Reviews with content warning for Excrement - The Miniaturist

I’ve tried to listen to this last year & found it dull. Fast forward and I wanted to give it another shot, but I chose to read instead of listening to the audiobook. I loved it! I could hardly put it down until I could finish. It has a slower pace, but the amount of character building … it was just phenomenal. I wish there was a “happily ever after” because I love those, but it would have been far-fetched & stretched at best.

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hbskeen's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

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felicityebhaslin's review

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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? No

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thequiltyreader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Having finished this book I'm not sure how I feel about it. The book had a lot of hype around it, which I am always wary of as it often drives high expectations from me that books sometimes don't live up to. But I have found myself coming to the end of the book and finding it somewhat lacking. This is a shame as historical fiction isn't a first choice of mine but this started out enjoyable and I was left with a good feel for the setting without being overburdened. The characters were interesting and you got to know them well and I got vested in their journey through the book but I felt the emotional tie to them was somehow lacking? There were a number of good twists which I didn't see coming though which I did enjoy. But I felt the character of the miniturist was never really explored. There is lots of mystery around them but it felt like that thread if the story just wasn't finished off.

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itsbumley's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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fantasycat's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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em2jules's review

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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

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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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