The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone

by Audrey Burges

Ebook, 2023

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF Burges

Genres

Collections

Read, ebooks

Publication

Penguin Publishing Group

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. Romance. HTML:A woman learns to expand the boundaries of her small world and let love inside it in this sparkling and unforgettable novel by Audrey Burges. 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, bu… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jmoura01

I was charmed by this tale of a lonely girl and her magical, miniscule mansion. Told in alternating chapters, we learn the history of the “not a dollhouse” and the current story of the blog and Myra’s connection to the owner of the actual mansion.

As drawn in as I was to the story, I was more

captivated by the 2015 timeline. I felt the storyline of the past dragged a little. Reading those chapters didn’t fly by as reading the more current storyline. About halfway through I switched to text reading. I think this is a book I would more enjoy as an audiobook. Myra’s blog posts and her character’s conversations with others were lively and I would have liked to read more pages like that and maybe less about the sad past. Still, a very enjoyable story of magical realism.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC.

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LibraryThing member srms.reads

Plot : 3.75 ⭐
Audio Narration: 4.5⭐

“Once upon a time, there was a house.”

Thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone has rarely ventured out of her home in Arizona ever since a tragic car accident resulted in the loss of her beloved step-grandmother Trixie and left her permanently scarred when she was

just five years old. The only bright spot in Myra’s reclusive life is her devotion to The Mansion, an antique dollhouse ( with no dolls) she inherited from Trixie. Myra spends most of her time in her attic tending to her “minuscule mansion”, decorating ad redecorating the rooms, and fashioning new furniture and other bit san pieces as she feels. But The Mansion seems to have a mind of its home and often rejects her upgrades –phenomena for which Myra has no explanation and a fact that she keeps to herself. She documents her work on her Mansion along with pictures of the rooms in her blog, “The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone”, which she started on the persuasion of her best and only friend, Gwen. Her blog has garnered a tremendous following with fans writing to her and sending her potential additions to the rooms. When Rutherford Alexander Rakes III, “Alex”, heir to his affluent family’s furniture business, comes across her blog he is taken aback when he sees that the rooms of the mansion and some of the décor are similar to the house he now lives in – an old house that belonged to his paternal grandmother Willa’s side of the family complete with a legacy about which Alex has more questions than answers. Alex reaches out to Myra and as they begin to correspond, the mystery behind Myra’s Mansion and Alex’s family legacy is slowly unraveled and in the process exacting a positive change in both of their lives.

With its absorbing plot and elements of intrigue and magical realism, The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges is an enchanting story that touches upon themes of loneliness, friendship, love and family among others. The author touches upon sensitive topics such as grief, isolation, anxiety and PTSD with much compassion. While there are episodes of deep pain and sorrow in this story, we also have heartwarming moments of friendship, love and personal growth peppered with splashes of humor interspersed throughout the novel, the author does a remarkable job of weaving the multiple timelines and perspectives into an immersive narrative. Myra is an endearing protagonist, though I did find her a tad immature at times, and I found Willa to be an intriguing character. Though this is a relatively slow-paced novel, at no point did I lose interest. The connection between Alex and Myra is not completely unpredictable but I did like how the story developed. I paired my reading with the wonderful audio narration by Christine Lakin, which made this story come to life.

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