Review: The Marvels by Brian Selznick

Title: The Marvels
Author: Brian Selznick
Source/Format: Won, Hardcover
More Details: Middle Grade, Historical
Publisher/Publication Date: Scholastic Press, September 15, 2015

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Two seemingly unrelated stories--one in words, the other in pictures--come together. 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...

I read two of Selznick’s books before I finally got to the last one I had on my shelf, The Marvels. Following Selznick’s previously established style, The Marvels is told half in pictures and half in words. Thus, the book was a delightful, thoroughly engrossing story from beginning to end.

Half the story belonged to Billy Marvel, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. And the other half belonged to Joseph, a young boy in 1990 who has run away from school. Part of the intrigue with Selznick’s books, for me, is seeing how the stories will eventually connect. And with The Marvels, that was one of my primary reasons for reading the book. Joseph was a good character. I liked his story. He was a boy who caused some trouble even if that wasn’t what he intended. Billy’s story was equally enjoyable and just as integral to the plot. To understand Joseph’s story, Billy’s had to be told as well. The other characters were delightful as well, and their stories tied in with Joseph’s. Their interactions were some or my favorite parts.

The illustrations perfectly conveyed the characters emotions, and were effective at telling a story on their own. The setting was, again, historical, and developed in a way that showed that Selznick knew what he was doing and had done his research. In the end, I am glad that I read The Marvels. It’s easily become one of my favorites.

Musing Mondays (46) Favorite Book Settings

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

Random Weekly Question from January 11th: What book(s) are you most excited to read, this year? Is there anything special on tap?

 I read some amazing books last year and I'm just sitting around waiting for the next books in the series. So, I want ALL of the sequel's.I've already read some of the ones I was looking forward to. Some of them have been great, while others fell a little short. However, there are some new books on my radar, so here are just a few I'm still desperately waiting for:

• Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
• Love Charms and Other Catastrophes by Kimberly Karalius
• Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton 
• Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin

This list is not exact, so there will probably be other books that catch my interest later in the year. But for now, those are the one's I'm definitely looking forward to.

Other Musings...

One of the aspects I look for in a book is the setting. The world is what draws me in, and I always look for the rules that the author has come up with to base that fictional world around. Characters and plot are also important too, but setting, for me, is one of the best parts. So, for today, I wanted to talk about some of my favorite fictional book settings.

To start off this list, I'm going with Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, the first four books. Don't get me wrong, the first four books are some of my favorite novels, and I absolutely adore them. But I haven't finished the spin-off series, not that it's bad, but I just haven't. Anyway, I liked the way Kagawa handled the fey in the novels, and to be honest, the books had one of my favorite settings of all time because it was developed so well.

Up next is Hover by Melissa West. I liked a lot about the book, and the setting was pretty much perfect for the story. The alien planet and their method of travelling from there to earth was pretty cool.

The Radiant Road by Katherine Catmull also had an interesting setting, which ended up being one of my favorite aspects about the book. It was developed pretty well and it was magical.

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd. Shepherd managed to create a setting that was seemingly innocuous but also mildly unsettling, which was absolutely perfect for the story. I'm not joking, the setting basically set up the atmosphere that, to me, was necessary in terms of execution. And Shepherd did a wonderful job at it.

This next one is kind of obvious, but it is one of my favorites. The town of Grimbaud from Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius. It was cute and charming, but also a little dangerous despite is romantic atmosphere.




I'm going to leave it there for today, but there are more books that I have read that had some fantastic settings. So, how about you? What are some of your favorite fictional settings/worlds? (It can be in movies or books, doesn't matter as long as it's one of your favorites.)

ARC Review: The Radiant Road by Katherine Catmull

Title: The Radiant Road
Author: Katherine Catmull
Source/Format: First to Read (publisher), EARC
More Details: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Dutton Books for Young Readers, January 19, 2016
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Synopsis from Goodreads...

And sometimes the Strange came to visit Clare, and dreams walked through her waking life...

After years of living in America, Clare Macleod and her father are returning to Ireland, where they’ll inhabit the house Clare was born in—a house built into a green hillside with a tree for a wall. For Clare, the house is not only full of memories of her mother, but also of a mysterious boy with raven-dark hair and dreamlike nights filled with stars and magic. Clare soon discovers that the boy is as real as the fairy-making magic, and that they’re both in great danger from an ancient foe.

Fast-paced adventure and spellbinding prose combine to weave a tale of love, loyalty, and the strength we carry within ourselves...

Here’s the thing about The Radiant Road by Katherine Catmull: it was just okay. There was nothing too bad about the book and there were things that I liked about it.

The things I did enjoy were the concept. This was a fairy book; there was no mistaking it since the themes were present throughout the entire book. I have read a handful of books with similar themes, and I did like Catmull’s take on it. The house was especially interesting for many reasons, mainly because it was magical in a natural sort of way. It also contained elements that connected directly to the fairies. So I did like the setting.

Another aspect that I liked were the fairies. They were interesting, and it was the conclusion to that aspect of the story that kept me reading.

Here are some of the things that fell into the gray area for me, between good and bad, just sort of alright. From the start, it was made clear that Clare was special, she could see things no one else could, spoke of magical creatures and sort of believed in them despite being ridiculed for it. Her life seemed typical for this kind of book, and of course, things do take a turn for the worst once her father moves their family back to Ireland—to the house where she was born. In this way The Radiant Road was a little predictable. I could see things happening but Clare still plodded into them anyway despite being warned of the consequences. As often was the case, Clare wasn’t the one paying the majority of the price for her mistakes, but she did suffer some consequences.

Despite that, I found Clare and Finn’s friendships to be nice. And the plot still held some twists. The ending was okay and it wrapped up the story. The majority of the book was spent building up to this end and, I don't know, I was a little disappointed, but despite that it was an okay ending. So the characters and the story were pretty good.

Overall, The Radiant Road was a book that I found to be okay. It was fun for the most part with some faults. And if I was ever in the mood, I might consider picking up another book by Catmull.

This copy of the book was provided by Penguin First to Read (publisher) for this review, thank you!

ARC Review: The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Title:The Love That Split the World
Author: Emily Henry
Source/Format: First to Read, eARC
More Details: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Razorbill, January 26, 2016

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.  Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right. That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken...

So, I tried to read this book, and I’m a little sad that it ended up being a DNF. The Love that Split the World turned out to be a big disappointment for me. I was actually looking forward to this book. And initially, I thought that The Love that Split the World would be my kind of book. The writing was good. However, and this is a big deal-breaking kind of “however”, there were a few minor details in the beginning that I really didn’t like. After that, I kept putting the book down, and I just couldn’t get into the story even though there were numerous details that should have caught and held my interest. I did give this book the first hundred pages, even a little more—I skipped ahead to see if there was anything that would make me want to read on. Sadly, there wasn’t. At the end of the day, The Love that Split the World didn’t end up being for me. But, if it seems like something you want to read, check out other reviews, and don’t let my opinion stop you.

This copy of the book was provided by Penguin First to Read (publisher) for this review, thank you!

Musing Mondays (45) Random Weekly Questions

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

Today, I'm going to keep it short by answering some of the random weekly questions I missed.

What do you do with your books once you’ve read them?

I review them before finding a place to fit them on my bookshelf. I typically like to keep my books because there's always a chance I'll want to read them again later.

What would you say is the best children’s book you’ve ever read?

Sometimes, I hate questions like these because I have a lot of favorites. So, for that reason alone, I'm going to stick with some of my more recent reads. One of the best children's book I've ever read was probably Finding Serendipity and its sequel, A Week Without Tuesday. You can see what I thought about them HERE & HERE. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick was another good one. Oh, and the entire Double Vision trilogy by F.T. Bradley.

What are you reading this week?