1.

array
an impressive display

I heard Golan scream a spectacular array of curses, and then something clattered down the stairs,
landing nearby.

2. blanch
turn pale, as if in fear

I told her everything, all the sketchy facts and rumors Id overheard, and sheblanched.

3. careen
move sideways or in an unsteady way

Just as it was about to lash its trident of tongues at her, she rammed Martins ice trough with the full
weight of her body and levered her arms under it as it tipped and then heaved it and the whole
huge thing, full of ice and fish and Martins body, careened through the air and fell upon the
hollow with a terrific crash.

4. collateral
accompanying; following as a consequence

More like me are coming, and I can guarantee the collateral damage they do will make what I did
to your friend seem downright charitable.

5. debase
make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance
The four of you together might be enough to finally shift old Malthus out of the debased form hes
been stuck in so long.

6. desecrate
violate the sacred character of a place or language

It was easy now to picture what this place would one day become: that sad and desecrated wreck I
had first discovered weeks ago.

7. dossier
papers containing detailed information about a person

He pointed the flashlight at each of us and spoke as if quoting some secretdossier.

8. effigy
a representation of a person

A man so despised, so foul tempered, so robotically inflexible that on the last day of eighth grade
we defaced his yearbook picture with staples and left it like an effigy behind his seat.

9. excavate
find by digging in the ground

Each of us chose a trough and dug into it like a dog excavating a prized bed of flowers, our cupped
hands scooping mounds of ice onto the floor.

10. exponentially
in a manner of rapid growth
Its a highly complex and dangerous undertaking, but by leapfrogging from one loop to anothera
day fifty years in the past, for instancethen youll find you have access to a whole range of
loops that have ceased to exist in the last fifty years. Should you have the wherewithal to travel
to them, within those youll find still other loops, and so on exponentially.

11. falter
move hesitatingly, as if about to give way

Olive, claiming she had misplaced her leaden shoes, took to crawling around the ceiling like a fly,
dropping grains of rice on peoples heads until they looked up and noticed her, at which point
shed burst into laughter so all-consuming that her levitation would falter and shed have to grab
onto a chandelier or curtain rod just to keep from falling.

12. feign
make believe with the intent to deceive

So that night I feigned a flu-like illness and locked myself in my room, then slipped out the window
and climbed down a drainpipe to the ground.

13. flotsam
the floating wreckage of a ship

We tried to paddle against it but had no more luck than flotsam caught in a tidal wave, and then it
thudded against our feet and we were rising, too, riding its back.

14. gouge
make a groove in
The landscape was gouged with smoking craters, fresh-turned earth thrown everywhere as if some
giant dog had been digging at it.

15. gourmand
a person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess

That we would be so easy to kill was the only reason we werent dead already; like
a gourmand about to enjoy a fine meal, there was no reason to rush things.

16. inevitable
an unavoidable event

But youll only be delaying the inevitable, not to mention making things worse for yourselves. We
know how to find you now.

17. inexplicable
incapable of being explained or accounted for

Emma made frequent and passionate arguments as to why I should stay, none of which
acknowledged the life I would be abandoning (however meager it seemed), or how the
sudden inexplicable disappearance of their only child might affect my parents, or the stifling
suffocation that Emma herself had admitted feeling inside the loop.

18. jettison
throw away, of something encumbering

Ten peculiar children and one peculiar bird were made to fit in just three stout rowboats, with much
being jettisoned and left behind on the dock.
19. lament
a cry of sorrow and grief

And so Enoch held up Miss Peregrines cage and she let out a great screeching cry. We answered
with a cry of our own, both a victory yell and alament, for everything lost and yet to be gained.

20. listless
marked by low spirits; showing no enthusiasm

But whenever they werent under direct orders to do something, the children sank heavily into
chairs, stared listlessly out locked windows, paged through dog-eared books theyd read a
hundred times before, or slept.

21. lope
run easily

We shed our black coats and loped through the grass, doubled-over like commandos, until we
came to the path that led to the beach.

22. modesty
freedom from vanity or conceit

Oh, stuff the modesty! Emma said proudly. You killed it.

23. noxious
injurious to physical or mental health
A shadow appeared in the doorway behind him, and a moment later we were overcome by
a noxious wave of stench.

24. ornithologist
a scientist who studies birds

I couldnt see his face through the beam of light, but the layered jackets he wore were an instant
giveaway. It was the ornithologist.

25. percolate
spread gradually

The rain had finally eased, and the beginning of a blue day waspercolating on the horizon.

26. pessimistic
expecting the worst possible outcome

The islanders often made gloomy predictions about what Mother Nature had in store for
Cairnholmthey were at the mercy of the elements, after all, and pessimistic by defaultbut
this time their worst fears were confirmed.

27. precipice
a very steep cliff

Yet as we stood loading our boats in the breaking dawn, on a brand newprecipice of Before and
After, I thought of everything I was about to leave behindmy parents, my town, my once-best-
and-only friendand I realized that leaving wouldnt be like I had imagined, like casting off a
weight.
28. predicate
involve as a necessary condition of consequence

And if I may anticipate a few more of your questions, yes, I am a licensed therapistthe minds of
common people have long
fascinated meand no, despite the fact that our sessions were predicated on a lie, I dont think
they were a complete waste of time.

29. pungent
strong and sharp to the sense of taste

And then I could smell it, even more pungent than the houses other stinks, and I could feel it at the
threshold of the room.

30. rebuff
reject outright and bluntly

Hands shot up around the room, but she rebuffed all questions and marched off to secure the
doors.

31. rivulet
a small stream

He was bleeding badly from a cut on the bridge of his nose, rivulets of red streaking his face like
tears.

32. skeptical
marked by or given to doubt
It was strange to think that one day I might have my own stack of yellowed photos to
show skeptical grandchildrenand my own fantastic stories to share.

33. skittish
unpredictably excitable, especially of horses

I took her hand and we pushed into the house, snaking through a maze ofskittish animals that
shied from our touch.

34. succumb
be fatally overwhelmed

Whats really insane is how you peculiars hide from the world when you could rule it succumb to
death when you could dominate itand let the common genetic trash of the human race drive
you underground when you could so easily make them your slaves, as they rightly should be!

35. tableau
any dramatic scene

Inside was a tableau of frustration that mightve been straight out of Norman Rockwell, if Norman
Rockwell had painted people doing hard time in jail.

36. tangible
perceptible by the senses especially the sense of touch

Their memory was something tangible and heavy, and I would carry it with me.

37. torpor
 a state of motor and mental inactivity

Miss Avocet stayed on, emerging from her torpor now and then to wander the halls, calling out
forlornly for her poor abandoned wards before slumping into someones arms to be taken back
to bed.

38. tourniquet
a bandage that stops the flow of blood by applying pressure

Not before we take care of you, I said. Who knows how to make atourniquet?

39. undulate
move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion

I tried hacking at the tongue with my shears, but it was too sinewy and tough, a rope
of undulating muscle, and my shears too dull.

40. unmitigated
not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity

I wish your mother and I had never let that crackpot therapist talk us into bringing you out here,
because it has been an unmitigated disaster!