The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Book Details

Author: Jessie Burton

Ages: Adult

Rating: 6/10

Number of Pages: 424
Plot: Set in the seventeenth century, Burton’s debut novel centres on the life of eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman and her arrival in Amsterdam to begin her life with her new husband wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt. Alone in her new household, with a distant husband and sharp-tongued sister-in-law, Nella explores the many secrets in her new home. It is when Johannes presents Nella with an extraordinary wedding present, a cabinet-sized replica of her new home, that Nella discovers the true mysteries and magic that surround Amsterdam. Her unusual present is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose intricate creations appear to mirror the secrets and actions of the inhabitants of her new household – secrets that no one appears to know of. As Nella becomes engulfed into discovering the many secrets behind her new miniature figurines, Nella discovers that escalating dangers await behind all of the secrets of her household. In a story of love, mystery and betrayal, this historic fiction delves into the seventeenth century culture in Amsterdam, a period which is not usually covered in popular fiction. Burton creates an award winning mystery that keeps the reader intrigued throughout and educates the reader on a new period of history.


Review: I am a massive fan of historical fiction and mysteries so when I found this book I was quite intrigued to see if the two very different genres worked well together. I was also quite excited to read a book set in Amsterdam, something I had never seen before in popular literature. In my opinion, the book was beautifully written. Burton’s descriptive language is amazingly detailed and actually makes you feel as if you are really by the canals in seventeenth century Amsterdam. As well as this, I found the description surrounding the cabinet of their home and the miniatures created by the miniaturist were equally impressive. I was quite surprised actually that a modern novel had such pictorial imagery that quite frankly matched parts of classics that I have read recently. The characters created were also interesting and creative. Even the unlikeable characters are made more intriguing and mysterious through the secrets that surround them. Burton’s focus on secrecy and mystery within the narrative, therefore, makes the novel more unique in comparison to other novels in this genre. This focus on mystery also makes the characters more interesting and their stories more engaging.

“Every woman is the architect of her own fortune.”

However, unlike other historical fictions that I have read recently, I found the story, at times, to be quite repetitive and thus quite boring. I had originally thought that, upon reading online about this book, that the novel was going to follow a gothic narrative with a sort of voodoo-doll concept. This would have been a fantastic concept as it would have mixed the mysteries and suspense of horror with the intrigue of historical fiction. Unfortunately, the book did not take this turn. Instead of being focused on the creepy miniaturist, as the title of the book, I felt that this idea was lost half way through the novel and there was an unnecessary focus on the sugar trade that quite frankly was not interesting and lacked any mystery. It was this shift away from the mysteries surrounding the miniaturist that made me lose interest in the story by about half way through – the story, for me, became disjointed and lacked the same fluidity that it had in the beginning of the story.

By the end of the story I was a little confused as to the mystery regarding the miniaturist and its relevance to the life of Nella Oortman and Amsterdam. In addition, I felt that there was an unnecessary focus on the history of sugar in Amsterdam that, to a reader who knows very little about the subject, made the second half of the novel increasingly difficult to read. Overall, I felt that the novel tried to merge too many concepts together in the space of 400 pages. The premise of the novel presents a mix of historical fiction and horror that would have been an unusual concept to explore. However, I feel that Burton relies too heavily on her readers knowledge making the novel quite hard to follow at points. I would recommend this to anyone who does have an interest in Amsterdam or historical fiction, but, I would say you have to persevere through certain chapters and passages to fully appreciate the writing style of Burton and her wonderful characterisation.