Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Jacob is stunned: he knows his grandfather can see monsters, and he knows he can see them, too. It explains why his grandfather saw them all his life, and why Ricky didn’t see the monster that night. Jacob isn’t crazy—that’s his gift. Emma explains that she and other peculiars can only see the monsters’ shadows, which is why the monsters hunt at night. But fortunately, the monsters don’t know where to find them and they can’t enter loops, so the kids are safe on the island.

Jacob realizes that this is what must have happened to Victor: he must have left the loop. Emma confirms his theory, explaining that Victor was going crazy on the island, so he left and was murdered. Jacob admits sadly that the monsters found his grandfather, too. He and Emma continue to talk until the moon is very low in the sky, and then they paddle back to the beach. On the beach, Hugh and Fiona wave at them—something is definitely wrong. Hugh tells Emma that she must come back, but Jacob can’t come. Emma explains that Jacob is one of them, and that he basically worked out what was going on himself.

Running back to the house, Hugh explains that one of Miss Peregrine’s fellow ymbrynes flew to the house, terrified, and before they could understand what happened, she fainted. Back at the house, the children speculate about what might have happened, getting more and more upset about the horrific possibilities. Then, Miss Peregrine calls out asking for Emma and Jacob—the other kids had to tell her that the pair ran off together, and she was furious.

Emma and Jacob enter the sitting room, where the other ymbryne, Miss Avocet, is barely conscious in a chair. Miss Peregrine is feeding the woman some dark liquid to revive her, while Bronwyn hovers nearby. Miss Peregrine sends Bronwyn away to prepare a couch for Miss Avocet and to fetch another bottle of wine and brandy. When she’s gone, Miss Peregrine scolds Emma for sneaking away, but given what has happened, she doesn’t think it’s worth the effort to punish her.

Jacob redirects the conversation, asking when Miss Peregrine was planning to tell him that he was peculiar. She says that she didn’t want to shock him by telling him everything during their first meeting. Jacob says he spent his whole life not believing his grandfather, and maybe if he had, Abe would still be alive. Emma comforts Jacob, explaining that Abe would have known Jacob was peculiar and must have had a good reason for keeping it a secret. Miss Peregrine says he probably wanted to protect Jacob.

Continuing, Miss Peregrine explains that Abe probably wanted Jacob to have a normal life, not a life in hiding. He went to war to protect his people—both Jews and peculiars—and afterward he went to America because it had few “hollowgast” (monsters) at the time. Many peculiars moved to America and passed as common, which Abe desperately wanted to do. He wanted Jacob to have the life he never could. But other peculiars often called upon him to help find and kill the hollowgast—the “hunting trips” his grandfather used to go on. Hearing this, Jacob reframes how he thought about his grandfather. He risked his life for others, and for his sacrifices, he only made his family upset and suspicious.

Then, Bronwyn returns, and Miss Peregrine tries to revive Miss Avocet. Miss Avocet wakes in surprise at seeing Miss Peregrine, before she remembers that she came to warn them about a pair of wights who invaded their loop. They barricaded Miss Avocet inside the house and dragged the children away. Her fellow ymbryne, Miss Bunting, was abducted—it seems there is a coordinated attack happening against ymbrynes. Miss Avocet starts to cry for her wards, and Miss Peregrine tries to comfort the woman.

Outside the sitting room, the other children have been listening in on the conversation. When Miss Peregrine emerges, she tells them to remain calm and to be on watch, explaining that they can travel beyond the house only with her permission. She insists that Jacob spend the night, and he agrees only on the condition that she tells him about what killed his grandfather. She relents, frustrated at his persistence.

Jacob and Miss Peregrine head to the greenhouse, and she begins her story. Long ago, people thought that peculiars were gods—but they aren’t immortal. The time loops can help delay death but not escape it entirely. About a hundred years earlier, a group of peculiars thought they could use the time loops to reverse aging, so they could enjoy eternal youth even outside of a time loop. Her two brothers were interested in the idea and asked her to help with their plan. She insisted that this shouldn’t be done, that it was dangerous and against the laws of nature, but they didn’t listen.

Miss Peregrine’s brothers, along with a few traitorous ymbrynes and several hundred peculiars, went to Siberia to make their plan a reality. They caused a massive explosion, but they survived—in a “living damnation.” Only their shadows could be seen, except by peculiars like Jacob, and they attacked other peculiars. They “transformed themselves into devils” rather than gods. She believes that they reversed their aging so severely as to exist during a time before their souls or hearts existed—which is why they are called “hollowgast.” They achieved immortality but now have a life of “constant physical torment,” longing to feed on the flesh of other peculiars. If a hollow eats enough peculiars, it becomes a wight.

Wights, Miss Peregrine explains, have no peculiar abilities, but they pass for human, so they can act as spies for the hollows. Their goal is to kill all the peculiars and allow the hollows to become wights. Fortunately, they don’t retain any memory from their former lives, so they don’t know where the peculiars are hiding. She also gives Jacob some clues to identify wights: they lack pupils. Jacob then remembers the old man he saw watering his grandfather’s lawn, whom he thought was blind. Miss Peregrine then shows Jacob an album with photos of wights who lived in society—as a mall Santa or an oral surgeon, for example. She shows Jacob a picture of a wight about to abduct a young peculiar, which the wight left behind as a dramatic gesture.

Miss Peregrine is showing Jacob the pictures because she needs his help: he is the only one who can go outside the loop, and he can watch for new arrivals on the island. Jacob remembers the birder who was watching him, and he wonders how the man could have known he was peculiar. Miss Peregrine explains that if the wights knew about his grandfather, they most certainly know about Jacob, too. Jacob starts to feel nauseous, realizing how vulnerable he’s been since his grandfather died. He asks if he’ll ever be safe anywhere, and she tells him that he’d be safe on the island.

Jacob returns to town at dawn, crawling into bed just before his dad stirs from his drunken sleep. Jacob sleeps until late that afternoon, waking to find a nice note and flu pills his dad left for him. Then, thinking about his dad alone in the fields, Jacob starts to worry and throws on a jacket to go searching for him. Jacob doesn’t find either his dad or the birder, and so he returns to the Priest Hole at dusk, where he finds his father. Jacob warns him to keep his distance from the birder, suggesting that he might have killed the sheep. Jacob’s dad wonders why Jacob is saying this. For a moment Jacob wants to explain everything—he even wants to go back to his life before knowing anything about Miss Peregrine’s. But instead, they talk about insubstantial things until Jacob goes upstairs, alone.