The way the story flows and the word choices of the author are just spectacular. This book is extremely well structured, with genuinely no dull moments. The year, perspective, and narration shifts are so well placed that the pacing is a treat as well. I have only good things to say about The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone. Audrey Burges has created something truly special.
Title: The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone
Author: Audrey Burges
Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Magic, Contemporary
Publication Date: Jan 24, 2023
Review Date: May 19, 2025
Number of Pages: 352 (paperback)
My Rating: 5/5
Buy here:
Book Blurb of The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone:
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.
Book Review of The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone:
It’s not often I come across a book as wrenchingly beautiful as this – one I can undoubtedly recommend. Spoiler free review as always! I’m honestly so excited to be regularly back on here. I appreciate you all for hanging out and coming back to visit every once in a while. Oh, and isn’t it lovely that my second post back is also a 5 star read?
Even before I read this book, I was intrigued – a magical realism book about a blogger? Tiny furniture in a magical miniature mansion? Count me in! Plus, her name is Myra too, which is not a name I come across very frequently in fiction to begin with.
With my interest sufficiently piqued, I immediately put it on hold at the library. Trust me when I say I could not stop reading when I finally got to borrow it (long wait time for this one at my library!). I picked it up at spare moments, even small snatches of time during the day.
The way the story flows and the word choices of the author are just spectacular. I’m always blown away by good writing. Add in a wonderful plot, great character development, and a fantastic setting, what more could anyone want? In case that wasn’t enough, this also happens to be one of my favorite genres.
Myra is a blogger with thousands of devoted readers following along her story about her mansion – not a dollhouse, as she takes great pains to reiterate. The parallel timelines and stories add so much depth to the story, and make it so much better than if it was from Myra’s perspective alone. I also liked the blog posts peppered throughout the story, adding in just the right detail and feeling at the right time.
All this to say, this book is extremely well structured, with genuinely no dull moments. The year, perspective, and narration shifts are so well placed that the pacing is a treat as well.
I have only good things to say and I have barely even spoken about the themes or characters yet. Every character in here was so real and had depth and personality. Their feelings, conversations, emotions were all relatable and natural. It is a skill to write like that, and a treat to read it.
I am a new fan of author Audrey Burges and I will be checking out more of her work!
Recommended for fans of:
magical realism, stories about friendship, tiny furniture, timelessness, stories that play out over years and generations, bloggers and/or writers as MCs, magical fate, and beautiful descriptive prose.
