]

I just finished reading Ransom Riggs' newest book, The Conference of the Birds, just had to alert everyone in the fandom cause this is all I'm going to talk about in 2020

So when's the new book coming out????