3.5 stars 
 This was my first Brian Selznick book- I've been recommended his books numerous times (especially The Invention of Hugo Cabret) but was always a little scared of the size of the books. I didn't realize a good chunk of the book was pictures. Whoops. 
 This was a really unique format for the book, the first 400 pages or so were exclusively pictures telling the story, then 200 pages of written story, with 10 or so pictures at the end. It was difficult for me to get out of the mindset of reading words and briefly glancing at the illustrations and really focus on the storytelling in the pictures. So the format was interesting but took time for me to get into. 
 I liked the story and thought it was interesting. I never knew what was real and what wasn't (which I suppose is kind of the point) so the adventure was trying to piece together all of the details to understand the story. My only concern was the written story was lacking something- I'm not sure what exactly- but it felt like the story was rushed and an afterthought. Aside from a few places that seemed sloppy, the story overall was really interesting and I was surprised to find that the house in the story was based on a real house in London! I definitely would love to visit the house in the future and see The Marvels in real life.