The House of Marvellous books is a publishing house on the brink of financial disaster. The staff are disorganised, the author's AWOL, even the roof is caving in. It's last hope is finding a legendary manuscript rumoured to be priceless and hidden somewhere within the publisher's walls.

Being an avid reader I am drawn towards stories set in bookstores and libraries, so naturally I was interested in reading The House of Marvellous books that is set in a publishing house.

This book was not bad but it was not marvellous either. What I liked were the quirky characters and their interactions with each other which genuinely had me laughing out loud. The novel is narrated through journal entries logged over the year by the main character Mortimer Blakeley-Smith which was unique but also got monotonous after a certain time. As a result the middle felt boring and dragged on even though the premise was interesting.

With so many characters the novel could have been narrated in multiple PoVs which would have done wonders to hold my interest a little longer. Also the book was a bit long at over 300 pages and with an absence of a plot it felt like a chore to finish.

It certainly is an unusual read, although some parts were enjoyable and might appeal to readers who are into character driven-narratives.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @fairlightbooks for providing me with a digital advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the author, Fairlight Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book about books - in this instance an antiquated publishing house wavering on the edge of bankruptcy - and told in epistolary installments of a clueless junior editor's personal journal entries over the course of a year, should be right up my alley. And yes, it did have a certain charm, with lots of eccentric characters and opaque (at least to the narrator) happenings, some told with a light and witty touch. However, my interest waned quickly as it became increasingly obvious that this insular little microcosm would continue to plod along, the editors would continue to obliviously pursue manuscripts that were impossibly niche, the narrator would never be more than a naive underling - even when he was promoted to the top position at the end of the book.

What a quirky book!
This may not be to everyone's taste, but I found it to be full of eccentric characters and descriptions of odd situations.
Narrated in diary form by commissioning editor Mortimer, it focuses on a year in the history of a publishing house.
Strangely compelling.

This book just wasn't for me! I'm sad but I honestly knew from like page 10 on that I was not going to enjoy this so I sort of hustled through and can now confirm - I didn't! I can't really say what specifically threw me off, it's written okay and the plot is fine but I just was not vibing with this.

I can recall describing characters as crafty, heroic, clever, villainous, adorable, cantankerous, snarky, angry, and hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever had to describe a character as clueless. Mortimer, the protagonist of Fiona Vigo Marshall’s The House of Marvellous Books, is one of the most naive characters I’ve come across in fiction. Although he is intelligent enough to talk about theology, Proust, St. Brendan, and the finer points of British cakes, he never picks up on the schemes and machinations swirling around him during the eventful year in which the publishing house where he works teeters on the edge of disaster and corporate takeover. It’s a curious feeling, wanting for everything to turn out well for a character while at the same time wanting to throttle them until they get a bloody clue. It’s even more curious that I rather enjoyed the book, once I settled into the narrative.

Mortimer Blackley is the kind of person who can only function in a specific niche. His skills and knowledge are only useful (sort of) at the House of Marvellous Books. If it weren’t for the fact that the House is located inside an unsellable medieval library, it wouldn’t function either. When you see the titles they publish—by a camper-van traveling nun who has a flexible attitude to her vow of silence, a sailing cleric who accepts advances for books she fails to write, Welsh hermit poets, and various pseudo-academic cranks—you’ll see why the House is on the edge of ruin. Mortimer wiles his workdays away eating cake and tea with his colleagues, attempting to beard the Design Department in their den, and pestering authors to turn in manuscripts. On the weekends he reads À la recherche du temps perdu, visits his uncle south of London, works on his manuscript about the journeys of St. Brendan, and tries (fails) to avoid doing favors for an old friend who is currently serving a sentence for stealing rare manuscripts from libraries across Britain and Europe.

In the background of all of this pretentious silliness, we get hints about what’s really going on behind the scenes at the House. There’s the editor in chief, who has the misfortune of contracting brain fever in this day and age. Gerard pops in and out of the narrative as he attempts to keep the House afloat, even at the cost of selling to a mysterious group of Russians. He’s a sweet man but, like Mortimer, is in over his head when it comes to everything except poetry and leading the life of a country gentleman. The senior commissioning editor, Drusilla, meanwhile, has enlisted their disaster of a secretary to try and find the lost Daybreak Manuscript and sell it to the Pope (a plan to keep the House going a little loner). Other characters wage their own battles against poor punctuation, the House’s intractable and incompetent warehouse, scam artists, and rival publishers.

Mortimer, as I’ve said, is oblivious to most of this. At first, I was a little annoyed at him. How could anyone be so sheltered as to not see that the House is mere millimeters from collapse? But I was eventually won over by his helpfulness and kindness towards others. The fact that he can’t see what’s going on means that he will never betray anyone (no matter how annoying he finds them or how put upon he feels in returning books stolen by his friend to various libraries). It would never occur to him to step on someone else to try and get up the ladder ahead of them. I might describe him as the most clueless character in fiction but his naivete just means that he’s also one of the good-est characters I’ve ever seen (if only by default). I was also won over by his love of creature comforts, his contentment with his life as it is, and his silliness. This weird little book had me laughing more than once.

The House of Marvellous Books might not grab you from the first page. It resists a lot of the tropes and conventions of fiction by meandering on its multi-layered way through Mortimer’s year. If you give this book a chance, I think you might come to appreciate its quirks because, underneath them, is a very warm heart (possibly covered in crumbs from a lemon drizzle cake).

The House of Marvellous Books by Fiona Vigo Marshall

The House of Marvellous Books is a small publishing house lurching from one disaster to another and in danger of going bankrupt at any moment. Mortimer, a Commissioning Editor, keeps a diary and the entries describe the sinking ship and all who sail in her.

This book is very quirky and at first I didn't know what to make of it. But very quickly I was completely absorbed in the goings-on at The House of Marvellous Books! What a fabulous cast of eccentric characters and an often humourous, sometimes poignant story. Very highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Wah wah wahhhhh. I typically enjoy books about books and was hoping this would be a good palate cleanser between more series reads, but it ended up just being boring. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight because I couldn't relate to them. Not much happens. It didn't do it for me.

Fiona Vigo Marshall's House of Marvellous Books was a fun read. In some ways it felt like a literary version of Wes Anderson's French Dispatch's office scenes set in a publishing house. The characters were all well written and each brought their own unique quirks to the story. I think I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a fun summer read.

I generally love books with a 'book'ish theme. Bookstores, libraries, writers, etc. Those are themes I tend to lean towards. Sadly, this didn't do it for me. Marvellous - this was not.

I did not finish this book - the writing style didn't grab me - it was hard to get through even a few chapters -- I couldn't even get to a halfway point.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity.

I’m sorry to say I had to put this book down at about 40% of the way through. I feel REALLY bad not finishing an ARC, but I realized that slogging through the rest of the book would just make me hate it. And I normally LOVE books about books, libraries, stories, etc. But this one made the publishing house sound so BORING! I admit there were a few funny bits here and there (A book accidentally listed as Heave instead of Heaven and actually getting more preorders that way) but almost halfway through and I didn’t feel like there was much plot or character arc for me to hang on to.

My main concern with the book was the writing style, because I didn’t find myself connecting with the narrator. It’s written in diary form, which would be okay if it wasn’t written EXACTLY how a diary of a middle-aged(?) ho-hum man would be!! Maybe the author wanted to preserve the authenticity of a journal or logbook? But Mortimer seemed so entirely average. He didn’t have interesting thoughts to add to his daily happenings, or anything important to note, for the most part.

The side characters (Drusilla/Fiona) were quite funny. I wish the book was written from the perspective of someone else, because I feel like these characters had so much potential. So fun and quirky! And we were stuck with Mortimer’s POV? A crime.

Overall, it’s an “ok” book, but it just didn’t hook me enough to keep me going. And if I can put down a book without going crazy about what happens at the end, then the book was just meant to be left closed. Wish I’d liked this more, but it just wasn’t for me!

How to rate this…??? A little hard to follow at times, a little predictable at others. Witty, but not enough to overpower the depressing tone throughout. Well written, but leaves the reader slightly drained…like after having lunch with “that friend”…who just over-shared every detail of their train wreck life.

Great book, I loved this read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you Net Galley and the author for this advanced copy of The House of Marvellous Books. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review.

DNF @ 20%.

This narrative is bogged down with details and written in the manner of journal entries. ("Fancied a bit of a leg stretch after all this so threaded my way southward through the London streets and popped into Westminster Cathedral after work and lite a candle to St Anthony, begging him to get me out of the House.")
I have picked up and put down this book at least six times, but ultimately, the story was not for me.

This will be the very first title I have ever listed as DNF. (did not finish) because of this I don't feel as though I'm eligible to give a proper review. With that said, the book is about a man working at a publishing company that seems to be overly picky about who it publishes while simultaneously loosing money and running the whole company into the ground. The only exciting thing to happen is when they hire a young fellow who quickly does absolutely no part of his job and instead steals half their inventory. It was rather frustrating having to witness all the incompetence at every turn with seemingly no end in sight. It's written with no chapters and in the style of a diary and frankly just as boring. I chose this book without having read the synopsis so that i could go into it without any expectations other than thinking the title was absolutely marvelous. I read this on the Kindle making it to 79% and unfortunately there was virtually no plot and no excitement. I do wish to finish the book one day soon as i truly do want to see what, if anything happens to this House of Marvellous Books. Until then, I hope you all find it more enjoyable than I did.

There's a potential for coziness in this book, and something almost comforting about the repetition in Mortimer's diary entries. However, I was very close to not finishing this book. If I hadn't been reading it for Netgalley, I would have set it aside a few chapters in.

The narration style is verbose, the main character - Mortimer - is pretentious, and unlikeable, and the supporting characters equally so. All of this would be easy to overlook or accept if there were a plot, yet nothing of note happens. I'm all for books where there's no real plot, where the atmosphere of the book is the whole experience, but this wasn't one of those.

That being said, it's likely that I was just not the target audience for this book.

This one wasn't for me unfortunately. I did not find the journal entries a great way to tell this story. I struggled to stay focused on what was being written. I'm disappointed because I gravitate towards books about books, like so many readers, and this one just didn't work.

I found The House of Marvellous Books to be interesting but not alogether successful. Its quirks are charming, but aren't substantial enough to hold together this rambling tale. The repeated references to Borges were amusing, but couldn't carry me thought this title.

The story is about the publishing house’s eccentric and charming characters who are working hard to try and save their beloved independent publishing house while navigating their daily lives and relationships.
The House of Marvellous Books is easily one of the most charming and new funny books for adults and teen readers who love quirky stories and eccentric characters set in London.

* Thank you for the ARC.

I was so excited for this book because it’s a book about books! And I usually love that premise! But unfortunately, this is just not for me.

It’s told in journal entries, which I didn’t expect, and it made it hard for me to focus. I found it difficult to connect with the main character. I didn’t enjoy the writing style. And I just found the plot, or lack thereof, quite boring honestly.

I really wanted to keep finish this book, since this was provided by Netgalley and Fairlight Books, but I just couldn’t do it. But I just couldn’t get past the 30% mark, so I had to put it down and DNF this. It just wasn’t engaging for me and it didn’t hold my interest unfortunately.

Thank you Netgalley and Fairlight Books for proving a me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The cast of eccentric literary types was right up my street and wouldn’t fail to delight anyone who loves books about books. Thanks NetGalley!