The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges #bookreview #fantasy #magicalrealism #romance

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Title: The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone

Author:  Audrey Burges

Publisher: Berkley  

Publication Date: January 24, 2023

Page Count:  348

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

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, but defined by love.

The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges is a magical realism fantasy novel with a touch of romance to the story. The story in The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone is also one that is told by changing the point of view between the characters.

For years now Myra Malone has cared for the dollhouse mansion in her attic carefully curating new rooms nightly. Myra’s best friend found a way for Myra to make money on her activities with the mansion by setting Myra up online where she can share photos and the stories of each new room she creates and now has a whole community interested in the mansion’s progress.

Meanwhile across the country Alex Rakes works daily in his custom furniture business when Alex is approached by fans of the miniscule mansion website. When the customers show Alex what they are wanting to duplicate from Myra’s site Alex is shocked when he recognizes the rooms in the photographs. Everything Alex is seeing in a miniture version of his one life and he knows she needs to track down the owner of the website.

The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone is the first book I’d read from author Audrey Burges so of course I had no idea what to expect going into the story. For me the book became one of those that I deeply appreciate the creativity of the story as this was definitely something I hadn’t read before and that can be hard to come by. However, on the flip side I found this one to also be a slow mover and that often leaves me wanting more as I go along in the story. So with my feelings flip flopping along the way between interest and disinterest with the pacing I finished this one rating it at three and a half stars but would return to this author again.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Audrey writes novels, humor, short fiction, and essays in Richmond, Virginia. Her presence is tolerated by her two rambunctious children and very patient husband, all of whom have become practiced at making supportive faces when she shouts “listen to this sentence!” She is a frequent contributor to numerous humor outlets, including McSweeney’s, and her stories and essays have appeared in Pithead Chapel, Cease, Cows, and lengthy diatribes in the Notes app on her phone. Audrey was born and raised in Arizona by her linguist parents, which is a lot like being raised by wolves, but with better grammar. She moved to Virginia as an adult but still carries mountains and canyons in her heart, and sometimes, when she closes her eyes, she can still smell ponderosa pines in the sun. You can read more of her writing at audreyburges.com and by following her on Twitter at @audrey_burges, on Instagram at @audreyburges, or on Facebook at @aburgeswrites.