Brian Selznick's New York Times Best-Seller, Wonderstruck, takes the reader along two stories at once, constantly cutting between the two. The two characters explore the world with similar motives, looking for a lost parent. Using different forms of storytelling, written and drawn, Brian Selznick carefully and meaningfully intertwines the stories together, leaving the reader with feelings of mystery and curiosity as they plow through the book. Throughout the entirety of Wonderstruck, the book presents a captivating story that's hard to put down.
Ben Wilson struggles with the death of his mother, and he often would visit her old bedroom. One day while searching through her old bedroom, he finds a book titled Wonderstruck, and upon further investigation, he finds clues to find his then-missing father. Unfortunately, A lightning bolt in a thunderstorm strikes his house, causing him to become deaf in one ear. Another character, Rose, was fully deaf. She hated her tutor, and her father wasn't able to understand her. She didn't want to learn how to lip-read and becomes upset when her local movie theater switched to movies with sound rather than silent ones with captions, rendering her unable to enjoy movies again. Later on, Rose finds out her mother is Lillian Mayhew, a famous actress, and thus sets out to find her. Both Ben and Rose run off to New York City, on a mission to find their absent parents.
Ben reaches a dead end in his search as his father no longer lived at the address he thought he did. He goes to a museum where he finds a new friend, Jamie, who he stays with. Rose ends up finding her mother, but she coldly tells her to go back home. Rose runs to the same museum as Ben where she finds her older brother, Walter. He reads Wonderstruck to her, the same book Ben read before his travels. Jamie and Ben go to a bookstore to find his grandmother. She takes them to a panorama of New York City in the Queens Museum. She explains to them the story of Ben’s father and then also tells them about her life, revealing to them that her name was Rose, the same Rose from the other storyline in the book. As they admired the city and the stars, the novel ends.
With complex storytelling, author Brian Selznick combines two separate stories together. Rose's storyline took place ~50 years prior, interlaced with the rest of the book. Ben's story was written out while Rose's story was told almost entirely by carefully drawn graphite artwork, creating contrast and separating the two storylines. The reader doesn't figure out the relationship between the two until the very end when Ben's grandmother reveals her identity, creating mystery and suspense. In moments such as her interaction with Lillian Mayhew, Rose's story didn't make much cohesive sense as a lot of things were random and unexplained. Despite this, I feel as though that aspect added a unique flair, almost making me more engaged as I wondered more about Rose's life.
While reading this book, I struggled to put it down, and I ended up finishing it in 2 days. Brian Selznick's distinct and unique style of storytelling is definitely not one to pass up, and I really enjoyed the way he wrote two stories at once. Even though the book had an anticlimactic ending as well as a lack of a proper climax, I still enjoyed it. This book is much more of a novel for emotions rather than a thrill. Although I often find it hard to enjoy these types of books, I enjoyed Wonderstruck a lot and will definitely re-read it sometime in the future.
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