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A Map of Days is the fourth book in the Peculiar Children series, and the first book in Ransom Riggs's second Peculiar Children trilogy. It was released on October 2nd, 2018.

Synopsis[]

Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back where his story began, in Florida. Except now Miss Peregrine, Emma, and their peculiar friends are with him, and doing their best to blend in. But carefree days of beach visits and normalling lessons are soon interrupted by a discovery—a subterranean bunker that belonged to Jacob’s grandfather, Abe.

Clues to Abe’s double-life as a peculiar operative start to emerge, secrets long hidden in plain sight. And Jacob begins to learn about the dangerous legacy he has inherited—truths that were part of him long before he walked into Miss Peregrine’s time loop.

Now, the stakes are higher than ever as Jacob and his friends are thrust into the untamed landscape of American peculiardom—a world with few ymbrynes, or rules—that none of them understand. New wonders, and dangers, await in this brilliant next chapter for Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children. Their story is again illustrated throughout by haunting vintage photographs, but with a striking addition for this all-new, multi-era American adventure—full color.

Plot[]

Minutes after he is saved by his friends from being put in a mental asylum, Jacob is in disbelief of his friends being at his house in the modern day. After the rest of the Peculiars look around his house, he hears a noise from the garage, where Bronwyn is watching his parents and uncles, and he and Miss Peregrine decide to check it out. Bronwyn says they drove into the garage door and she knocked them out with some of the powder from Mother Dust after one of Jacob's uncles tried to text his wife. After they decide to order pizza, Jacob brings it in and the delivery boy, who is a classmate of his from school, tells him school starts up the following week. Jacob is shocked by this, and questions whether or not that he actually wants to go back. During dinner, the children discuss what they wish to see in America. After Jacob makes a speech, Hugh feels offended that he left Fiona out. After he leaves, Miss Peregrine tells him they are looking for Fiona however they could, but since the loop she vanished in collapsed they are uncertain. As Miss Peregrine tucks the younger ones into bed, he shows Emma his room and they share a moment. She goes silent when she sees Abe’s handwriting on one of the maps he made with Jacob. That night, he considers how he would balance both normal and peculiar life rather then choosing one over the other.

Jacob wakes up to the peculiar children cooking breakfast. After breakfast, everyone goes to the beach except Hugh (who volunteers to watch Jacob’s family). As they walk, Miss Peregrine informs him that many peculiars feel it is time to replace the ruling ymbrynes with a new form of government. Jacob asks Miss Peregrine if he should tell his parents about peculiardom, and she says he should give it a try. When they receive a call from Hugh to say his parents are waking up, they rush back. After Miss Peregrine erases his uncle‘s memories and sends them home, Jacob takes his parents to their room and attempts to explain. His mother faints almost immediately, but his father is more understanding. He tells Jacob of a vague memory when he went with his father on a trip, and he describes a hollowgast. He scolds Jacob for "siding with his grandfather over him", which angers Jacob. Later, after Miss Peregrine wipes their memories and sends them on a trip to Asia, she insists he is meant for both worlds. She gives him money to take the others shopping for modern clothing and tells him to meet her at night.

He goes shopping in shifts, first taking Emma, Olive, Millard, and Bronwyn with him (along with Enoch, who hid himself in the trunk). Along the way, he takes a wrong turn, and they end up at Abe’s house. The six go in the house and clean it up as a farewell to Abe. Jacob takes them to the spot where Abe died and the children pay their respects. Jacob and Emma are called into the house when the others find a hidden door, unlocking it with Jacob's childhood nickname (Tygrysku). They crawl into the hidden passage to find a hollowgast shelter with a periscope on the front lawn. Millard finds a log documenting Abe's missions to kill hollows and save peculiar children between 1953 and 1985. They head back to Jacob’s house and inform the others about their discovery.

Miss Peregrine arrives through a shed in Jacob’s yard via a micro-loop, a small loop that requires resetting only once or twice a month, and she takes them to Devil's Acre. They go outside, where Jacob is overwhelmed by peculiars who praise him for killing Caul. Miss Peregrine tells Jacob they need a cover that both provided hope for the refugees and fear for the remaining wights. The reach the temporary headquarters of the Council of Ymbrynes and are greeted by Isabel Cuckoo. The children are each given tedious jobs for the day, and Jacob goes with Miss Peregrine and Miss Cuckoo to the ymbryne’s meeting room. He sees maps of America along the walls. They tell him how the American peculiar has always been difficult to map, only the largest factions were known to the council with countless others being unknown. They also tell him how they have lost contact with peculiar America when the hollowgasts emerged. After the explanation they tell him he is to talk about the battle with Caul to the refugees. He is confused and thought he was assigned to reastablish links with peculiars in his home country. They say that, despite being a war hero, he is still new to peculiardom and they feel reconstruction is a more pressing matter at the moment, that they need him to give moral to the refugees. He storms out of the room in frustration and sees someone who looks vaguely familiar to him and goes to ask him. The man repeatedly tells him he has never seen him before today before Miss Peregrine and the others arrive to go home for the day, before leaving Miss Peregrine tells Jacob she will talk with him later.

They head back to his house through a shortcut and meet an aquatic peculiar named Itch and his family. They ask them when they can live outside of loops like them, they tell him that the procedure is dangerous and they were lucky to have survived it. They accuse Jacob and his friends of hoarding the key to age halting resetting for themselves and call him a false prophet. They arrive at his house late and are scolded by Miss Peregrine. After dinner he finds a photo of the man he saw earlier, Lester Noble Jr., and heads back to the council building. He confronts Lester, who says his name is Stevenson. However Jacob tells him of how he was rescued from a motel in 1980’s Alabama when is 1930’s based loop was raided. He drops the accent and takes Jacob to a filing room. He says that America has no ymbrynes to speak of and the country’s peculiar society is in chaos. He gives him a matchbook for a Chinese restaurant in New York City and tells him to leave. When he gets back Jacob looks up the restaurant and discovers that it is still in business calls the number. A voice answers the phone but hangs up when he hears Jacob is looking for H. He calls again and says he is Abe‘s grandson and he wants to continue him grandfather’s work. He explains that he could see and control the hollows. H accepts the offer to meet up with him. After hanging up he goes inside and meets with Emma and tells her what he plans to do, and she agrees to help.

Jacob has a dream of Caul and wakes up to sense a Hollowgast, he takes a knife and patrols the property before going inside after the threat dies down. The next day he takes Olive, Claire, Horace, Hugh and Enoch to the mall to buy present clothing. The children are in awe of the mall and the people in it. After buying their share of clothing they head back to Jacob’s house. He finds that Emma has converted one of the bathrooms into a darkroom. He helps Emma out and they kiss until he gets a call from H telling him to go to Abe’s place, sit in his booth and order his usual.

Together, Jacob and Emma drive to the Mel-O-Dee diner that Jacob and Abe frequently visited when Jacob was younger. Jacob and Emma sit in Abe’s usual booth and he orders liver and onions, Abe’s usual. The waitress gives them a key and they go to the back. When they enter a freezer and are sent into a loop where a Hollow attacks them. They fend it off, but just as Jacob is about to kill it, a man tells him to stop and he calls the hollowgast, Horatio, over to him. He introduces himself as H and says Jacob is hired. H quickly tells Jacob about their line of work. He says that their group consisted of himself, Abe, and ten others. He tells that that four of them could see the hollows, but only he and Abe could control them. H tells them that the wights started to come to America during the 1950’s and their group both hunted down hollows and rescued peculiar children from them before sending them to loops. He says that after the wights focused their attention back on Europe, they left America in a mess with their loops disconnected, ymbrynes almost nonexistent, and var peculiar clans fighting for dominance. He gives them two packages and tells him to bring one to Mermaid Fantasyland in central Florida and another to New York City. They go back to the present when they hear sirens. The waitress introduces herself as Norma Abernathy, a Demi-ymbryne, an ymbryne who cannot turn into a bird or create loops, only maintain existing ones. As they head out H says to get another car from Abe’s bunker. When they arrive at his house the other children question them and they tell them where they were and what they are going to do. While some are exited and want to come with them, most are stunned and feel they are going out of line. Jacob says that who ever wants to come with them should be packed but nine the next morning.

While packing for the mission, Jacob notices a map from the Mel-O-Dee marked for Mermaid Fantasyland in Abe’s writing on his wall and packs it, along with other maps to be safe. At dawn he and Emma head back to the bunker and find another hidden passage way. They go in it and find that it leads to the house across the street which is mostly vacant except for the garage where Abe kept two cars, a Cadillac and a 1979 Aston Martin V8 Vintage, he thinks the latter he thinks is a Mustang. They leave his parents car behind and take the Aston Martin. When they arrive they ask who ever want to come with them. After some persuasion all but Claire, who does not want to make Miss Peregrine mad, and Hugh, what wants to check the Panloopitcon for Fiona. They decide to take Millard, for his stealth and cartography skills, and Bronwyn, for her strength, with them. They say Miss Peregrine is upstairs sleeping and Millard used some of Mother Dust’s dust on her. After they see the car they realize that the make often breaks down and Enoch, who knows about cars and claims to be able to fix them with his peculiarity, is invited as well. The group says their goodbyes and to worry if they are not back in a week.

The group heads north on Interstate 75 as fast as they can. Jacob plans to put as much distance between them and Miss Peregrine before night fall. He stops to get gas and the others head for the bathroom with onlookers staring at the bizarrely dressed ground. He takes them to a Mega Mart and, despite the others getting distracted by everything, they obtain modern day clothes and leave. However Millard sets off the alarm and the group bolts back to the car. The arrive at Mermaid Fantasyland and see a man and woman in clown makeup with the woman dressed as a mermaid. She tells them to leave and she and George, the man, head into the carnival. They stop when they mention hint at being peculiar. They stop and two more come out, a man in a bear suit and another clown. They ask the group to stay but they insist on leaving. The man in the bear costume starts to sing and they feel sluggish and tired. The carnival workers look on in glee while they escape. Once they are out of range they feel fine. They get back on the road and see an old fashioned police car following them. The police leave and soon their car breaks down. Enoch checks and has no idea how it broke. Everyone thinks it was sabotaged. Just then a boy comes up to them and introduces himself as Paul and that he is peculiar. He tells them that traveling peculiars often breakdown and tells them to come with him. The see a si of the Flamingo Manor and go. They are worry about entering the loop but head in when the police car returns.

They reach the motel and head into the office where they see Miss Billie, a woman with three toy poodles. They give her the package, dog treats, and she thanks them. As they head to the garage they are stopped by a man who introduces himself as Adelaide Pollard and are joined by another wheelchair bound peculiar named Al Potts. They tell them how the wights cleansed America of its ymbrynes, leaves them almost non existent with most of them being Demi-ymbrynes. They also tell them about how they are trapped in their loop by a gang who forbids them from using their peculiarities. Paul arrives just as they are asking about a portal and he says that it is his hometown in Georgia with a nearby loop. They ask him to come with them Just them by he says the road is dangerous. Enoch then asks Emma to weld some parts together to fix the engine. Just then the fake police from earlier, Darryl and Jackson, arrive and demand protection money. Emma and Bronwyn approach them and, before they can react, Emma melts Jackson’s gun to his hand and Brownwyn flips the car on Darryl. Just then a woman, The Baroness, points out a third thug trying to flee. He demands the car and money, but Billie’s poodle run up to him, having grown to the size of a hippopotamus, and rip his head off. The residents of the motel cheer and Jacob asks Paul to take them to Portal, which he agrees.

As they are about to drive through the loop, Paul points out that more highwaymen are at the entrance and he tells them to use the back way. They go back and Billie gives them directions. They drive up until the state line and, getting tired, Jacob sees a diner and plans to get something to eat. However Paul, who is black, refuses to go in and Jacob realizes that, being in the Deep South during the 1960’s, they are in the time of segregation. They tell the others and they are disgusted. When a cook asks them about their car, Enoch tells him it is from 1979 before realizing they are in the mid-1960’s. They drive away just as the cook calls a cop. They drive up to Portal, only stopping three times to either refuel, get oranges and coffee, or use the bathroom. When they reach Portal, Paul pulls out a staff from the sign and guides them to the changing loop entrance. He guides them into a corn field and, just before crashing into a bale of corn, enter the loop. Paul tells them that they are in 1935 before they are greeted by three teenagers- Alene Norcross, June, and Fern. The group asks to meet with whoever is in charge of the loop, a woman named Miss Annie, but they say she is asleep but will be awake for supper. They see a teenage boy, Reggie, training a puppy and a young white boy named Hawley listening to the dead talk through a radio, Paul says they are all Diviners, peculiars who can sense things. They head to his house and wash up for dinner.

At dinner they meet two more residents of Portal, Elmer, who fought in several wars including the First World War and Vietnam, and Joseph. As they eat the children accidentally ask if they knew Abe. They describe someone like him but say his name was Gandy, they show Jacob a picture and he realizes that Gandy is his grandfather. They show him a picture of a younger H and a girl he traveled with named V. Emma is shocked by this and demands to know more about her. Just then the woman with the eye patch they saw before comes up and reveals herself as Annie. She explains how peculiars we’re always a rarity in America She says that during slavery, a young girl manifested the ability to fly, which started the normals around her. Parents to be went to so-called experts to see if their child would be peculiar or not, which they thought were children of the devil. Eventually The Organization emerged, a group of normals bent on eradicating peculiardom from the country. They stared by taking out the ymbrynes, who often had loop after multiple loops, resulting in Demi-ymbrynes taking on the role of loop keeper. Racism was also widespread among American peculiardom, resulting in many loops being exclusive to white only peculiars or black only peculiars, sometimes in addition to only allowing those with similar or identical powers to reside in loops. In the absence of the ymbrynes, peculiar gangs started to emerge to gain more territory for themselves. In the 1950’s the hollowgasts and wights started to come to America, causing some groups to put aside their differences and join forces to defend themselves. Eventually things settled down and the peculiar gangs started to act up again. After dinner Jacob helps Annie to her house and gives her the other package. In return she gives him a matchbook with an address in North Carolina. The group says their goodbyes and the drive back through the loop entrance. When they stop in the present, Jacob gets out and checks his phone to find two dozen messages from Miss Peregrine, she tells him she is angry for him leaving and taking some of her wards with him and to return at once. He heads back to the car and they continue on.

They reach the location in North Carolina, a fast food restaurant called the 24-hour OK Burger, and wait for H before realizing they have to order through the drive-through, Bronwyn destroys the speaker out of shock and they pull up to the window. When Millard speaks the employee at the window gives them a bag of burgers and fries with a letter containing letter with their assignment, to go to a high school in Brooklyn and extract a newly discovered peculiar and that the teenager to loop 10044. Millard orders again and he receives a bag of fries and onion rings with a hand grenade, leaving Jacob to conclude it is a supply stop for hollow-hunters. When they reach central Virginia, Jacob asks Emma if she still loves his grandfather. She says that after Abe left she let her feelings for him grow out of hand and she desired to leave Cairnholm and go to Florida to be with him, but she new she would allow be bound to a loop while he went on adventures. They drive in silence until Enoch wakes up and reveals that Emma spoke with Abe on the phone at a gas station. Jacob gets mad and pulls over he gets out and Emma follows, she says she just wanted to hear him one last time and say goodbye. The two then get into an argument and agree to put their relationship on hold. As they drive they get a all from his house and the others inform them that Miss Peregrine is looking for them. Horace tells them he had a dream, telling them to go to the Chinese restaurant and not the continent restaurant before hanging up. They head to Brooklyn.

The group makes their way to New York City and reach their location, J. Edgar Hoover High School, just as it is letting out for the day. They find a postcard from a hotel Abe stayed at and discovered it is a loop. Just as the school‘s vice principal asks who they are Jacob drives away, while leaving he senses a hollowgast but keeps it to himself. They arrive at the loop, The Falls in Staten Island, and get a room after they answer questions about their peculiarities. They look over Abe’s mission log and Millard tells him that it appears his grandfather asked around for anything that might be peculiar or used the news. In the morning he is the first to get ready and looks up the school in the news. He found that during an assembly, the lights in the auditorium went out and the generator powered backup lights failed along with the flashlights on student‘s phones. He reads a comment in the article from a student about a flash grenade going of in the girls bathroom, but aside from singed walls nothing was damaged. He goes back to the others and informs them and they think the peculiar can manipulate either electricity or light. After the others get ready they head out.

They arrive at the school and park a few blocks away before going in with the students. They divide into groups, Brownyn and Enoch head over to the gymnasium, Millard goes to the main office, and Jacob and Emma go to the cafeteria. After getting food they sit with a group of kids and ask them about the blackout, one of the students who was there, Jon, tells them that he save the emergency exit open up but no light came in despite being a sunny day. Just them the man from the day before and another woman grab the two and are about to drag them off bu they escape before being cornered by the basket ball team. Just them several girls come screaming forward and they use this as a diversion. They learn that Enoch resurrected cats in the biology lab and when they meet up him and Brownyn. She gives them a description of the girl before Emma pulls the fire alarm. They run into Millard in the parking lot and says he met a friend of the peculiar who agreed to meet with them in a cafe after school. As they wait Millard discovers that the number is a zip code for an island between in the East River. They head to the cafe and meet up with Lilly, the peculiar’s friend, who they convince to tell them about the peculiar, Noor. Lilly says that there are these people who drive in black SUVs with tinted windows. Just then they see one of the SUVs with a window cracked open and they go to leave while Lilly tells Noor about them.

They get in the car and Lilly leads them to an abandoned warehouse. When they arrive Jacob gets a call from H who tells him to abort the mission at once, he hangs up and does not tell the others. She leads them to a central part of the warehouse and they meet Noor. They tell her their stories and demonstrate their abilities before she tells them about herself. They explain the peculiar world to Noor before they hear a helicopter. They go outside and see a helicopter lauding a canister of tear gas at them. They head inside with Bronwyn carrying Lilly. As they run Noor absorbs light and stores it inside her. They are cornered in a room when two men with guns come in. They hear Jacob’s phone and call for backup. Before they can get it, Noor release the light and blinds their attackers. One aims his gun but Bronwyn throws him through a wall and they use the hole to escape. They get out and take the subway to Manhattan. As they ride the train they believe that the loop might be compromised. Jacob invites Noor to come with them back to his house. She is unsure at first but eventually agrees. Just then Bronwyn collapses on the floor and reveals she was shot with a dart. She says she thought she could beat whatever was in the dart before passing out.

They carry Bronwyn of the subway at the next stop and frantically ask for the nearest hospital. As they approach it they are stopped by the smell of their favorite foods coming from a near by restaurant and head into it. A woman named Beatrice gives them food before inviting them upstairs to rest, she takes all of them accept Lilly. The rest of them enters a loop and see a pair of girls scrubbing the floor telling them to run, a boy being taught Latin by a tutor, and a clown singing Happy Birthday to someone named Frankie. They arrive at a room full of dolls and meet a girl named Frankie, she asks them their names and they respond perfectly, she calls the Tutor, who she calls “Poop”, in and asks him what to do with them. When he suggests they sell them she sicks her dolls on him and she calls the clan leaders of New York together and they pass out. They all wake up tied to chairs and unable to talk, except Enoch due to Frankie taking a liking to him, and are greeted by the leaders of three clans, Wreck Donovan, Angelica, and Dogface. After a brief squabble among the leaders Frankie starts the aution. She beats Bronwyn with her stick and Jacob yells at her to stop. As Frankie heads towards him Emma, who burned through the rope on her hands, body slams Frankie and starts a fire in her palm. Bronwyn breaks free and frees the others. After Millard tells them the ymbrynes will punish them for this, the clan leaders become intrigued but do not lower their guard. They ask who they are and they inform them they they, but most Jacob, are the reason the wights are dead or inprisoned while Brownyn frees the others. After Jacob let’s slip that Noor is uncontacted, the crane leaders become frightened and Donovan signals someone. As alarms blair, they group leaves without Enoch and find themselves in the 1920’s and surrounded by gangsters with guns. They are quickly subdued and blindfolded.

The group is placed in a van and driven to a bar like building where he, Emma, Brownwyn and Millard are brought before Leo Burnham, he accuses them of trespassing on his territory and accuses them of being Californios despite saying they were British, they ask about Noor and Leo says she is somewhere else in the building. Leo also scolds Wreck and Angelica, who were taken as well with Dogface who got away, for attending an illegal auction. He has them taken for interrogation. The interrogator asks questions to Jacob about himself and they start to believe Jacob until he mentions H and his grandfather as Gandy. After that he is brought to Leo who says his grandfather stole his granddaughter Agatha and presumably killed her along with other children.He beats Jacob and decides to kill him for his grandfather‘s actions. While he waits for his execution he concludes that the wights must have disguised themselves as him and framed Abe. Just then Leo comes to him and shows him a picture of the Barroness, who‘s real name is Donna and his sister. She told him about what he and his friends did at Flamingo Manor and pardons him. When Jacob is released he is greeted by Miss Peregrine, who looks at him with a mix of angry and relief. He meets his friends outside and they say Enoch escaped and made it to the Acre. When he asks about Noor, Leo says she will stay with him. They are greeted by Miss Cuckoo and an third ymbryne, who look angry. As they drive away Miss Peregrine tells Jacob to keep quiet.

They are taken trough a loop in Manhattan to the Arce where Jacob is treated by a man named Rafael. Emma, Millard, Bronwyn and Enoch enter the room to talk to him. Miss Peregrine comes in soon after and reveals the ymbrynes were working on a peace treaty between the clans and themselves. She scolds them and says that because of them, their progress was set to almost the beginning. Jacob asks why she did not tell them and she says the information was confidential, only for ymbrynes. She gives each of them a punishment. Jacob asks her about Noor, and she says that it took everything the council had to have Leo release them, and she says they could not because uncontacted peculiars are valuable for the clans. She says that during his grandfather‘s time it was acceptable to take uncontacted peculiars from others territories, but the act is currently a punishable offense due to the rarity of newborn peculiars. She says Noor is not their concern and if she is in any danger, then it is Jacob’s fault before leaving. She leaves and the others soon follow suit. Before she leaves however, Emma tells Jacob that he is not Abe and he should stop trying to be. As Rafael heals him he sees that the first only one he can blame is his grandfather for not telling him about peculiardom. He hobbles back to his house and calls H, who he can sense is angry with but forgave him. He asks why Abe never told him about peculiardom, H says his grandfather wanted him to have a normal life but died before he had the chance. He asks about the clues and H says he was preparing him just in case he died. H says he is going to do one last job and retire, Jacob sences this has something to do with Noor and asks to come along, H denies this and hangs up.

Jacob changes clothes before heading back to the Panloopticon to head to the loop in Manhattan. He runs into Sharon who asks why he is not heading to Miss Wren’s menagerie. Jacob tells him they did not mean to ruin the negotiations, but Sharon voices his understanding, he feels that the ymbrynes are too used to running peculiardom by themselves and shut out suggestions from the rest of peculiarkind. He tells Jacob of a meeting between others who feel this way on Saturday and invites him to join in. Jacob accepts but sees he is not going against the ymbrynes, Sharon in happy and gives him a ticket for anywhere. He heads to the loop, February 8th 1937, and puts on a coat to avoid suspension until he reaches the back membrane. When he returns to the present, he speaks out the restaurant. He finds it and a man points him to a nearby apartment building. He uses Horatio to guide himself to H and when he arrives on H’s floor, he finds the hall devoid of any light.

Jacob makes his way to H’s apartment to find H dying on the floor with Horatio over him and Noor unconscious on the couch. He learns that Noor saved H’s life on the way home, but just until they arrived. He noticed that Horatio was crying over H. He tells Jacob to seek out V and to take Noor with him. H says that Noor, along with six other peculiars, are a group of seven prophesied peculiars who will bring peculiardom to a new age. He asks H about the children Leo said Abe killed. He says that, despite not killing the children themselves, they are responsible for their deaths. He tells Jacob that a group of normals are still around trying to eradicate peculiardom. H asks him to step aside and has Horatio eat his eyes as he died. Jacob looks away and, when he turns back, H is dead and Horatio is turning into a wight. Noor wakes up and is started by the transformation and releases the light in her body. When she stops Horatio is at the window pointing to a safe that was blown open containing a map, money and a picture of a town. Horatio tells them coordinates, E-six and D-five, and jumps from the window. Jacob convinces Noor to come with him, and they set out to find V.

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