The Dollmaker - Book Review

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I have a love/hate relationship with Nina Allan's The Dollmaker. Maybe it was because I was so tired while reading during my commute and the beginning of the book just wasn't holding my interest. Or maybe it just took me awhile to get used to the storytelling method.

There's Andrew, a dollmaker, who tells his story as he's on his way to surprise a girl he's struck up a correspondence with. Her name is Bramber, and she also likes dolls, with a particular interest in those made by Ewa Chapin. We get Bramber's story through her letters to Andrew. And then there are the short stories of Ewa Chapin. They are supposed to be modern-day fairytales, as is The Dollmaker, I suppose, but they all have unhappy endings and a lot of the characters or plots mimic actual people or things from Andrew's and Bramber's lives. It's kind of creepy. And because of that, I didn't know what to expect with the ending of this book. Seriously, I was trying to predict all sorts of crazy theories, looking to the short stories for clues. Boy, was I wrong.

There's a part in the book where a character says, "I couldn't help wanting to know how the story might end" (346) and I definitely felt that way about this book once I got to a certain point. I can't say that I really liked the book, but eventually it began to intrigue me and keep me guessing.

One of the other things that threw me with this book was the fact that it took place in modern day, but the main characters were so old-fashioned that I had a hard time picturing them in 2019. Maybe it was just that they were British, and so their way of speaking felt a bit prim and proper and 1950s. Or maybe there was something intentional from the author.

The Dollmaker is published by Other Press and is on bookstore shelves today. I received a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.