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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
The Doll Factory was so close to being an excellent book. Elizabeth Macneal has a real feel for the time period and has zeroed in on subjects that are not as well known from the Victoria era. She has created mostly compelling characters with full lives and her prose is, if not magical, precise and just flowery enough. There really is a lot going for it and I fully enjoyed most of it. The fatal flaw is in the development of the villain.
We are in London in 1951. The Great Exhibition, a temporary compendium of wonders of technology and art, is being built in Hyde Park. Silas Miller, an eccentric taxidermist, is hoping to get an exhibition in. He makes a living providing stuffed animals to collectors and, most importantly, a group of painters that call themselves PRB (the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers) which includes Dante Rossetti among others. Louis Frost (fictional) is a member of this group.
Meanwhile twin sisters Iris and Rose work in said doll factory, which is really a storefront shop where they put together and paint porcelain dolls. Iris has a disfigurement in her collarbone and Rose contracted smallpox and her beauty is diminished greatly, so her aspiring parents, aware that marriage is not likely an option for them set them to work at the shop. Iris, though, has dreams of being a painter. There are two chance meetings: One between Iris and Louis, which inspires him to use her as a model and one between Iris and Silas, who, frankly gets turned on by Iris' deformity and becomes more and more obsessed with her.
The relationship between Louis and Iris is fascinating and human as mentor and mentee find more in common with each other than just painting. The character of Albie, a young urchin who serves as a go between for all three is fully drawn and allows Macneal to show how the classes mixed. It is Silas who is an issue. The character draws sympathy at first, a harmless eccentric who harbors some class resentment and feels he deserves some recognition. His obsession with Iris (and obsession is really the main theme of The Doll Factory) escalates so quickly and his violent tendencies emerge so suddenly that we are taken aback, not be surprise, but because the character development isn't there. The hints are dropped somewhat but the escalation is too fast. And by the time Silas is full blown psychotic, he resembles less a Victorian era villain than a 90's era serial killer. It is incongruous and unfortunate, because Macneal is quite a talented writer. It is one of the few times I wish a book were longer so we can get more information about a character.
We are in London in 1951. The Great Exhibition, a temporary compendium of wonders of technology and art, is being built in Hyde Park. Silas Miller, an eccentric taxidermist, is hoping to get an exhibition in. He makes a living providing stuffed animals to collectors and, most importantly, a group of painters that call themselves PRB (the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers) which includes Dante Rossetti among others. Louis Frost (fictional) is a member of this group.
Meanwhile twin sisters Iris and Rose work in said doll factory, which is really a storefront shop where they put together and paint porcelain dolls. Iris has a disfigurement in her collarbone and Rose contracted smallpox and her beauty is diminished greatly, so her aspiring parents, aware that marriage is not likely an option for them set them to work at the shop. Iris, though, has dreams of being a painter. There are two chance meetings: One between Iris and Louis, which inspires him to use her as a model and one between Iris and Silas, who, frankly gets turned on by Iris' deformity and becomes more and more obsessed with her.
The relationship between Louis and Iris is fascinating and human as mentor and mentee find more in common with each other than just painting. The character of Albie, a young urchin who serves as a go between for all three is fully drawn and allows Macneal to show how the classes mixed. It is Silas who is an issue. The character draws sympathy at first, a harmless eccentric who harbors some class resentment and feels he deserves some recognition. His obsession with Iris (and obsession is really the main theme of The Doll Factory) escalates so quickly and his violent tendencies emerge so suddenly that we are taken aback, not be surprise, but because the character development isn't there. The hints are dropped somewhat but the escalation is too fast. And by the time Silas is full blown psychotic, he resembles less a Victorian era villain than a 90's era serial killer. It is incongruous and unfortunate, because Macneal is quite a talented writer. It is one of the few times I wish a book were longer so we can get more information about a character.
Knjiga mi je bila odlicna, jako volim atmosferu viktorijanskog Londona. Realno bi ocjena bila 4,5 samo zato jer me razocarao kraj. Imala sam osjecaj kao da je knjiga nedovrsena.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!*
DNF - I didn't realize this was set in the past, and typically those aren't my favorites. I gave it a shot, but only made it through the first quarter before deciding to move on.
DNF - I didn't realize this was set in the past, and typically those aren't my favorites. I gave it a shot, but only made it through the first quarter before deciding to move on.
It wasn't quite Silence of the Lambs, but that's what I kept expecting, so I wanted the plot to move much faster than it actually did. It wasn't until Part 3 that the pace picked up, and things finally started happening.
I found this book to be extremely pointless. What I mean is that, although some characters are intriguing, none of their actions made sense. Also, I understand that this book was set in the Victorian times, but did we really need to read about a kid pooping and then throwing said poop? I mean… come on
Girl with a Pearl Earring meets Dr. Frankenstein, set in Victorian London.
Iris is a shop girl, no longer young but not yet middle aged, with few prospects for a promising future. She toes the line and tries to do her best by her family, but she's going to end up a miserable spinster who never got to live if something doesn't change. So she allows Louis, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to woo her into the scandalous situation of becoming his model. And like a fairy tale come true, he spoils her from day one and she flourishes.
Alas, Silas, the pathetic loser who likes to torture animals falls in love with an imaginary version of Iris, and wants her all to himself. Let the stalking begin.
Then there's poor Albie, a very young street rat who just wants to do right by his sister, be a good friend to Iris, and replace his empty gums with a new set of teeth.
This book jumps through either too many points of view, or not enough. Iris's fairy tale was enjoyable and she was an easy character to root for. Albie inspired pity and a maternal instinct to save him, but his pov chapters were hard to read between his street cant and child-like ignorance. Silas was just so greasy and all things foul, it was like a slap in the face every time the book switched from Iris to him. Now if maybe Louis, Iris's sister Rose, Albie's sister, or any of the other artists pov were also in the mix, maybe the pov jumps wouldn't have been so distasteful. But most likely, sticking with Iris probably would have worked best.
The characters were not super original, the pacing was unnecessarily slow, the plot unrealistic and unsophisticated, it took a long time to get into it, and then it just kind of randomly ended. It wasn't as terrible as I'm making it sound, but it could have been a lot better.
Iris is a shop girl, no longer young but not yet middle aged, with few prospects for a promising future. She toes the line and tries to do her best by her family, but she's going to end up a miserable spinster who never got to live if something doesn't change. So she allows Louis, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to woo her into the scandalous situation of becoming his model. And like a fairy tale come true, he spoils her from day one and she flourishes.
Alas, Silas, the pathetic loser who likes to torture animals falls in love with an imaginary version of Iris, and wants her all to himself. Let the stalking begin.
Then there's poor Albie, a very young street rat who just wants to do right by his sister, be a good friend to Iris, and replace his empty gums with a new set of teeth.
This book jumps through either too many points of view, or not enough. Iris's fairy tale was enjoyable and she was an easy character to root for. Albie inspired pity and a maternal instinct to save him, but his pov chapters were hard to read between his street cant and child-like ignorance. Silas was just so greasy and all things foul, it was like a slap in the face every time the book switched from Iris to him. Now if maybe Louis, Iris's sister Rose, Albie's sister, or any of the other artists pov were also in the mix, maybe the pov jumps wouldn't have been so distasteful. But most likely, sticking with Iris probably would have worked best.
The characters were not super original, the pacing was unnecessarily slow, the plot unrealistic and unsophisticated, it took a long time to get into it, and then it just kind of randomly ended. It wasn't as terrible as I'm making it sound, but it could have been a lot better.