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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 fairy tales 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 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.
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Review by: kiwiblondie (Michelle)
Dated: 17th of April, 2019
I really like reading and will read almost anything that has a catchy story line. I did struggle a bit to read this book, the story was easy to follow once I realised that there are substories included in the main story. I was expecting a horror story but found that it was less a horror but more a love story but even then it wasn't a happy ending story that most authors seem to use.
I found that the short stories about the "freaks" kind of unexpected and hard to follow but it would have been nice to know a bit more about some of the characters and what happened to them but I know that they are part of a story and that it doesn't add much to the story of Andrew and Bramber. I'm not sure which one I liked the most, I started off feeling a bit sorry for Andrew as a lot of his past is things that happen to people in real life and I have heard a lot of similar stories but as the book goes on I was more interested in seeing what happened when he finally got to meet Bramber, a lot of her character was revealed in her letters.
I would read the story again but might not be for a while, I haven't read any of Nina Allan's books before and this doesn't make me want to read any of her other books.
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