When a Book Lives Up to Its Hype

I admit it. I avoided reading The Peculiar for far too long. Its author, Stefan Bachmann, started writing the book at 16, and as we know, sometimes books written by teenagers stand on their own, and sometimes they owe too much to their predecessors (nota bene: this is true for books by adults, too). This particular ARC had back-cover copy by the publisher, Greenwillow, praising it as an “extraordinary debut” and likening the author to, among others, Neil Gaiman. I was, I ADMIT IT, skeptical; what teenage writer could live up to that praise? Well, it turns out, Stefan Bachmann can.