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3.0
The Many Lives Of John Stone by Linda Buckley-Archer is a historical fiction, young adult novel. It is, in a sense, two stories rolled up in to one book. In fact, it was almost too much of difference in the two timelines around which the book takes place. The main story takes place in modern day England and is told in the third person- present tense perspective. This part of the story follows a seventeen year old girl named Spark on her journey to Stowney House where she works for a man named John Stone and the mysterious occupants of his home in the English countryside. The second part of the story is told through a set of journals, written in first person- past tense, by John Stone. The journals are set in Versailles, France in the 1600’s. In the course of the novel Spark makes many discoveries about both herself and John Stone.
My thoughts: I think I loved the idea of the story more than the actual story. Maybe I was simply let down by my own high expectations, or maybe I’m not the only one who was a little let down. First off, let me say, reading John Stone was a little like talking a walk with your drunken best friend. Buckley-Archer was constantly changing from third person to first person; and, for no particular reason, switching fonts, a personal pet peeve. (I mean, honestly, we’re all adults. We don’t need to run through the entire list of fonts like we’re back in third grade.) The perspective switching was only annoying in the fact that we experience John Stone in both third and first person. I preferred the first person parts of the story more than third person as I feel that Buckley-Archer writes a far more compelling first person. I also wish that we could have heard from Spark herself in first person narration.
In addition, the story itself was all over the place, switching locations, time periods, narrators far to frequently for my taste.
John Stone’s journals, set in France in the 1600’s, are my favorite part of the story. Buckley-Archer really, truly painted a beautiful picture of the court of Versailles; the clothing, the architecture, the lords and ladies of the court. I would love to read a book about the rest of John Stones life, everything from the end of his journals to the beginning of this novel. John’s voice is very strong and hard to walk away from.
In present day England, John Stone lives with two other long-lived characters (sempervivens, as they are called), Jacob and Martha. While we do get a little back story on Martha, both of these characters are lacking in depth and history. I only bring this up because we get far more of a back story of Spark’s mother who is far less relevant to the story (and in my opinion far less interesting). I particularly would have liked to know more about Jacob’s backstory as he was one of my favorite characters.
All in all, I gave it three stars because while it had a fantastic ending and some great parts to it, I couldn’t quite stay interested in most of the story. The only reason I didn’t put the book down was because of the journals up until the twist at the end, around 425 pages in. I wanted to love Spark and Dan and Ludo but I just couldn’t. They lacked a proper voice. I wanted to love Martha and Jacob, but they were only an idea, nothing real behind them.
I would recommend this book only to fans of historical fiction because, while it has fantasy and science fiction, if you are lover of either of those genres you won’t be captured by the little bit of both in this novel.
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My thoughts: I think I loved the idea of the story more than the actual story. Maybe I was simply let down by my own high expectations, or maybe I’m not the only one who was a little let down. First off, let me say, reading John Stone was a little like talking a walk with your drunken best friend. Buckley-Archer was constantly changing from third person to first person; and, for no particular reason, switching fonts, a personal pet peeve. (I mean, honestly, we’re all adults. We don’t need to run through the entire list of fonts like we’re back in third grade.) The perspective switching was only annoying in the fact that we experience John Stone in both third and first person. I preferred the first person parts of the story more than third person as I feel that Buckley-Archer writes a far more compelling first person. I also wish that we could have heard from Spark herself in first person narration.
In addition, the story itself was all over the place, switching locations, time periods, narrators far to frequently for my taste.
John Stone’s journals, set in France in the 1600’s, are my favorite part of the story. Buckley-Archer really, truly painted a beautiful picture of the court of Versailles; the clothing, the architecture, the lords and ladies of the court. I would love to read a book about the rest of John Stones life, everything from the end of his journals to the beginning of this novel. John’s voice is very strong and hard to walk away from.
In present day England, John Stone lives with two other long-lived characters (sempervivens, as they are called), Jacob and Martha. While we do get a little back story on Martha, both of these characters are lacking in depth and history. I only bring this up because we get far more of a back story of Spark’s mother who is far less relevant to the story (and in my opinion far less interesting). I particularly would have liked to know more about Jacob’s backstory as he was one of my favorite characters.
All in all, I gave it three stars because while it had a fantastic ending and some great parts to it, I couldn’t quite stay interested in most of the story. The only reason I didn’t put the book down was because of the journals up until the twist at the end, around 425 pages in. I wanted to love Spark and Dan and Ludo but I just couldn’t. They lacked a proper voice. I wanted to love Martha and Jacob, but they were only an idea, nothing real behind them.
I would recommend this book only to fans of historical fiction because, while it has fantasy and science fiction, if you are lover of either of those genres you won’t be captured by the little bit of both in this novel.
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Blog
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