Toymakers

Set in the first half of the twentieth century, spanning decades, Dinsdale's saga of life in a London toy shop covers the lives of pregnant teen runaway Cathy who finds refuge in a magical toy shop where the toys seem to have a life of their own, the two young sons of the owner, and "Papa Jack" Godman; the owner himself.

Full review: thomasrigby.com/posts/book-review-the-toymakers-robert-dinsdale/

2⅓: 4 for the first third, 1½* for the remainder.

I loved the atmospheric, magical realism, Christmassy start, but the story decayed into incoherence, and was about 50% too long. It's one thing for a story to be deliberately ambiguous in theme and message, but quite another for the author themself to not know what they want to say.