The House of Fortune
Apr. 6th, 2024 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI've read all of Jessie Burton's adult books and was very excited when I discovered The House of Fortune was coming out - though I don't actually know why. Looking back over my reviews, I've enjoyed all her books, but not to the point of raving about them - so I'm not sure why I keep getting so excited about her releasing another one.
Still, after putting it off for quite a while, I finally allowed myself to buy some new books and The House of Fortune was top of the list of ones I wanted.
I started reading it straight away and discovered it's actually a sequel to The Miniaturist, which I hadn't previously known. So, we rejoin Nella, Otto and Cornelia in the big house in Amsterdam, coming back into the story on Thea's eighteenth birthday. The story then follows Thea's explorations of love and Nella's machinations for her marriage.
It's a good book. It drew me in and kept me reading - though it did feel in places like rather a retread of The Miniaturist. It also seemed as if there was no tension surrounding the secrets being kept from Thea about her origins, as any reader of The Miniaturist would already know all the details of that...
In the midsection, it all started to feel a bit dreary and the mid-point plot twist was wildly predictable. Then there were heavy similarities to Marianne's arc from Sense and Sensibility in Thea's story, though it did diverge quite dramatically again before the end.
That all sounds quite negative - but it was the continuation of Nella's story that really kept me engaged, and its conclusion (intertwining very satisfactorily with Thea's) left me pensive and contemplative - in a very good way.
Burton's writing is always excellent, her characters are layered and the world she presents is vivid and immersive. Her stories aren't exactly jolly, but they have interesting things to say and I'm always glad to have experienced them overall. This one is about acknowledging that everything that has come before is the only route for you to have reached the present moment, then accepting things as they are and moving forwards with purpose. And that's a lesson all of us can use to our advantage.
Still, after putting it off for quite a while, I finally allowed myself to buy some new books and The House of Fortune was top of the list of ones I wanted.
I started reading it straight away and discovered it's actually a sequel to The Miniaturist, which I hadn't previously known. So, we rejoin Nella, Otto and Cornelia in the big house in Amsterdam, coming back into the story on Thea's eighteenth birthday. The story then follows Thea's explorations of love and Nella's machinations for her marriage.
It's a good book. It drew me in and kept me reading - though it did feel in places like rather a retread of The Miniaturist. It also seemed as if there was no tension surrounding the secrets being kept from Thea about her origins, as any reader of The Miniaturist would already know all the details of that...
In the midsection, it all started to feel a bit dreary and the mid-point plot twist was wildly predictable. Then there were heavy similarities to Marianne's arc from Sense and Sensibility in Thea's story, though it did diverge quite dramatically again before the end.
That all sounds quite negative - but it was the continuation of Nella's story that really kept me engaged, and its conclusion (intertwining very satisfactorily with Thea's) left me pensive and contemplative - in a very good way.
Burton's writing is always excellent, her characters are layered and the world she presents is vivid and immersive. Her stories aren't exactly jolly, but they have interesting things to say and I'm always glad to have experienced them overall. This one is about acknowledging that everything that has come before is the only route for you to have reached the present moment, then accepting things as they are and moving forwards with purpose. And that's a lesson all of us can use to our advantage.
