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trilbynorton's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was my second David Mitchell novel after Cloud Atlas, and it really suffered in comparison. It isn't as formally adventurous as Cloud Atlas and strangely, as someone who primarily reads SFF, it was the fantasy elements that I felt were the weakest part of the book. They felt unnecessarily bolted on to an already compelling jigsaw narrative about mortality and the struggle between individual and community.
avesmaria's review against another edition
4.0
The scope of this book gets a little unwieldy in its Les Mis-level of detail concerning even the characters’ lives, and drags in the middle a bit. Still, I enjoyed reading it, and was impressed with how much Mitchell wove together throughout the book. I think going back for a second read would be fun just to spot all the plot points and names buried in passing references.
This is less horror-ish than Slade House, a short novel taking place in the same universe, and more magical realism/magical psychic type stuff.
This is less horror-ish than Slade House, a short novel taking place in the same universe, and more magical realism/magical psychic type stuff.
frances_the_red's review against another edition
2.0
Ich mag es sonst eigentlich, wenn Bücher in eine Murakamieske Richtung gehen, aber bei den Knochenuhren wurde es mir dann doch etwas zu skuril. Vielleicht fehlte es mir auch einfach am intellektuellen Zugang. Einen Handlungsstrang weniger hätte dem Buch vermutlich gut getan.
testaroscia's review against another edition
5.0
I am so glad many say this is not Mitchell's best as I think it was a great read and I am looking forward to his others. Mitchell is a superior writer, and I am very comfortable with the Novella format so I was not put off by the format. In fact it helped in the reading of the whole as, judging by this book, Mitchell is great at building and defining characters, and maybe a bit less so at the "esoteric" action sections. I loved many of the characters, Crispin's boorishness, and I swear I shared a house in Oxford with a young Hugo Lamb. Even the last chapter which, halfway through, I thought was totally surplus to requirements, ended up being just perfect.
jakemburgess's review against another edition
5.0
One of the most brilliant and engaging books I've ever read.
notaturnip's review against another edition
2.0
It took me over six months and a free audiobook version of this book to finish it. It feels like about four books in one, and I only enjoyed about one and a half of those stories, and that's a conservative estimate. David Mitchell is a good writer with a great turn of phrase, which kept me going for a lot of this, and his character voices are really strong. Unfortunately, the story itself is frenetic, and the characters that might have saved the book weren't around for long enough. Honestly, I find it hard to believe that people read this whole thing and were on board for all of it: it's disjointed, misleading and generally confusing.
This book is at least as twice as long as it should be, and even then the stakes are manufactured and flat, given the loftiness of the narrative. It's readable, which is why it gets two stars, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone in good faith. If you're struggling with finishing it, don't bother.
This book is at least as twice as long as it should be, and even then the stakes are manufactured and flat, given the loftiness of the narrative. It's readable, which is why it gets two stars, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone in good faith. If you're struggling with finishing it, don't bother.
bhnmt61's review against another edition
5.0
As the book opens, Holly Sykes is running away from home because she wants to be with her one true love and her mother just doesn’t understand. It turns out her mother is the least of her problems. The Bone Clocks follows Holly for the next sixty years, although she isn’t always the point of view character.
What Mitchell does brilliantly well is create characters. The five main characters come so fully alive that when he switches from one point of view to the next, you feel like you’ve been wrenched out of one 3-D IMAX movie and thrown into a different one.
(Two of these guys are really, truly horrible people, but in a mundane sort of way. They’re not gangsters or thugs, they just have an amoral compass instead of a moral one. I’d never say I ended up liking them, but at least Mitchell made them fully believable and not caricatures— and that may be his real genius.)
But all that immersive reality comes at the expense of concise prose. Good lord, can the man go on and on. And on and on. I can appreciate that for awhile, but eventually you want him to quit piling on “telling details” and get on with the story. I don’t know that I’ve ever wished so strongly that Max Perkins was still alive.
And then there’s the supernatural mystery that forms the heart of the story. You’re given only the barest hints as to what’s really going on for more than half the book. There are enough odd moments that you know he’s building to something big, but really there’s no explanation until suddenly you get to Marinus’ section and things start to become clear. Mitchell is clearly getting an almost Joycean glee out of being opaque, but the problem with that approach is that when he finally starts to show his hand, the story of Holly in the twenty-first century has to come to a screeching halt while he info-dumps the history of supernatural events for forty pages. Again, Max Perkins, where are you?
Then the story picks up again and races to a fascinating climax- only to start over again with another point of view switch and seventy-five pages of more piling on of those telling details to get to the ending, which really was a pretty big letdown— not because it was bad, but because it didn’t seem worth all the trouble.
I know David Mitchell doesn’t care about my opinion in the slightest, but if he’d cut forty pages of beautifully written but unnecessary detail, and been a little less secretive about what was going on with the supernatural stuff, and cut the last section down to about 30 pages, I would say this is the best novel I’ve read in years. The good stuff is brilliant. There’s just a lot to wade through to get to it. I’m still giving it five stars because four isn’t enough.
What Mitchell does brilliantly well is create characters. The five main characters come so fully alive that when he switches from one point of view to the next, you feel like you’ve been wrenched out of one 3-D IMAX movie and thrown into a different one.
(Two of these guys are really, truly horrible people, but in a mundane sort of way. They’re not gangsters or thugs, they just have an amoral compass instead of a moral one. I’d never say I ended up liking them, but at least Mitchell made them fully believable and not caricatures— and that may be his real genius.)
But all that immersive reality comes at the expense of concise prose. Good lord, can the man go on and on. And on and on. I can appreciate that for awhile, but eventually you want him to quit piling on “telling details” and get on with the story. I don’t know that I’ve ever wished so strongly that Max Perkins was still alive.
And then there’s the supernatural mystery that forms the heart of the story. You’re given only the barest hints as to what’s really going on for more than half the book. There are enough odd moments that you know he’s building to something big, but really there’s no explanation until suddenly you get to Marinus’ section and things start to become clear. Mitchell is clearly getting an almost Joycean glee out of being opaque, but the problem with that approach is that when he finally starts to show his hand, the story of Holly in the twenty-first century has to come to a screeching halt while he info-dumps the history of supernatural events for forty pages. Again, Max Perkins, where are you?
Then the story picks up again and races to a fascinating climax- only to start over again with another point of view switch and seventy-five pages of more piling on of those telling details to get to the ending, which really was a pretty big letdown— not because it was bad, but because it didn’t seem worth all the trouble.
I know David Mitchell doesn’t care about my opinion in the slightest, but if he’d cut forty pages of beautifully written but unnecessary detail, and been a little less secretive about what was going on with the supernatural stuff, and cut the last section down to about 30 pages, I would say this is the best novel I’ve read in years. The good stuff is brilliant. There’s just a lot to wade through to get to it. I’m still giving it five stars because four isn’t enough.
amblygon_writes's review against another edition
5.0
I hate spoiling things and this was such a carefully constructed book I don't want to ruin it for anyone so I'll keep this brief. Parts of this book were not five stars, but so many parts of it were incredibly awesome. I loved how so many parts fit in together slowly as the cogs turned, and often it was so unexpected how each piece would fit in together. I think what let it down at times was how uninteresting some parts were. The character switches did add flavour, but for some of the characters it took me some time to get adjusted to their world and to find a reason to care about what they're doing. But in the end, I found that I was hooked and couldn't put it down. The end itself felt almost like it could've been another book - the world was rich and felt like it had so much more to give. The title (and how its meaning is revealed) is also great.
jetia13's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.25
Love Mitchell, but found this to be quite a slog and too fantastical for me. Also, near-future environmental apocalypse is scary.