Author: Audry Burges
Series: None
Publication Date: January 24, 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 348
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: An absolute delight and a total surprise
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab
Summary: 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. ~amazon.com
Review: So, when you see one of your favorite authors recommend this book and then a fellow book blogger says not to miss it, you make it your next read. Honestly, The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone seemed like it could be good or could be too whimsical but as you can tell from my rating, it was fantastic! While the summary gives you a glimpse of the story, it is much deeper than that.
Myra is pretty much a recluse except for her best friend, Gwen, who busted into her life and never left. Her inability to leave the house and the attic with the mansion has a domino affect on her parents, who divorce. Plus her mom develops her own mental health issues that will have a major affect on Myra. Gwen is the one that pushes her to create a blog and share the mansion with the outside world. Of course, neither of them know how this will really change the trajectory of their lives.
This is where Alex enters the story as someone shows him Myra's blog and the mansion, he can't help but freak out a bit since it looks exactly like the house he's lived in on and off. What he doesn't realize is the memories it holds for himself and his family. This is where we get different points of view, including Willa, Alex's grandmother who is the rightful owner of the true mansion. your
This is a beautifully written story about the choices we make, choices that are made for us and how to fight the past to make your own future. There is a lot of magic in the story but ultimately is about love and the different types. Myra is a wonderful character that grows and changes during the course of the story in order to enable herself to see a different life for herself. I did love how Gwen also pushed her to be more than she was settling for, even if it meant possibly losing her friends in the process.
I can't wait for Ms. Burges' next novel but I will keep coming back to this one in my head for a long time!
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