Reviews

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

cr33pycrawlspace's review against another edition

2.0

I plodded through this entire book. It had it's good moments but was an overall bore. I felt that the many different perspectives made the story disjointed. It was longer than it needed to be. The only part where I was truly engrossed was the part in Eds perspective. I wish I had read Cloud Atlas instead because I've heard good things about it but I will probably not bother with another David Mitchell book.

docpacey's review against another edition

5.0

There's almost nothing i can say that will do this book justice. It's great. He's a wonderful storyteller and a master wordsmith. This book fits very nicely into his oeuvre. It's not as ambitious as Cloud Atlas, but more cohesive, and chock full of wonderful easter eggs recalling characters and events from his other books.

Second read brings to a close a circumnavigation of the Mitchell cycle. I started with UA, his latest. All of them are great. consistently well crafted as few other authors can manage. This one, finally, felt the most like inhabiting a world i was well familiar with. I didn't enjoy the Crispin Hershey section very much this time round. Times have changed and characters like that haven't aged well, but he was always meant to be cast in an unflattering light. I just don't necessarily buy into any redemption for him.

Q: 5
E: 4
I: 5

25

kpombiere's review against another edition

4.0

Better than Cloud Atlas-- much more emotionally impacting-- but not focused enough during some parts.

jayden_mccomiskie's review against another edition

5.0

Ok David Mitchell. You are the best

obscuredbyclouds's review against another edition

2.0

This is my third book by David Mitchell. I abondoned "Cloud Atlas" half-way (after having loved the movie), I enjoyed the first part of "Utopia Avenue" but not the second, and "The Bone Clocks", while better than either of the aforementioned books, still follows a similar trajectory. I thought some of the realistic chapters (or rather, "short stories") were pretty good and I would have liked to read novels about these characters and situation. The war journalist, the girl losing her brother and running away. The meta-author writing a novel that is half-fantasy and half real life? A little less but still well-done. Now, my problem with the fantasy part and the last 200 pages of the novel or so, were not that they were fantasy by itself. I get Mitchell's shtick. What I didn't like was that it was so poorly written and confusing! I kept thinking "Why should I care about any of this?" because he didn't manage to fuse the parts, any parts of the novel really, together in an organic way and wrap it up nicely.

So I enjoyed parts of this novel, but often it was a slog to get through and it didn't pay off in the end. Mitchell is trying so much with this, half of which goes over my head, but he definitely does not succeed to pull it off.

I still have "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" and "Number9Dream" on my shelf, and now I'm unsure what to do about them. If I just read the beginning, I'm sure I'll like it, only to be frustrated by the end of it. I don't give most authors this many chances, why him?

krista_the_tsundoku's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

andrew_russell's review against another edition

4.0

It's hard to describe the plot of this book in any meaningful sense because in typical David Mitchell style, it's so damned complicated. Without droning on about Cloud Atlas for too long (it isn't the book I'm reviewing here!), there are striking similarities in writing style, a writing style that has become somewhat of a trademark of Mitchell's. The main similarity is the sheer epic scope of the story itself, spanning generations and containing a multitude of characters, who are beautifully written.

However, contrary to most of the reviews I have seen, I honestly believe that this book far outstrips Cloud Atlas in terms of the lasting imprint it has left on me, as well as the literary prowess with which it has been written. Cloud Atlas was hyped to the nth degree due to the fact that the six story threads from which it was formed "interlinked". I put "interlinked" in inverted commas because the degree to which they were woven together was well....just not very compelling. The writing style was simply beautiful but the one central premise on which the book was constructed - this "interlinking" of the stories, was amongst it's weakest elements. With Bone Clocks, I feel that not only is the prose just as exquisite but that the manner in which characters lives connect is first rate. And they connect to one central character - Holly Sykes. Her journey throughout this novel is touching, poignant and emotive. It says something about love, life, loss, confronting one's fears, growing old and even the human race and the dangers we may pose to the planet if we do not change the course upon which we are sailing. This extract; powerful, eloquent and affecting, demonstrates the latter of these;

Spoiler

'Five years later, I take a deep, shuddery breath to stop myself crying. It’s not just that I can’t hold Aoife again, it’s everything: it’s grief for the regions we deadlanded, the ice caps we melted, the Gulf Stream we redirected, the rivers we drained, the coasts we flooded, the lakes we choked with crap, the seas we killed, the species we drove to extinction, the pollinators we wiped out, the oil we squandered, the drugs we rendered impotent, the comforting liars we voted into office – all so we didn’t have to change our cosy lifestyles. People talk about the Endarkenment like our ancestors talked about the Black Death, as if it’s an act of God. But we summoned it, with every tank of oil we burnt our way through. My generation were diners stuffing ourselves senseless at the Restaurant of the Earth’s Riches knowing – while denying – that we’d be doing a runner and leaving our grandchildren a tab that can never be paid.'

I actually awarded this five stars originally but have since downgraded it to 4. The one thing that let it down was a relatively short segment of the book compared to the whole - but a crucial one. The chapter titled 'An Horologists Labyrinth' didn't gel with the rest of the text and felt jarring. In the actual combat scenes between the Horologists and Anchorites, some of the descriptive prose was so abstract that it pulled me out of the story completely; quite the opposite effect from that achieved in every other chapter. At times it read more like a cheap super hero story, with it's descriptions of force fields and such like. This was a real shame, as it marred an otherwise outstanding novel.

In summary, I really thoroughly enjoyed this book overall and would definitely recommend it to other readers but a crucial chapter in the narrative pulled it from 'truly outstanding' to 'very good'.

elynn726's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

domproc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

helenaliu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious

4.0