The Marvels

by Brian Selznick

In The Marvels, Selznick crafts another remarkable artistic and bookmaking
achievement that weaves together two seemingly unrelated
stories-one in words, the other in pictures-with spellbinding synergy.


The illustrated story begins in 1766 with Billy Marvel, the lone
survivor of a shipwreck, and charts the adventures of his family
of actors over five generations.
The prose story opens in 1990 and follows Joseph, who has run away
from school to an estranged uncle's puzzling house in London, where
he, along with the reader, must piece together many mysteries.


Filled with mystery, vibrant characters, surprise twists, and heart-rending
beauty, and featuring Selznick's most arresting art to
date, The Marvels is a moving tribute to the power of story.

• ISBN13: 9780545448680
• Publish Date: 15 September 2015 (first published 3 September 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 8 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Scholastic US
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 640
• Language: English

Reviews

[katjah]

New way of storytelling: the first part is completely told in drawings, and the second part in words. The stories don't seem to connect at first but as you go along they will. Made me cry

[nannah]

(4.5)

I definitely didn't expect this kind of depth when I picked this up! I'm not sure why, since a good friend recommended it to me, and she has really good taste. Maybe it's because I've read Brian Selznick's other works, and none of them really resonated with me the way this one has.

Book content warnings:
some unreality (if you dissociate easily)
grief & trauma

The first half (and very last bit) of this book is solely composed of illustrations--as anyone who's read Brian Selznick's other works are familiar with. Gorgeous pictures! The second half is where the "real" story comes in to play, and where the first half is explained (ish). The composition of the story (illustrations first, prose second) is actually part of the reason I love it so much. Kind of genius actually, because it's part of the book's major twist.

Joseph has run away in 1990 from his boarding school to London on the search for his Uncle Albert. He hopes to get his help in finding someone else: his friend who was removed from school mysteriously, leaving no way to be found. But when Joseph finds his uncle, he finds a house where time has stopped and a mystery (in the form of the first part of the book) he needs to solve. But as he tries to solve it, will it end up severing his fragile relationship with his uncle?

Again, I have to mention: the composition of this book is marvelous (ha). As a reader, you genuinely don't know what's happening before the characters, and the surprises and twists are genuinely eye-opening and amazing!

Besides that, characters and places are very painstakingly and lovingly created, even when given very little scene-time. Including the Uncle Albert's relationship with Billy, his late husband--yes, he's LGBT. :') It's also heavily implied that the main character, Joseph, is too, when the book returns to illustrative form at the very end--where it ends very sweetly and in the most satisfying way. In fact, the entire second half of the book seems to have "straight-baited" the audience instead of "lgbt-baiting" it, which almost makes me want to cry with happiness.

All in all, this was a wonderfully, carefully-crafted book, and I definitely need to buy the hardcover version to keep.

[wcs53]

I really enjoyed this book. It's two stories written in picture and prose, which, in the end, come together to form one. Two words to describe it would be magical and beautiful. It's not a difficult read, but there's a lot going on here nonetheless.

The first part of the book, which is completely written in pictures, describes the story of London theatre family, the Marvels, from 1766 to the turn of the 20th century. It ends abruptly and the second part, which is totally words, begins in 1990 with the story of troubled young boy who has run away from boarding school and ended up at the door of an uncle in London whom he has never met before. As his story unfolds, so does the part that the first story plays in the book as a whole.

In the end it all comes together well, but, I have to admit, not in the way I expected it to. At one point I thought it was going to be predictable, but it was far from it.

If you enjoyed Selznick's other two books written in similar form to The Marvels, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck, then I'd recommend this one as well. It's well worth checking out, not just for the well-written story, but also for the wonderful artwork.