Review: THE MARVELS by Brian Selznick

Who are the Marvels? I'm glad you asked. The Marvels are a family of actors, ruling over the Royal Theater in London across generations, until one them decides he doesn't like acting. Did he and his family survive the burning of the famous theater? Meanwhile, in the 1990s, a young boy named Joseph runs away from school to the home of his uncle, who lives in a mysterious house frozen in time. How are the Marvels and Joseph's uncle connected? With the help of an odd new friend named Frankie, Joseph aims to find out before his uncle sends him back to boarding school.

I loved Wonderstruck and The Invention of Hugo Cabret, so when The Marvels came out I was pretty durned excited. As always, Selznick combines art and story in The Marvels in a way that's not-quite graphic novel, nor quite illustrated text. However, unlike in his previous two books, I didn't feel like the art was well integrated with the secondary narrative (or at all, really), and the story was kinda boring.

The first half of The Marvels is really a GIGAAAAAAANNNNNNNNTIC, image-only prologue about the family the Marvels: who their founder was (a lone 18th-century shipwreck survivor named Billy) and their looong history with the theater. Y'all know how I feel about prologues, especially prologues disguising themselves as actual beginnings of a book, but this part of the book didn't annoy me *because* it was a prologue.

No, what annoyed me was the complete lack of anything resembling a story or character development. The art was fantastic, of course (Selznick can really tell a story through images; he should take up film directing), but it was basically like a giant book of begats. You know, the part of the Bible where it's all like, "This guy married this woman and begat so and so, he begat so and so, and then he begat another blah blah blah, and blah blah blah married what's-her-face and begat yada yada," and it goes on and on and on. The first half of The Marvels was really exactly like that: Billy Marvel adopted whomever (I forgot his name, something theatrical), and he married an actress and they had a baby, then that baby grew up and slept with some woman, and they had a baby, then THAT baby, miracle of miracles, also got married and had a baby, and I'm like:

(Except not actually, because unlike Mrs. Hudson my parents are very strict about in-home firearm discharge.)

The second half of the book is pretty much all text, like a regular book, and has an actual plot. So, plus side! At first it's also a pretty good story: there are Questions, like what happened to Joseph's friend at boarding school, who is this weird kid running around chasing after a dog constantly, and why does his uncle live in a house that looks like the Victorian family it really belongs to just stepped out of a holiday party to go caroling?

Yes, these are intriguing questions. If only the answers to them were half as interesting. If I was a middle-grade reader the case might have been different, but as it was I found myself pretty bored and skimming to get to the end. There is a twist, but I felt like it made the book lamer rather twisty and interesting.

The Marvels isn't awful, but compared to Selznick's other novels it felt uninspired and rushed. I don't know why he didn't break up all those damn begats, but he should have; that would have helped a lot. Or, you know, just write a novel using words! That would have worked too. Either way, I think this book misses the mark.


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Review: MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs

Instead of reading the prologue, you can just watch this book trailer!

Jacob grew up listening to his grandfather's stories of "peculiar children"--orphans who were rescued and sent to live on an island during WWII, one of whom was Jake's grandfather. Unlike most orphans, however, the orphans Jake's grandpa knew had strange powers and abilities, which were captured in photographs that his grandpa kept. After Jake's grandfather is murdered, he sets out on mission to find out the truth about his grandfather's odd stories.



Despite the fact that there are reviews of this book all over the freaking place, I started Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children with very little idea of what it was about. When I read the reviews, all I heard was: "Pictures! Creepy pictures of olde-timey kids being creepy!" That alone was enough to make me want to check Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children out, of course, but there's a lot more to the novel than just pictures, and honestly the creepy kid photos are probably the least-successful element of the book.

Not that they're UNsuccessful. I can see where Ransom Riggs (incredible name for a writer, by the way) was going with that idea, and I love it. But I'm not sure including the photographs in the text was necessary, and at times it felt gimmicky. Why are these kids running around taking pictures of themselves and then saving them all? Where are these photographs even developed in the time loop, hmmm?

I did adore Riggs' writing style and the voice of the main character, Jacob. As someone whose own grandparents come from Germany and lived through WWII, I really connected to all the generational things going on between Jake and his dad and grandpa. He also freaking TIME TRAVELS--I mean, come on. That's really the best part of the novel (although the entire time I kept thinking, "Nazis aren't enough, we need wights and hallows too?" A little OTT). Riggs can write creepy REALLY well. Honestly, for the first three-fourths of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I didn't want to put the book down at all.

Then I hit the last quarter of the book and it started to literally put me to sleep. I think it's mainly because the "magical" elements of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children aren't grounded enough in the world of the novel; or maybe they're just too obvious? It was as if Miss Peregrine's started off as magical realism and then switched to middle-grade fantasy. I pretty much lost all emotional investment in the story by the end of the book.

My feelings about Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children are very mixed at this point, but I have say it's interesting--and I mean that in a good way. Intriguing concept, unexpected story, and a writer who's not afraid to take chances. I love how Riggs took real photographs and quilted them together into a story with emotional depth. As I'm always willing to reward experimentation even if it doesn't quite hit the mark, I think this might be one of my more memorable reads of the year.

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

I rarely take much note of opening sentences, but this book has one of the best I've ever come across: 

There was a boy called Odd, and there was nothing strange or unusual about that, not in that time or place.  Odd meant the tip of a blade, and it was a lucky name.

He was odd, though.  At least, the other villagers thought so.  But if there was one thing that he wasn't, it was lucky.

Is that a great set-up or what?  As the opening paragraph states, Odd is a boy living in a Viking village.  He has one lame leg and an infuriating smile, and at the end of one very long winter he decides to go off on his own to his father's hut in the woods.  There he meets a bear, a fox, and an eagle, and has many adventures.

This a great piece of storytelling, and I was continually surprised by the problems Odd encountered and how he surpassed them.  One of Odd's most unusual characteristics is that he doesn't let things bother him.  And even when they do, he just smiles.  I think this trait of Odd's is the most striking part of the book:  Odd has gone through a lot of crap--losing his dad, breaking his leg, being an outcast in his village, and then this adventure.  Through it all, Odd maintains his cool demeanor, even as the reader empathizes deeply with his losses and challenges.

I think this marks Odd as extraordinary because learning not to let bad things affect you--or at the very least affect your outward demeanor--and thinking through situations instead of just reacting to them is something we learn to do as adults (hopefully).  But for Odd, it's part of his essential make-up.  Even though he is a child, he's more of an adult than anyone in his village or even the beings he meets in the forest.  It's not until he leaves the village for the forest and then returns, that anyone realizes this, however.

Does this mean Odd doesn't change during the course of the book?  No.  He discovers new ways to see his parents and he finds out what makes us human.

This is a very short, entertaining little gem of a book I highly recommend.

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