“Drosselmeier’s more delicate and individualized figures were reserved as gifts for Klara. A Russian princess in a painted wooden cloak. A Cleopatra in Egyptian blue. A charming family of pigs in graduated heights that stood on hind legs and wore nothing but pince-nezs, all of them, except the very smallest, who with a potbelly and a sour expression stood looking down and sucking her cloven hoof.”

Themes:

• Creation, in so many forms
• The influence dreams can have on real life
• What we lose and/or forget the further we get from childhood

This “tale of the once and future nutcracker” is fantastic! Much darker than I expected, Hiddensee actually focuses on the life of Drosselmeier, not the nutcracker. However, I loved this. Exploring the story of the legendary toymaker, known throughout this novel as simply Dirk, was a joy for this lifelong nutcracker fan.

I’ve never read something by Maguire before, so his style of writing—quite formal, somewhat blunt—took me a few chapters to get used to. I’ll admit that as I started this, I wasn’t sure if it would live up to my hopes and expectations. Once I grew accustomed to the voice, I found myself immersed in the world Maguire so masterfully builds and enjoying the language. read more