The miniaturist is a mystery to Nella and to the reader, right up until the end and to be honest it’s still quite a mystery to me. When the pieces for the house arrive, they are beautiful yet uncannily accurate, making Nella question how the miniaturist could possibly know so much about the people around her. As a wedding gift Nella is given a miniature version of the house she now calls home and she soon sets about finding someone to furnish it. Set in 1686, Nella has been married off to a man she barely knows and is about to move in to his country home, miles away from her mother and family.

In the first few pages we meet 18 year old Nella Oortman. I didn’t really hate this book, but I was bored.

I found the story to be quite slow and it took quite a while for anything of interest to happen. Now I’m finished, I’m not sure that I understand the hype! “The Miniaturist” is over 400 pages long and it they really dragged for me. I’ve seen quite lot of hype around this book and this was surprised to see that they had already made a BBC TV series based on the book – how did I miss that?! I’d been wanting to read “The Miniaturist” for a while after reading Jessie Burton‘s second book “ The Muse” last year. Does the miniaturist hold their fate in her hands? And will she be the key to their salvation or the architect of their downfall?īeautiful, intoxicating and filled with heart-pounding suspense, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth. Nella is at first mystified by the closed world of the Brandt household, but as she uncovers its secrets she realizes the escalating dangers that await them all. It is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in unexpected ways. Only later does Johannes appear and present her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin.

On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

The miniaturist book 2