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Kindle Customer

A promise of good story but too vague

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2023

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Throughout the book I had a feeling that now it should finally begin. But it didn't, again and again drowning the story in some epistolary drab about some people I didn't care about.
The stories within the main story are what this book is for. They are mostly truly, genuinely good.
The writer is quite talented, weaving atmospheric word tapestries, and the story finally does click into some sort of closure but I had to skip tons of redundant text to get there..

Catherine Breitfeller

Weird

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2019

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This book is weird. I finished it but it was not easy. It’s quite confusing & ending was ...... well what can I say.

Susan Olesen

It was boring

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2020

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We read it for my book club and no one liked it!

Julie Failla Earhart

Perfect creepy read for fall

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2019

Now that it is full-on fall in Missouri, it’s the perfect time to luxuriate in a gothic novel. Nothing said creepy to me like the cover of Nina Allan’s “The Dollmaker.” It’s a story of a dwarf and a woman in a mental institution, both you are avid doll enthusiasts.

I noticed that Allan didn’t use the politically correct term “little person” for Andrew Garvie, which seemed to add to its creepy-factor. Since he was a child, Andrew has been fascinated by dolls. He collects them, he creates them, and he gives them life. He seems to be alone in the world, which adds a deeper element to his connection with the dolls.

One of the things Andrew looks forward to is the monthly arrival of a collector’s magazine. He pours over its pages the moment it arrives. He even reads the personal ads. They are mostly from other collectors wanting to buy or sell a certain type of doll. That is until he comes across the ad from Bramber Winters.

The two begin to correspond and grow closer and closer. It doesn’t even phase Andrew that Bramber has lived most of her life in an institution.

After much correspondence, Andrew decides that the they should meet. He makes plans, without telling Bramber, to visit her.Andrew goes by train and makes many stops along the way at various musuems in small towns. He also carries with him a book of fairy tales by Ewa Chaplin, also a dollmaker.

Andrew’s travels and letters to Bramber are interspersed with Ewa’s stories. Turns out, Ewa is a real-life figure, but I couldn’t find much about her on the internet. A blurb about Ewa as an Author’s Note could have put it in perspective for me. I don’t understand why the author placed those stories within the novel. It seemed, to me, like a way to ease the eeriness that I felt reading Andrew and Bramber’s letters, but I felt they had no revelance on the story.

Andrew and Bramber’s meeting was not at all what I expected, which is a good thing. I won’t give my impression of the ending as I don’t want to cloud others’ opinions. “The Dollmaker” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Kindle Customer

Strange, and strangely interesting

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2019

A strange book that is difficult to pin down, The Dollmaker by Nina Allan is unlike anything I have read before. It opens by introducing us to the doll maker, Andrew Garvie, a man of diminutive stature who has had a fascination with antique dolls since childhood, and who now creates his own meticulously. When he answers a personal ad in one of his trade magazines, he begins a correspondence with Bramber, a young woman living in an institution who share his love of dolls, but has a mysterious past. Andrew gets it into his head that he needs to rescue Bramber, and begins on a journey to the institute without telling her. To pass the time along the way he reads a collection of short stories written by yet another doll maker, Ewa Chaplin. These strange tales are recounted within the book and seem to carry echoes of the people and events in Andrew's life.
It's a strange and strangely interesting book, about strange people, and as I said unlike anything I have read before. I found it hard to put down, as I tried to put together the three narratives , but in the end the author does manage to weave them together successfully.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

NicolaWeideling

A satisfying, well-written fantastical yet realistic novel

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2019

Stitch by perfect stitch, Andrew Garvie makes exquisite dolls in the finest antique style. Like him, they are diminutive, but graceful, unique and with surprising depths. Perhaps that's why he answers the enigmatic personal ad in his collector's magazine.

Letter by letter, Bramber Winters reveals more of her strange, sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor, and the terrible events that put her there as a child. Andrew knows what it is to be trapped; and as they knit closer together, he weaves a curious plan to rescue her.

On his journey through the old towns of England he reads the fairytales of Ewa Chaplin - potent, eldritch stories which, like her lifelike dolls, pluck at the edges of reality and thread their way into his mind. When Andrew and Bramber meet at last, they will have a choice - to remain alone with their painful pasts or break free and, unlike their dolls, come to life.

A love story of two very real, unusual people, The Dollmaker is also a novel rich with wonders: Andrew's quest and Bramber's letters unspool around the dark fables that give our familiar world an uncanny edge. It is this touch of magic that, like the blink of a doll's eyes, tricks our own . . .

Love, love, loved this. Difficult to categorise - at times it reads like gothic fiction, sometimes like magic realism, and of course, there is the love story that underpins the narrative. I really enjoyed how Nina Allan mirrors Bramber and Andrew's lives through Chaplin's short stories, and how these stories deepen our understanding of them both. I feel as if the Chaplin short stories deserve to be published in their own right, I thought they were wonderful. Truly fairy tale like, dark not disney I hasten to add. A satisfying, well-written fantastical yet realistic novel.

I haven't read Allan's previous novels but will remedy that now. Would definitely recommend The Dollmaker.

Top reviews from other countries

'Seregil of Rhiminee'

A beautifully written, multi-layered and richly told novel!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2019

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Of all the novels that I've read during the recent months, Nina Allan's The Dollmaker is definitely the most haunting and most rewarding. I consider this novel to be literary speculative fiction at its very best and most captivating, because it's a richly told and charmingly strange love story with dark and twisted undertones. It's a remarkable and powerful novel that deserves to be read and savoured as one would a beautiful scenery or a gorgeous painting.

This novel appealed to me in many ways, because it has everything I could ever hope to find in literary speculative fiction: good prose, beautiful storytelling, intriguing characters and a sprinkle of chilling and unsettling atmosphere. Because I love beautifully written strange stories, I found this novel and its atmosphere compelling. What makes The Dollmaker especially mesmerising for me is the author's way of combining realism and weirdness in a subtly unnerving way. The story invites readers to take a glimpse at a world that is speckled with beauty, harsh realism and hard truths.

The Dollmaker is a dark fairy tale kind of a love story that is something different and defies easy categorisation. It's a unique and successful fusion of literary fiction, literary fantasy, magical realism and gothic elements. It is not a light read due to its subtly complex and gradually unfolding story, but it is deeply rewarding and its events will linger on your mind. This is one of those novels that stay with you for a long time, because the story is filled with many details and has plenty of subtext.

The Dollmaker tells of Andrew Garvie who is deeply interested in dolls. His interest in dolls has led him to become a dollmaker who makes exquisite dolls. When he answers a personal ad in the collector's magazine, he begins a correspondence with Bramber Winters. Bramber is interested in Ewa Chaplin's dolls, which are strangely lifelike. Gradually, she reveals things about her sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor. Because Andrew understands what it means to be trapped, he decides to rescue her. As he travels through the old towns of England and makes his way towards Bramber, he reads Ewa Chaplin's collection "Nine Modern Fairy Tales", which contains eldritch and strange fairy tales.

As you can see by this short description about the story, this novel is something different. It's a wholly original novel that is different in the best possible way, because it depicts a weird love story between two unusual people who have found each other by means of correspondence.

This novel has an unusual structure, because it consists of Andrew's journey towards Bramber, Bramber's letters to Andrew and Ewa Chaplin's fairy tales, five of which are featured in the story. This kind of fractured storytelling results in an intricately woven story filled with meaning and wonder.

The characterisation is rich and satisfying, because the characters are beautifully drawn and feel achingly realistic. As the story unfolds, the author reveals things about Andrew Garvie and Bramber Winters and invites the reader to explore their strange lives. What is revealed about both of them deepens the reading experience and lends the story intimacy and psychological depth.

Andrew Garvie is a short and intelligent man. He is unlike others and knows what it means to be different. Ever since childhood, he has been fascinated by dolls and has become a dollmaker who makes beautiful dolls. When he begins a correspondence with Bramber Winters, he becomes infatuated and obsessed with her. During his journey towards Bramber, he reads Ewa Chaplin's fairy tales and sees himself reflected in them.

Bramber Winters is interested in Ewa Chaplin's lifelike dolls, which resemble people. Due to terrifying events that happened long ago, she lives a secluded and sheltered life in an institution, West Edge House, on Bodmin Moor. She doesn't leave the institution, but stays there.

Andrew and Bramber have had their share of loneliness and pain, but they've survived. They're realistic characters whose lives have not been easy. They both have their own hopes and needs, but they also have fears and insecurities. Their friendship and how they come to feel about each other is deftly handled by the author, because she tells of how they have coped with their lives and how they begin to reach out to one another and reveal secrets about their pasts.

The descriptions of the places that Andrew visits are evocative and realistic. When you read about the various places, it almost feels as if you're there yourself.

Ewa Chaplin's modern fairy tales are compelling and intriguingly poetic. These tales fascinated me, because they've been written in a beautiful and slightly unsettling way. They have an intelligent and sharp edge to them that makes them unique. Reading about how the fates of the characters spiral into unexpected directions and what kind of consequences their choices have on their lives is fascinating, because life is not always easy and certain choices can have repercussions (what happens to the characters is deftly explored in the tales).

What makes these fairy tales especially intriguing is that their contents and their themes interlink with the main story in a subtle way, because they echo what happens in the story. I found the themes of loneliness, attraction, love, loss and fear interesting and was fascinated by how fluently they were handled and how haunting they were.

One of the fairy tales, "The Duchess", is a tale about an actress called Nelly Toye who buys a painting portraying a woman in an ermine stole, seated in an armchair, and a dwarf beside the armchair. Nelly falls in love with a soldier and finds herself being happy and scared, because she doesn't know how her husband would react to her having an affair with another man. In this fairy tale, the author fluently tells of a woman who is trapped in her marriage and tries to find a way out. When Nelly tries to find a solution to her problem, she thinks about committing a desperate and violent act. I was taken by this tale's atmosphere and characterisation, and was pleased with the ending.

The other fairy tales ("Amber Furness", "The Elephant Girl", "Happenstance" and "The Upstairs Window") are also captivating and haunting. I won't reveal anything about their contents in order to avoid spoilers, but I can mention that what is mentioned of a changeling in one of them is very fascinating.

The poem at the beginning of this novel, "Der Zwerg" ("The Dwarf") by Matthäus von Collin is beautifully translated by the author. The translation does justice to the original German text and features beautiful prose.

This novel has many themes, but the most important of them involves being different from others and being comfortable in your own body and skin despite looking different or behaving and acting differently. The author also explores identity and loneliness in a satisfyingly deep way and subtly hints at how we should not judge those who are different. These things are explored admirably, because the author doesn't underline anything and lets her readers interpret certain things for themselves.

The author has clearly done a lot of research on dolls and what is involved in making them, because she writes about dolls in an excellent way. I was impressed by her descriptions about the various dolls and their appearance, and I also enjoyed reading about how the characters felt about the dolls and what kind of meaning they had to them.

One of the main reasons why I love this novel is the author's clear and elegant prose. Her prose intensifies the magical and subtly unsettling atmosphere in an engaging way. The writing is immersive and has underlying darkness, and the fractured structure of the story works perfectly.

Nina Allan's The Dollmaker is a literary love story unlike any other. It is - in equal measure - beautiful, wonderful, strange and twisted, and it has a multi-layered and rich story. I enjoyed every page of this novel and I strongly recommend it to readers who love beautifully written stories with excellent characterisation and plenty of depth.

Highly recommended!

young mo

Wonderful Narrative - Disappointing Ending!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2019

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I loved this book from the first page and had high hopes for it as I was sent it to review for an award. The two main characters Andrew, a dwarf who is a dollmaker and a young woman Bramber who is in an institution were so well described that I could visualise them as well as empathise with their problems. I really enjoyed the insertion of the short stories which seemed to reflect on the happenings in the main characters lives. Andrew and Bramber become penpals so their story unfolds in a series of letters between the two. At this point the story is quite magical but, once Andrew decides to make a journey in order to turn up unannounced at Bramber's door I started to shout in my head to Andrew that this was the last thing he ought to do. His journey, which takes many days, increases the tension in the story as the author tells of the places he found himself in and the characters he met. On the way he stops to visit an exhibition of dolls which features one which Andrew has held in great esteem for many years. He spots an opportunity to steal this rather menacing creature as a gift for the ill fated Bramber giving the reader another reason to feel that everything he's doing is wrong on so many levels. However, sadly for me, the eventual meeting of these two did not live up to my expectations so I felt it was a bit of a let down and could have been made much more of! Before the last few pages I had loved everything about the book - the characters, the writing and the way the story unfolded so was left with a rather empty feeling as I finished the last page.

Amazon Customer

Call it 3.5 stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2022

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Hard to rate this one. As a story it has a huge number of elements I liked, stories within the story, resonating with the main tale and a hint of magic. But overall I didn't love it, I just enjoyed it. I can't really say why.

J Lanata

An instant classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2019

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This is a spellbinding book. Beautifully written, it centres on two main characters and their shared love of rare dolls, a love which they share through letters to each other. Within the story is woven another tale, of a dollmaker and author whose work inspires the two. I’d describe this book as modern gothic, with sinister undertones linked to fairytales. I read it in two sittings and thoroughly enjoyed it

Carys Benjamin

DNF

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2022

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The main character is super creepy ngl, I hate it when a man is like "I have decided that me and this woman I barely know are meant to be together so I'm going to force myself into her life". Also the gay character just perpetuated the stereotype that all gay men are predators so that wasn't fun.

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