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The Toy Makers
by Robert Dinsdale
Okay, I just finished this book, not 5 minutes ago and I have so many thoughts in my head that I believe I won't read if I don't write this review. Because I have quite a lot to say, I'll section it so that it's easier for others to read it!
[General Stuff]
Overall, I really really enjoyed this book. This doesn't mean that I had positive feelings all the time, but I loved the fact that it made me feel while reading the story. Now I was hoping my rating would be way higher than mere 3 stars, but let me explain. After the first few chapters, I fell in love with the book, with the writing style, with the whole vibe this book possessed and I couldn't put it down, so I was sure that would be a 5 star read. When I reached the 300th page though, I knew that my rating would fall to 4 stars due to what Kaspar said and did to Emil (I'll explain later). After that, the next 168 pages went downhill and I had to really fight with myself to not give it an even lower rating. Even though the style or the general feeling of the book didn't change, I had major problems with the characters and the plot. I was furious beyond measure so that's why I eventually gave it 3 stars.
[Plot]
The blurb at the back of the book doesn't tell you much about what you are about to read and I loved it, because I started reading knowing very little stuff and the story surprised me in a positive way. I'll day though that for the first 250 or so pages, I wasn't sure were this story is going. I liked what I was reading, but at the same time I couldn't see a possible conclusion. The ending didn't satisfy me unfortunately, because I thought that Emil deserved better. There wasn't a time while reading that I thought that Emil deserved what happened to him and how everyone thought of him. Kaspar on the other hand.... Well, he's the Golden boy of the story but, for me, he didn't posses any good qualities whatsoever. And now, let's talk about the characters!
[Characters]
[Cathy]
I'll start with Cathy because she's the one that left me quite unimpressed. I wasn't too fond of her, but that doesn't mean I hated her, it just means that I wasn't particularly "infatuated" with her. There were many times when I thought she was a fool and her romance with Kaspar didn't convince my at all, I couldn't see this love that was so deep and they were so madly and inexplicably in love, but only through words, their actions weren't showing me how in love they were. Also, her blind devotion to Kaspar was something to laugh at, she didn't have the mind to even chastise him when he was being unreasonable and trust me, he was unreasonable a LOT of times!!
[Emil]
Something about Emil made me like him from the first time he appeared. I loved how simple he is, how all he wanted was to become a great Toymaker like his father and how lonely he actually was. Because even though he lived in a place were lots of other people lived, Emil was pretty lonely most of the time. I was so sad for him that he couldn't seem to be able to make anything else other than toy soldiers, but I loved how devoted he was to that and how he seemed to accept that if that's the only thing he's able to do, at least he would do it wonderfully. He's rivalry with Kaspar I find healthy, in the sense that all siblings fight and get jealous of each other and Kaspar wasn't the person that would make you feel good about being his inferior. The only black spot about Emil was what he did to Kaspar, when he locked him into the Wendy House, but I still cannot blame him entirely. He fell to his knees admitting that he lost, he pleaded with his brother to save the Emporium and Kaspar was still unsatisfied. Well, screw him!
[Kaspar]
I think it comes as no surprise to anyone when I say I hate Kaspar. And I mean it with everything I've got! I've hated him ever since he made an appearance, he was so self assured and boisterous and arrogant and o just couldn't stand him. Imagine my shock when I realised that he's the hero of the story, that apparently he's the good guy!! Kaspar took pleasure in berating his little brother, even after he saw how much Emil struggled to create his toys and everything just went worse as time went by.
Cue WWI and Kaspar didn't even think to volunteer for the army, he only went when the discussion started on the dinner table, when Emil admitted that he went to enlist and they said he couldn't go due to his heart. Everyone was talking about the impending war and Kaspar was playing with Martha (Cathy's child) not even caring about the conversation. And when everyone in the table turned and looked at him, that was when he realized he was expected to go!
Anyway he went and the Emporium continued without him and he comes back with PTSD which is normal and one day stumbles in front of "The Long War", a game Emil created with toy soldiers that literally kept the Emporium alive during the war. Of course he has flashbacks from the battlefield (that's when I finally sympathized with him and thought that I might like him after all) and then on the dinner table he just announces, like he's the owner of the shop, that they won't sell toy soldiers any more. When he knows it's the only thing Emil knows how to do well, when he knows that this game saved them during the war. And I could understand him, if he came about it differently. But no, he just waltzed in, like the king of England and announced that there would be no more toy soldiers on the shop (that happened on page 300 I talked about earlier).
AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT THE FUCK HE DID NEXT, BECAUSE HE'S SIMPLY A BASTARD. He tinkered with Emil's soldiers and gave them life making Emil their enemy. Let me tell you again: HE TOOK EMIL'S PRIDE AND JOY, THE ONLY THING THAT HE KNEW HE COULD DO WELL AND DESTROYED IT! His reason behind it is that soldiers don't need to answer to anyone, because they aren't just toys, because they have life and they need to make decisions for themselves. But only the soldiers. Not the wooden ballerinas, or the toy animals, or ALL THE OTHER FUCKING TOYS! Only Emil's soldiers need not to be ordered around and need to be given free will. If this isn't the most cruel thing a brother can do to his brother, I don't know what is. THE FRICKIN SOLDIERS EVEN TRIED TO KILL EMIL'S CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THAT KASPAR IS THEIR GOD!
Of course, no one else chastised Kaspar about it, no one talked to him, Cathy and Martha also took a liking to the soldiers and read the stories.... Like, how fucking stupid can you be? Why can't you see that your husband is in the wrong??
Essentially, Kaspar destroyed not only Emil's life (his wife left him, taking with her his two sons) but also the Emporium itself. For me, he's guilty for the shop's downfall and I won't take no for an answer. He is one the most cruel character's I've ever read about and I just want to punch him in the face!!!
[Papa Jack]
Papa Jack is Emil and Kaspar's father and the founder of the shop. I really liked him as a character, especially after everything he's been through, but the only thing I cannot forgive is how complacent and nonchalant he is about stuff. He never intervened when something serious happened, even when the whole thing with the soldiers happened, he never even talked to Kaspar about it, he never even consoled and tried to help Emil, even though his life was falling apart. I don't think I can forgive him that, he was way to indifferent for my liking.
[Message of the Book]
I was thinking if the book had a message or a meaning, especially when the whole thing with the soldiers happened. Kaspar suddenly became this advocate about toy soldiers, that they need to be freed from their evil master, that they need to learn how to make decisions for themselves and all that, but it seems a bit extreme for toy soldiers. Also, he never had a reasoning behind it, other than the fact that he wanted to spite his brother. If he indeed cared about soldiers, he would try and help those that were soldiers in real life and not only the toy ones. He would give toys, help them in any way, educate them if he must, but his whole toy soldiers campaign seemed way too fake to me. Especially Cathy and Martha, just took it in stride that thousands of soldiers were now alive and Martha even read to them, to try and make them more intelligent. Kaspar problem was that soldiers were perpetually in war and that Emil is the evil mastermind behind this war, like other toy shops didn't make wooden soldiers at the time. It seemed like Kaspar was England and Emil Germany in both World Wars and if that was the case, it was done very poorly for me to actually enjoy.
[Conclusion]
I wish I would have liked this book more, I wish I would have only good things to say, o wish that my review would be filled with excitement and amazement, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The book was for the better part way too "magical" to make the message of the sorry heard, if there ever was a message after all.
[General Stuff]
Overall, I really really enjoyed this book. This doesn't mean that I had positive feelings all the time, but I loved the fact that it made me feel while reading the story. Now I was hoping my rating would be way higher than mere 3 stars, but let me explain. After the first few chapters, I fell in love with the book, with the writing style, with the whole vibe this book possessed and I couldn't put it down, so I was sure that would be a 5 star read. When I reached the 300th page though, I knew that my rating would fall to 4 stars due to what Kaspar said and did to Emil (I'll explain later). After that, the next 168 pages went downhill and I had to really fight with myself to not give it an even lower rating. Even though the style or the general feeling of the book didn't change, I had major problems with the characters and the plot. I was furious beyond measure so that's why I eventually gave it 3 stars.
[Plot]
The blurb at the back of the book doesn't tell you much about what you are about to read and I loved it, because I started reading knowing very little stuff and the story surprised me in a positive way. I'll day though that for the first 250 or so pages, I wasn't sure were this story is going. I liked what I was reading, but at the same time I couldn't see a possible conclusion. The ending didn't satisfy me unfortunately, because I thought that Emil deserved better. There wasn't a time while reading that I thought that Emil deserved what happened to him and how everyone thought of him. Kaspar on the other hand.... Well, he's the Golden boy of the story but, for me, he didn't posses any good qualities whatsoever. And now, let's talk about the characters!
[Characters]
[Cathy]
I'll start with Cathy because she's the one that left me quite unimpressed. I wasn't too fond of her, but that doesn't mean I hated her, it just means that I wasn't particularly "infatuated" with her. There were many times when I thought she was a fool and her romance with Kaspar didn't convince my at all, I couldn't see this love that was so deep and they were so madly and inexplicably in love, but only through words, their actions weren't showing me how in love they were. Also, her blind devotion to Kaspar was something to laugh at, she didn't have the mind to even chastise him when he was being unreasonable and trust me, he was unreasonable a LOT of times!!
[Emil]
Something about Emil made me like him from the first time he appeared. I loved how simple he is, how all he wanted was to become a great Toymaker like his father and how lonely he actually was. Because even though he lived in a place were lots of other people lived, Emil was pretty lonely most of the time. I was so sad for him that he couldn't seem to be able to make anything else other than toy soldiers, but I loved how devoted he was to that and how he seemed to accept that if that's the only thing he's able to do, at least he would do it wonderfully. He's rivalry with Kaspar I find healthy, in the sense that all siblings fight and get jealous of each other and Kaspar wasn't the person that would make you feel good about being his inferior. The only black spot about Emil was what he did to Kaspar, when he locked him into the Wendy House, but I still cannot blame him entirely. He fell to his knees admitting that he lost, he pleaded with his brother to save the Emporium and Kaspar was still unsatisfied. Well, screw him!
[Kaspar]
I think it comes as no surprise to anyone when I say I hate Kaspar. And I mean it with everything I've got! I've hated him ever since he made an appearance, he was so self assured and boisterous and arrogant and o just couldn't stand him. Imagine my shock when I realised that he's the hero of the story, that apparently he's the good guy!! Kaspar took pleasure in berating his little brother, even after he saw how much Emil struggled to create his toys and everything just went worse as time went by.
Cue WWI and Kaspar didn't even think to volunteer for the army, he only went when the discussion started on the dinner table, when Emil admitted that he went to enlist and they said he couldn't go due to his heart. Everyone was talking about the impending war and Kaspar was playing with Martha (Cathy's child) not even caring about the conversation. And when everyone in the table turned and looked at him, that was when he realized he was expected to go!
Anyway he went and the Emporium continued without him and he comes back with PTSD which is normal and one day stumbles in front of "The Long War", a game Emil created with toy soldiers that literally kept the Emporium alive during the war. Of course he has flashbacks from the battlefield (that's when I finally sympathized with him and thought that I might like him after all) and then on the dinner table he just announces, like he's the owner of the shop, that they won't sell toy soldiers any more. When he knows it's the only thing Emil knows how to do well, when he knows that this game saved them during the war. And I could understand him, if he came about it differently. But no, he just waltzed in, like the king of England and announced that there would be no more toy soldiers on the shop (that happened on page 300 I talked about earlier).
AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT THE FUCK HE DID NEXT, BECAUSE HE'S SIMPLY A BASTARD. He tinkered with Emil's soldiers and gave them life making Emil their enemy. Let me tell you again: HE TOOK EMIL'S PRIDE AND JOY, THE ONLY THING THAT HE KNEW HE COULD DO WELL AND DESTROYED IT! His reason behind it is that soldiers don't need to answer to anyone, because they aren't just toys, because they have life and they need to make decisions for themselves. But only the soldiers. Not the wooden ballerinas, or the toy animals, or ALL THE OTHER FUCKING TOYS! Only Emil's soldiers need not to be ordered around and need to be given free will. If this isn't the most cruel thing a brother can do to his brother, I don't know what is. THE FRICKIN SOLDIERS EVEN TRIED TO KILL EMIL'S CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THAT KASPAR IS THEIR GOD!
Of course, no one else chastised Kaspar about it, no one talked to him, Cathy and Martha also took a liking to the soldiers and read the stories.... Like, how fucking stupid can you be? Why can't you see that your husband is in the wrong??
Essentially, Kaspar destroyed not only Emil's life (his wife left him, taking with her his two sons) but also the Emporium itself. For me, he's guilty for the shop's downfall and I won't take no for an answer. He is one the most cruel character's I've ever read about and I just want to punch him in the face!!!
[Papa Jack]
Papa Jack is Emil and Kaspar's father and the founder of the shop. I really liked him as a character, especially after everything he's been through, but the only thing I cannot forgive is how complacent and nonchalant he is about stuff. He never intervened when something serious happened, even when the whole thing with the soldiers happened, he never even talked to Kaspar about it, he never even consoled and tried to help Emil, even though his life was falling apart. I don't think I can forgive him that, he was way to indifferent for my liking.
[Message of the Book]
I was thinking if the book had a message or a meaning, especially when the whole thing with the soldiers happened. Kaspar suddenly became this advocate about toy soldiers, that they need to be freed from their evil master, that they need to learn how to make decisions for themselves and all that, but it seems a bit extreme for toy soldiers. Also, he never had a reasoning behind it, other than the fact that he wanted to spite his brother. If he indeed cared about soldiers, he would try and help those that were soldiers in real life and not only the toy ones. He would give toys, help them in any way, educate them if he must, but his whole toy soldiers campaign seemed way too fake to me. Especially Cathy and Martha, just took it in stride that thousands of soldiers were now alive and Martha even read to them, to try and make them more intelligent. Kaspar problem was that soldiers were perpetually in war and that Emil is the evil mastermind behind this war, like other toy shops didn't make wooden soldiers at the time. It seemed like Kaspar was England and Emil Germany in both World Wars and if that was the case, it was done very poorly for me to actually enjoy.
[Conclusion]
I wish I would have liked this book more, I wish I would have only good things to say, o wish that my review would be filled with excitement and amazement, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The book was for the better part way too "magical" to make the message of the sorry heard, if there ever was a message after all.