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From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone blogs about a dollhouse mansion that captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra’s stories have created legions of fans who breathlessly await every blog post, trade photographs of Mansion-modeled rooms, and swap theories about the enigmatic and reclusive author. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by mysteries she can’t understand—rooms that appear and disappear overnight, music that plays in its corridors.
Across the country, Alex Rakes, the scion of a custom furniture business, encounters two Mansion fans trying to recreate a room. The pair show him the Minuscule Mansion, and Alex is shocked to recognize a reflection of his own life mirrored back to him in minute scale. The room is his own bedroom, and the Mansion is his family’s home, handed down from the grandmother who disappeared mysteriously when Alex was a child. Searching for answers, Alex begins corresponding with Myra. Together, the two unwind the lonely paths of their twin worlds—big and small—and trace the stories that entwine them, setting the stage for a meeting rooted in loss, but defined by love.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 24, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593626443
- File size: 286612 KB
- Duration: 09:57:06
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 14, 2022
In Burges’s lackluster debut, a reclusive Arizona copywriter blogs about a magical dollhouse from her childhood. When Myra Malone was five, she was in a car accident with her grandfather’s partner, Trixie, who died in the crash. Myra inherited Trixie’s dollhouse and went on to lead a hermit-like existence, due in part to the scars on her face from the accident. Trixie had hinted about the dollhouse’s magic to young Myra, and, now in her 30s, Myra maintains a blog that describes the house’s rooms and furniture, which Alex Rakes recognizes as a miniature replica of his childhood home. He and Myra begin corresponding as more is revealed about the not-so-nice Rakes family (Alex’s father is bigoted, his grandmother conniving), their connection to the strange dollhouse (somehow, rooms and furniture appear and then vanish), and other ways that Myra and Alex are linked. Alex’s unpleasant, ailing father, meanwhile, hints that these ties might put Alex in danger. While parts of the plot work, the work is sunk by a plodding pace and a dearth of explanation about what drove the Rakes family’s misdeeds. There’s a fun premise, but overall, this is one to pass. -
June 10, 2024
It would be easy for Burges's debut about a mysterious doll-less doll house and its real-world counterpart to be all quirk and no feeling, but instead it's a moving novel of generational trauma and love. Myra Malone is an introverted recluse whose only outlet is creating stories about the tiny mansion her step-grandmother left her. Her best (and only) friend has created an online following from Myra's work, which leads to Alex, a man who lives thousands of miles away, discovering that Myra's doll house is his actual home--down to the furniture she's made. This connection, along with flashbacks, leads listeners to discover how these two strangers are connected and what the minuscule mansion truly is. Narrator Christine Lakin's Myra is believably anxious and wounded but infectiously determined as well. Listeners will root for Myra's plans and will ache when her insecurities undermine her. Alex's pain is narrated more quietly and internally but is no less sharp for that. VERDICT Listening to these gentle souls orbit each other as they solve the mysteries around their homes is a salve to the heart.--Matthew Galloway
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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