The Peculiar was one of the books that I was really looking forward to reading ever since I saw the cover and read the synopsis. I love the cover of this book! Unfortunately, it took me a long time to even get into this book. It's a fast read, but I just wasn't loving it as much as I had hoped I would until about the last 100 pages. So it did pick up and redeem itself for me, but still very hard for me to get into. I don't even know why. The writing was good so I think it might have just had a hard time connecting with the main characters. There were some points where it might have been a bit too descriptive, but I've read much more descriptive books and not had trouble with them. So it was a bit of a disappointment, but like I said, it picked up in the end.There are two protagonists in this one. Bartholomew Kettle, who is a peculiar (changeling, half fay, half human). Then there is Arthur Jelliby, a high ranking young man in London who for some reason feels compelled to help Bartholomew find his sister who was kidnapped. I didn't really connect with either character, but will say that I liked Arthur more of the two. You kind of always know who the bad guy is, so it doesn't even keep you guessing with that.Once the story picked up, it finished off as a good read. I do want to know what happened next though. So I will be reading the next book, The Whatnot, to see what happens. So this is a good read, but not as good as I had hoped, for me that is. Still a good middle grade read and I would probably recommend it still!