The beginning of the book is loaded with suspense.

However, she soon begins to receive strange gifts from the miniaturist hired to furnish the house, and realizes that she may be being watched. Being constantly ignored by her husband and finding in her sister-in-law a hostile figure, Nella only feels comfortable around her wedding gift: a detailed dollhouse that faithfully represents the rooms where she now lives in. Her new life, however, is not as she had imagined. The protagonist is Petronella Oortman, or Nella, a young woman who marries a successful merchant she doesn’t know, named Johannes Brandt, and goes on to live with him in Amsterdam.

With everything spiraling out of control, Finn has to pretend he’s okay.Īnd for Natalie, the lies of the other world include some she wishes were actually true.The Miniaturist is a historical novel disguised as a mystery one: its real aim is not to explore the enigma that the title character represents, but to present and criticize the Dutch society of the early 17th century. Despite all her brains, Emma can’t seem to break the code. To do so, they have to go back: into the other world, where even telling the truth can be illegal.īut in such a terrifying place, Chess doubts he can ever be brave enough. Now the four kids-brave Chess, smart Emma, kind Finn, and savvy Natalie-are determined to rescue everyone. Their mother tried to fix it, but she and an ally got trapped there along with Ms. It’s a mirror image, except things are wrong. Until their mother vanished, the Greystone kids-Chess, Emma, and Finn-knew nothing about the other world.Įverything is different there.

This middle-grade thriller from the master of suspense, Margaret Peterson Haddix, continues the twisty and suspenseful story of the Greystone kids and examines the power of the truth-or a lie-to alter lives, society, and even an entire reality. In The Deceivers, the second book in the Greystone Secrets series by bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix, the three Greystone siblings and their friend Natalie Morales go to the alternate world, a place where truth is illegal, to rescue their mothers. GREYSTONE SECRETS 2: THE DECEIVERS, by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Jessie burton the miniaturist review