Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - The Miniaturist

Another historical fiction, this one set in 1620's Amsterdam about the new wife of a merchant and the secrets of their house.

Great historical detail and richness, characters with depth, well paced, ambiguous mystery, and enough tension throughout. Not necessarily a must read, but certainly an enjoyable one!

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vanadiumbean's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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katenovah's review against another edition

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mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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texassizedreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

The book itself was 2 stars, one star subtracted from my final rating because of the completely unnecessary use of the n-word by a white author. I felt like the aspect of the story I cared about most (the mystery of the miniaturist) was left unresolved. The rest of the story was relatively bland and I found Nella's character to be pretty annoying.

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em2jules's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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sauvageloup's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a difficult one to rate. It isn't my usual taste, it was a gift, so it's hard to compare to what I usually read.

pros:
- the second half was quite gripping and grabs hold of you. The writing is good, straightforward but with turns of beauty, pacy and smooth.
- i liked Nella. She could easily have been annoying, but she's written so that her naivety is very forgivable and she's a good character, growing as the book goes on. The other characters were good too, and I wished we'd seen more of Otto.
- I liked how the plot all came together, it was satisfying to see the threads emerge.
- I appreciated that Johannes was shown to be a complex person, not just his sexuality.
- clearly a great deal of research had gone into the thing, which was impressive.
- I liked how Nella did grow as a character over the book and got up on her own two feet when needed.

cons:
- slow at the start.
- I didn't feel we got a in-depth look at the characters. Johannes was probably the most explored.
- the book did feel inevitable, which was a downer, though it wasn't handled badly.

- I didn't much like the way that it was offered up that women can have more than marriage, and yet those who try in the book ended up dead. And Marin claimed not to want to be a wife, but she dearly wants the baby and is willing to die for it. It felt a shame that we didn't actually get to see a woman decide not to marry and to succeed.
- the book wasn't what I expected and felt unresolved in many ways. I expected more creepiness with the miniaturist and whilst it was less of a cliche than I expected (no strange noises or lights from the house in the night for example), the miniaturist felt underused. She disappears, unexplained, and whilst that was part of her character, Nella never even got to meet her. Was she supposed to represent fate or god? What did the little house achieve exactly? It didn't add much to the story, despite being the main focus of the blurb, title and cover.
- the story itself also felt somewhat incomplete. I suppose you can imagine what'll happen next but i was left thinking of all the misery Thea would face with the racism and it just felt really sad (I understand that's realistic, I just don't know whether it was meant to be a bittersweet end, because it was primarily just bitter).
- it was miserable that Johannes died. Very 'bury your gays'.
- Also, personally, I hate birth scenes and this one was particularly gory. Also the sex parts earlier felt like like they were meant to shock. I understand that we see from 18-year-old Nella's POV, but it did feel... excessively lurid at times.

overall, I'm not sure what to say really. The writing and plot was good, I enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading, but it wasn't quite my thing and I didn't love it.

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mmefish's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed this book but would not recommend it. It is a solid piece of historical fiction but a bad mystery novel. I feel like the miniaturist part (oh, the irony) was actually unnecessary, and the story did not gain anything from it.

Favourite quotes:

“True love was a flower in the gut, its petals unfurling inside out. You would risk all for love - blissful, never without its drops of dismay.”

“When you have truly come to know a person, Nella - when you see beneath the sweeter gestures, the smiles - when you see the rage and the pitiful fear which each of us hide - then forgiveness is everything. We are all in desperate need of it.”

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gemmascott's review against another edition

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challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

For me, this was a book about hypocrisy and change. How people often project an image of themselves to the world that is very different to their inner selves, and how, despite their expectations, people can change and grow, often in ways they had never anticipated. It isn’t the best “historical” novel I’ve ever read (there were a few glaring anachronisms), but it was beautifully written and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

I loved the fact that this book was inspired by an object displayed in the Rijksmuseum and feel like the choice of setting was helpful in exploring some of the themes, including race, gender and sexuality.

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