sanmeow's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
this was honestly so interesting. it follows andrew, a dollmaker. he lives a lonely life and spends his time making dolls, which is his greatest passion. one day, he finds himself a penpal. her name is bramber, and she lives in a residential home for unknown health related reasons. andrew feels for bramber and her loneliness, and he falls in love with her. he decides to go to her and rescue her from the residential home so they can be together and free. andrew also spends time reading about another dollmaker called ewa, because bramber likes her. he starts noticing that the stories of ewa chaplin are sometimes eerily similar to his own life.
i really enjoyed the structure of this novel. parts are told by andrew, parts are bramber's letters, and lastly stories about ewa chaplin. i think it worked very well and added some mystery and creepiness to the story. i liked the love story aspect as well, it wasn't typical at all. i adore the writing style and the author's attention to detail. i especially enjoyed the mentions of dolls since i'm a fan of doll inspired horror. the characters felt super real and it was easy for me to sympathize with their struggles.
my only complaint is that the pacing could've been a bit better when it comes to andrew's journey. probably should've been a bit shorter of a read, but it's not a huge issue.
i really enjoyed the structure of this novel. parts are told by andrew, parts are bramber's letters, and lastly stories about ewa chaplin. i think it worked very well and added some mystery and creepiness to the story. i liked the love story aspect as well, it wasn't typical at all. i adore the writing style and the author's attention to detail. i especially enjoyed the mentions of dolls since i'm a fan of doll inspired horror. the characters felt super real and it was easy for me to sympathize with their struggles.
my only complaint is that the pacing could've been a bit better when it comes to andrew's journey. probably should've been a bit shorter of a read, but it's not a huge issue.
readingtheend's review
3.5
(a floor book!) in a twist nobody saw coming, I actually quite enjoyed this! I was sure I wouldn't, and that it would be too frightfully literary for me, but it's got an epistolary element, and there are short stories from a fictional short story collection interspersed throughout, and those two things were pleasing to me. it's a story about blurring the lines of fact and fiction, which is always quite cool, and I liked that the central two characters aren't immediately, magically in love at the end. the book is interested in dwarfism, and a lot of the characters in the short stories are little people, and I never did feel quite sanguine that the author cared about little people qua people, rather than as sort of ... intriguing literary devices. so that was a simmering discomfort the whole time I was reading, and it's ultimately why I won't reread.
womanon's review
2.0
This book was quite enjoyable! However, to me it felt more like separate stories than one, whole story.
annelienvan's review
5.0
Highly original and layered novel. I think i might have to reread this to catch all the references and nuances.
ohnoflora's review
4.0
Such a strange and beguiling book. Made up of letters, snippets of narrative and fairy tales by a fictional writer, the latter of which seem to act as a reflection or counterpoint to the events in the rest of the book. After a while, identities seem to blur together and the characters, whether they are "real" or fictional all seem to be potentially alive, just in different universes. A dream-like book in which stock characters and archetypes (princesses to be rescued, jealous lovers) coalesce and gain solidity to become actual, complex people. I had no idea what to make of this book when I first started and I still don't really, but I loved its strangeness.
juliwi's review against another edition
3.0
Dolls have a very special place in popular culture. On the one hand they’re a symbol of childhood and innocence, on the other hand they’re a staple of the horror genre. Something about them unnerves many people and I find that contrast fascinating. Personally I was never that into dolls, partly because my parents never caved to my complaints that everybody else had them. I left them behind pretty quickly, yet I love the darkness that infuses them in horror movies. It’s the idea of corrupted innocence, I guess, that clings to them. In The Dollmaker Nina Allan puts dolls and those who collect them in the spotlight, while twisting readers expectations. Thanks to Quercus Books, riverrun and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Dolls are not my favourite thing, and yet I've previously found myself fascinated by them in fiction. A story that springs to mind immediately is 'The Doll' by Daphne DuMaurier, in which a young man falls ardently in love with a woman who is enraptured in turn by a doll. The doll, in many ways, becomes a major character in the story, without being truly alive. Similarly in The Dollmaker, dolls are central to the lives of its main characters. They are lifeless representations of how we see ourselves. Or perhaps they hold a piece of us as well. Many of us have a childhood doll or stuffed animal hidden away somewhere, not needing it present in our bedrooms and yet not capable of getting rid of it. In The Dollmaker dolls are both a narrative device as well as the cog upon which the whole novel turns. They bring a Gothic atmosphere to the novel, unsettling the reader every so slightly and thereby opening them up to the questions Allan's novel asks.
The Dollmaker revolves around Andrew Garvie, diminutive himself, crafts dolls with utter care, making them as lifelike as possible. And yet, he is unable to truly infuse them with life. Responding to a posting in a monthly doll collector's magazine, he begins to communicate with Bramber Winters, a woman living in a rather mysterious institute. He decides to surprise her with a visit, hoping that it will spark something more than just a friendship, and the novel follows his slow journey to her. In some ways The Dollmaker is a coming-of-age novel for Andrew, forcing him to finally face his fears of rejection and his own traumas. It is also a contemplative novel, questioning what it means to be alive and how we see ourselves. How does what happened to us affect us now? Can we leave the safety we have found, even if that safety in and of itself poses a threat? Allan doesn't claim to have all the answers, and at times I found myself frustrated by a lack of clarity. Once I finished the novel I still felt like I didn't really know Bramber as an independent character. We see her solely through Andrew's lens, who has idealized her in the same way he has his dolls.
Nina Allan has crafted a very intricate and complicated novel. On the one hand we have Andrew's travel narrative. On the other hand we have Bramber's letters, slowly unraveling the mystery of her life. And then, on a surprising third hand, we have the short stories of Ewa Chaplin, a dollmaker and short story writer that Bramber is obsessed with. Chaplin's stories are mysterious and fantastical, with odd links to Andrew and Bramber's lives. I have to admit that "Ewa Chaplin"'s stories were my favourite part of The Dollmaker. They're atmospheric, dark and full of stunning imagery. I was enraptured by them, which had the consequence that I found myself racing through the rest of the plot just to get to the next story. I wish the same tension and magic had been present in the novel's other story lines, but there was only a faint trace of it here and there. Overall I did enjoy The Dollmaker, even if not all parts of the novel captured me equally.
The Dollmaker is an atmospheric novel which questions how we see ourselves and what we are willing to do to free ourselves. Although not consistently successful, Allan creates some stunning imagery in her novel and crafts a stunning structure. I recommend this novel to those looking for a challenge and interested in the Gothic.
https://universeinwords.blogspot.com
Dolls are not my favourite thing, and yet I've previously found myself fascinated by them in fiction. A story that springs to mind immediately is 'The Doll' by Daphne DuMaurier, in which a young man falls ardently in love with a woman who is enraptured in turn by a doll. The doll, in many ways, becomes a major character in the story, without being truly alive. Similarly in The Dollmaker, dolls are central to the lives of its main characters. They are lifeless representations of how we see ourselves. Or perhaps they hold a piece of us as well. Many of us have a childhood doll or stuffed animal hidden away somewhere, not needing it present in our bedrooms and yet not capable of getting rid of it. In The Dollmaker dolls are both a narrative device as well as the cog upon which the whole novel turns. They bring a Gothic atmosphere to the novel, unsettling the reader every so slightly and thereby opening them up to the questions Allan's novel asks.
The Dollmaker revolves around Andrew Garvie, diminutive himself, crafts dolls with utter care, making them as lifelike as possible. And yet, he is unable to truly infuse them with life. Responding to a posting in a monthly doll collector's magazine, he begins to communicate with Bramber Winters, a woman living in a rather mysterious institute. He decides to surprise her with a visit, hoping that it will spark something more than just a friendship, and the novel follows his slow journey to her. In some ways The Dollmaker is a coming-of-age novel for Andrew, forcing him to finally face his fears of rejection and his own traumas. It is also a contemplative novel, questioning what it means to be alive and how we see ourselves. How does what happened to us affect us now? Can we leave the safety we have found, even if that safety in and of itself poses a threat? Allan doesn't claim to have all the answers, and at times I found myself frustrated by a lack of clarity. Once I finished the novel I still felt like I didn't really know Bramber as an independent character. We see her solely through Andrew's lens, who has idealized her in the same way he has his dolls.
Nina Allan has crafted a very intricate and complicated novel. On the one hand we have Andrew's travel narrative. On the other hand we have Bramber's letters, slowly unraveling the mystery of her life. And then, on a surprising third hand, we have the short stories of Ewa Chaplin, a dollmaker and short story writer that Bramber is obsessed with. Chaplin's stories are mysterious and fantastical, with odd links to Andrew and Bramber's lives. I have to admit that "Ewa Chaplin"'s stories were my favourite part of The Dollmaker. They're atmospheric, dark and full of stunning imagery. I was enraptured by them, which had the consequence that I found myself racing through the rest of the plot just to get to the next story. I wish the same tension and magic had been present in the novel's other story lines, but there was only a faint trace of it here and there. Overall I did enjoy The Dollmaker, even if not all parts of the novel captured me equally.
The Dollmaker is an atmospheric novel which questions how we see ourselves and what we are willing to do to free ourselves. Although not consistently successful, Allan creates some stunning imagery in her novel and crafts a stunning structure. I recommend this novel to those looking for a challenge and interested in the Gothic.
https://universeinwords.blogspot.com
mazza57's review against another edition
1.0
I received this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I have to say that this book has no clear storyline. It messes around between a man's journey across devon - his stays in Wade and Exeter are detailed in excruciating detail - His letters from a fellow"doll" fan which originate in some sort of mental asylum and the totally incomprehensible fairy stories of the supposed Ewa Chaplin. I dont know what the author was trying to achieve but all she has managed is a soup of disparate parts.
This is my first and last Nina Allan book. I find it incomprehensible that it has so many good reviews
I have to say that this book has no clear storyline. It messes around between a man's journey across devon - his stays in Wade and Exeter are detailed in excruciating detail - His letters from a fellow"doll" fan which originate in some sort of mental asylum and the totally incomprehensible fairy stories of the supposed Ewa Chaplin. I dont know what the author was trying to achieve but all she has managed is a soup of disparate parts.
This is my first and last Nina Allan book. I find it incomprehensible that it has so many good reviews