Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I've come across so many books, but this one really stood out for me.
When Jacob Portman was a young boy, he loved the stories his grandfather, Abe, told him. The adventures that his grandfather seemed incredible. Abe showed him photos of peculiar children with a mouth at the back of their heads, or an invisible boy. But when Jacob turned 15, he no longer listened to the stories with twinkling eyes -- he and his father thought it was Abe's dementia kicking in.
Jacob realises that something peculiar is going on, when his grandfather is brutally murdered by something unworldly -- a blind monster with tentacles. After this tragic encounter, Jacob has nightmares. This leads to Jacob meeting Dr Golan, a psychiatrist, who tells him that a visit to the island where his grandfather grew up in would be a great idea.
When Jacob finally sets foot on Cairnholm Island, he starts his journey into his grandfather's past. In a peculiar looking house, Jacob finds peculiar photos of the peculiar children. But he doesn't need a chance to dig deeper, as his suspicions are solved when two children appear: a girl who can create flames from her bare palms and a boy with the ability to be invisible.
Jacob is led to (or rather he unilaterally chased the children until they reached a destination) a house full of peculiar children who has superpowers or deformed bodies, under the care of Miss Peregrine (who, obviously, has the ability to turn into a peregrine). Jacob is told that his grandfather was raised here, and went out into the world to fight hollowgasts, who are entities that tried to become immortal but failed. The monster that killed his grandfather was also a hollowgast.
Disaster strikes when Dr Golan turns out to be a wight, a human-like being that helps the hollowgasts, and his sole reason for sending Jacob here was to find Miss Peregrine. The hollowgasts succeeds in kidnapping her and other ymbrynes (care-takers of the peculiar children).
Jacob and his new peculiar friends are able to kill Dr Golan and save Miss Peregrine in her bird form, but not the other ymbrynes. Without Miss Peregrine's powers as a human, the time-loop that had been keeping the Home For Peculiar Children safe collapses. Without nowhere to go, the children sail out into the sea with no particular destination.
peculiar count: 10 (doesn't look like a word anymore, does it?)
Want to read it? Buy it here!