Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist

They do say not to judge a book by its cover, but in this case we can make an exception. The cover is definitely an eyecatcher. And the pages between are just as stunning. The story is mysterious, bordering on eerie. The characters not what you expect, after the first glimpse they become as intricate and in their own way intriguing and beautiful as the cover that cloaks them. 

I won’t give any of the story away other than that a young woman arrives in Amsterdam of the 1600s, newly married to a rich merchant, to move into his grand house, only to be greeted in a cold, if not hostile manner by his haughty, austere sister and some quite lippy servants. No trace to begin with of the husband, who, even after an eventual arrival, extends no more interest in his new bride than a polite handshake. The young woman is justifiably befuddled and disillusioned – it’s not what she imagined her marriage to start like. And then her husband buys her this elaborate, extremely expensive dollhouse, which is a carbon copy of the house she’s just moved into.  The young woman doesn’t know what to make of any of it. And things get stranger yet. Arguments in the household she cannot make sense of. Odd glances thrown, but nothing explained. And when she hires a miniaturist to help her furnish her dollhouse, she starts receiving odd presents with mysterious messages attached... and the dollhouse starts influencing her life in an uncanny way she can make as little heads or tail of as the rest of her new environment.

What really makes this book in the first place is its almost tangible atmosphere. You are transported to a historical Amsterdam that glitters in frost and the mysteries woven through its fabric, you inhabit the characters like your own skin. And do I sound silly when I say it *feels* Dutch? I’m a sucker for being transported to places in my mind and given a taste of their essence, and this a Ben and Jerry’s of a sampler. For a debut, it’s absolutely mindblowing. It’s a stunning movie for the mind and the senses. It was our book of the month for good reason, and just for its beauty it’s worth buying the hardback, because ... well, because as a paperback or even e-book, it will just feel like having Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker on a shredded old tape. I got a netgalley proof, and I’m buying the hardcover, baby. 

Toodles,

Patty

Karen Maitland's "The Vanishing Witch"

Ever since Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, I’ve been HOOKED on historical fiction – the more medieval, the better. Characters, for me, cannot be covered in enough sh*t, living in hovels, plagued bysuperstition and a wee bit of pestilence. Sure, there are Philippa Gregory’s various novels (and various other authors), awesomely  describing life at court, the power battles and intrigues. Thoroughly enjoy those! But my favourites are still those novels with a wide range of characters, telling tales of all walks of life of that age. Some friends of mine and I had a dorky little Pillars of the Earth fanclub... and one day one of them told me to read Karen Maitland. It took me a while to take up that recommendation, but I have never regretted it. Maitland is INCREDIBLY readable. You break through the barrier with ease and full on dive into the dark ages... and what makes her so brilliant is that her stories always border on the magical, without ever becoming fully fledged fantasy. The magical element in her books is rather born out of the superstitions of the characters. You become so immersed in that world that you cannot tell anymore what is simple trickery and what is magic, or whether there is magic at all. Much like a medieval person must have felt like, the boundaries between simply not knowing things and actual exposure to magic are blurry. It’s a world with an intriguing but completely different mindset, with different hardships and values, yet entirely relatable as a human experience. Her previous works, such as “Company of Liars” and “The Owl Killers” were absolutely stunning, and “The Vanishing Witch” easily keeps up with them. While I won’t ruin the fun and give the story away, rest assured that nothing in it is as it seems, and it’s often not easy to tell who you can trust. It leaves you feeling vulnerable, tense, thrilled yet enchanted. I absolutely adored it.

Your repressed citizen,

Patty