Alice Hoffman

The daughter of a curiosities museum's front man pursues an impassioned love affair with a Russian immigrant photographer who after fleeing his Lower East Side Orthodox community has captured poignant images of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. By the best-selling author of Here on Earth.

A Novel

The Museum of Extraordinary Things

 The Museum of Extraordinary Things felt like it was trying to be too many things all at once. There are elements of a murder mystery, a love story (if you can really call it that...more details on that below) and a portrait of grief. 

There was too much of a male perspective for my taste, as I thought this was women's fiction and would focus mainly on Coralie, the daughter of the professor who runs the Museum of Extraordinary Things. But Eddie seems to be in it more than Coralie, and I found him unlikeable at times. I much preferred and cared more about Coralie's storyline and her POVs, that is until the abuse she suffered became too much. Going along with too much of the male perspective, I thought a lot of the dialogue didn't work well coming from and between male characters. It would have been better from the female POV.

This book also tries to tell so many stories at once that don't seem to be interwoven well at all. A story of a Jewish immigrant/refugee, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a girl who is abused by her father, a Coney Island freak show, a missing girl who turns up murdered...these elements may have worked fine on their own, but they were meshed haphazardly together, leaving the book kind of messy.

It also tried very hard to be a nonfiction book, with too many facts included at once instead of peppered throughout in Hoffman's usual style. This added to the fact that this book is simply boring. 

Essentially, this book is very disjointed. It's heavily implied this book was going to be a love story, but almost 200 pages in and there was no sign of any romance. That's more than halfway through. And then once the romance finally arrives, it falls flat. Eddie and Cora do not know each other and experience 'insta-love.' I'm not really a fan. They hardly spoke to each other at all, now that I'm looking back on it.

I do like that this was short and fairly fast paced/easy to read so that I didn't trudge through it. The mystery element seemed to be enough to keep me going, but even that was over too soon and not too exciting. Everything is fairly predictable.

This book was very dark and had many examples of abuse and even animal cruelty. It was hard to read at points, which was unusual for Alice Hoffman. Some of her works, like The Dovekeepers, have darker themes, but nothing compares to how twisted parts of this book were. Not that I haven't read things of that nature before, but for this author it was jarring. I don't expect those elements from her.

Alice Hoffman is normally one of my favorite authors and this is probably her worst book I've read to date. If you're reading this far, please don't let this dissuade you from Hoffman's works. They are normally much better than this. It was just weak. 

Amanda

2.5 stars The Museum of Extraordinary Things felt like it was trying to be too many things all at once. There are elements of a murder mystery, a love story (if you can really call it that...more details on that below) and a portrait of grief. 

There was too much of a male perspective for my taste, as I thought this was women's fiction and would focus mainly on Coralie, the daughter of the professor who runs the Museum of Extraordinary Things. But Eddie seems to be in it more than Coralie, and I found him unlikeable at times. I much preferred and cared more about Coralie's storyline and her POVs, that is until the abuse she suffered became too much. Going along with too much of the male perspective, I thought a lot of the dialogue didn't work well coming from and between male characters. It would have been better from the female POV.

This book also tries to tell so many stories at once that don't seem to be interwoven well at all. A story of a Jewish immigrant/refugee, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a girl who is abused by her father, a Coney Island freak show, a missing girl who turns up murdered...these elements may have worked fine on their own, but they were meshed haphazardly together, leaving the book kind of messy.

It also tried very hard to be a nonfiction book, with too many facts included at once instead of peppered throughout in Hoffman's usual style. This added to the fact that this book is simply boring. 

Essentially, this book is very disjointed. It's heavily implied this book was going to be a love story, but almost 200 pages in and there was no sign of any romance. That's more than halfway through. And then once the romance finally arrives, it falls flat. Eddie and Cora do not know each other and experience 'insta-love.' I'm not really a fan. They hardly spoke to each other at all, now that I'm looking back on it.

I do like that this was short and fairly fast paced/easy to read so that I didn't trudge through it. The mystery element seemed to be enough to keep me going, but even that was over too soon and not too exciting. Everything is fairly predictable.

This book was very dark and had many examples of abuse and even animal cruelty. It was hard to read at points, which was unusual for Alice Hoffman. Some of her works, like The Dovekeepers, have darker themes, but nothing compares to how twisted parts of this book were. Not that I haven't read things of that nature before, but for this author it was jarring. I don't expect those elements from her.

Alice Hoffman is normally one of my favorite authors and this is probably her worst book I've read to date. If you're reading this far, please don't let this dissuade you from Hoffman's works. They are normally much better than this. It was just weak. 

From the bestselling author of The Dovekeepers comes a spectacularly imaginative and moving new novel in the vein of The Night Circus that has been acclaimed by Jodi Picoult as 'truly stunning: part love story, part mystery, part history, and all beauty'. New York City, 1911. Meet Coralie Sardie, circus girl, web-fingered mermaid, shy only daughter of Professor Sardie and raised in the bizarre surroundings of his Museum of Extraordinary Things. And meet Eddie Cohen, a handsome young immigrant who has run away from his painful past and his Orthodox family to become a photographer, documenting life on the teeming city streets. One night by the freezing waters of the Hudson River, Coralie stumbles across Eddie, who has become enmeshed in the case of a missing girl, and the fates of these two hopeful outcasts collide as they search for truth, beauty, love and freedom in tumultuous times.

Alice Myles

i think this book and me just met at the wrong time because when I finally got I to this I did really enjoy it however it took me a FRICKING long time to get into it. I was in a YA rut and this was the first non YA book that I read in a LONG time and I just don't think I was ready for the world of adult fiction again but this book honestly was so well written and such an uplifting story it just didn't agree with me right now but I would like to give it another chance but for now it's a no

Toni Turner

I read this book in 2015.
I bought it in Target with Taylor and I will always remember making that spontaneous decision. 
I wanted a book and this one had the word museum on the cover (I love museums). But I got so much out of this book that I did not expect at all.
Plot
Home life
Interesting family dynamic 
Uncovered lies
Abuse
Romance
Friendship and Loneliness
Loyalty
A Coming of age story
Insta-love (and I LOVED it)
A beautiful cast of characters
A perfect ending that made me so happy!
Literally this book had so much so beautifully incorporated into it.

I applaud Alice Hoffman.
Favorite book of 2015.

From the bestselling author of The Dovekeeperscomes a spectacularly imaginative and moving new novel in the vein of The Night Circusthat has been acclaimed by Jodi Picoult as 'truly stunning: part love story, part mystery, part history, and all beauy'. New York City, 1911. Meet Coralie Sardie, circus girl, web-fingered mermaid, shy only daughter of Professor Sardie and raised in the bizarre surroundings of his Museum of Extraordinary Things. And meet Eddie Cohen, a handsome young immigrant who has run away from his painful past and his Orthodox family to become a photographer, documenting life on the teeming city streets. One night by the freezing waters of the Hudson River, Coralie stumbles across Eddie, who has become enmeshed in the case of a missing girl, and the fates of these two hopeful outcasts collide as they search for truth, beauty, love and freedom in tumultuous times.

iris

Camilla Woodhouse

Sian Wadey

Lucy Austin

Hannah Derzanovich

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang2057\fs18 Coney Island, 1911: Coralie Sardie is the daughter of a self-proclaimed scientist and professor who acts as the impresario of The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a boardwalk freak show offering amazement and entertainment to the masses. An extraordinary swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl,and a 100 year old turtle, in her father's ""museum"". She swims regularly in New York's Hudson River, and one night stumbles upon a striking young man alone in the woods photographing moon-lit trees. From that moment, Coralie knows her life will never be the same. \par The dashing photographer Coralie spies is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father's Lower East Side Orthodox community. As Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the mystery behind a young woman's disappearance and the dispute between factory owners and labourers. In the tumultuous times that characterized life in New York between the world wars, Coralie and Eddie's lives come crashing together in Alice Hoffman's mesmerizing, imaginative, and romantic new novel. \par }

The Museum of Extraordinary Things A Novel

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