The story is alright, fairly predictable plotline, characters are a bit one dimensional, and it lacks any real explanation for the role the miniaturist has. What I fail to understand is why the author felt the need to sprinkle all kinds of dutch words throughout the text. Like names of pastries or organisations. Why say 'oliekoek' when you can say 'fried pastry', why use 'schepenbank' when 'court' would be much more clear to understand. They add nothing to the story but make it rather hard work for the poor reader, or in my case the poor narrator, who clearly has trouble with the pronunciation. As a Dutch speaker it was very annoying to have to sit through and sometimes even impossible to figure out what was actually the word being said. I can't imagine what it must be like to try and figure out for non-Dutch speakers.