THE MINIATURIST.

THE MINIATURIST by JESSIE BURTON.

BACK COVER BLURB: On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives at a grand house in Amsterdam to begin her new life as the wife of wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt. Though curiously distant, he presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is to be furnished by an exclusive miniaturist, whose tiny creations ring eerily true.

As Nella uncovers the secrets of her new household she realizes the escalating dangers they face. The miniaturist seems to hold their fate in her hands - but does she plan to save or destroy them?

FIRST SENTENCE {The Old Church, Amsterdam: Tuesday, 14th January 1687}: The funeral is supposed to be a quiet affair, for the deceased had no friends.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 218}: She cannot marry the blood-soaked shirt, the protruding hilt and his pleadings for life with this cockiness, this morbid glee at having tricked her that he was on his way to meet his maker.

SOURCE: A Reading Group read though this is my own copy purchased from a church fair.

MY THOUGHTS: Utterly disappointed with this much-hyped novel. 

Such a promising premise, after all how many woman as girls dreamt of having such a doll's house? I know I did.

The story of what happens when Nella is given a 'cabinet' house (a replica of her marital home) on her marriage to Johannes, a man she barely knows and one who it seems is in no hurry to consummate their marriage. Not that that's the biggest 'mystery' - I say mystery when the reason behind this one is at least pretty apparent - in a book full of them. 

And therein lies my first problem with the book.

So many of these 'mysteries' go either unanswered or, oddly enough even more frustratingly, not satisfactorily answered, the unsatisfying ending leaving so many of the threads unresolved. Without giving too much away the motivations behind the'miniaturist' herself being the most puzzling.

A slow burner of a read with a weak plot that never quite delivers and equally 'wishy-washy' characters. I'm afraid worst of all was how implausible I found the whole thing. 

As with most (if indeed not all) historical fiction I understand that a certain amount of poetical licence is generally employed BUT ...

With a lead character who has all of the sensibilities (and indeed liberal views on sexuality) of her 21st century counterparts I'm afraid I found the not yet out of her teens Nella who wandered 17th century Amsterdam an unchaperoned 'feisty feminist' laughably incredulous.

All in all a book full of overblown prose that on the face of it appears 'significant' and yet when I actually paused to think about it was actually quite meaningless.  

As I said, utterly disappointed.