Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Bridge of Clay

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Bridge of Clay, by Markus Zusak

15 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

3.0

Review of a Bridge of Clay
By Markus Zusak
Set in Australia, this is the story of the Dunbar boys: Matthew, Clay, Rory, Henry, and Tommy. Matthew, our narrator, became guardian to his brothers after their mother, Penelope died of cancer and their father Michael, slowly abandons them, eventually leaving them. Years later Michael returns to ask them to build a bridge over a river near his house. Most of the boy’s refuse believing their father murdered them, but Clay sees it as his destiny to help him build the bridge.
The novel is very character driven as plot is not as strong and the story spends showing moments in the lives of our characters and going back and forth between the past and present. It was difficult to get into and often confusing with the constant back and forth structure, though I believe it’s similar to how told The Book Thief, but that had a more cohesive plot. Making Matthew the narrator but it being about Clay added clever perspective as Matthew didn’t know everything, but he saw things in a different way. Reading about the relationship between the Dunbar boys was fun to explore and felt authentic and natural. Each boy had his own unique personality that could be likable and annoying at the same time. The building of the bridge and Clay’s girlfriend Carey Novak’s track racing was something interesting, but a bit boring at times. I enjoyed the art and literary references and I’m glad I had at least read The Odyssey and was somewhat familiar with what happens in the Iliad (Thanks to the movie Troy). I also thought the barnyard of slowly accumulating animals in their house was fun to read about. Towards the end I did get impatient and wanted to finally finish the novel, so I skimmed the last section. This is more a “me” thing, because I don’t always love slower endings. I understand why not everyone loved this, but I thought it was pretty good.

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jessie_roz's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

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smdavie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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thebookishvirgo's review

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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jfield351's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

2.25

I read this book as part of the dymocks challenge, this was the dymocks book of the month july 2018. i don’t think i would have read it otherwise. i feel like maybe i was too unintelligent to enjoy this book, as some parts i understood that i hadn’t really grasped what was going on. it wasn’t a bad book but it wasn’t my favourite. it was slow paced and felt like i was watching a movie. it’s definitely the opposite of what i usually enjoy reading, which is fast paced fantasy. but i liked how there were about 4 or 5 different time periods, my favourite was the reflection of the mother growing up. it was a sad book and really showed the full life of many of these people. by halfway i felt like i was a dunbar boy, because it was written in such a way that i could see them all around me and know their personalities. i was a bit confused about the bridge thing, why the father left and what happened to the mother but i eventually understood. this book had a calming effect on me. Read 17 to 19 jan.

edit: it was better in hindsight than when reading it. Looking back i did enjoy the book and giving it only 2 stars seems harsh because i’ve realised it was a beautiful story so i’m going to move it up just a tiny bit to 2.25.

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averagemark's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I picked up this book because I liked the works of Marcus Zusak in the past, and I was not disappointed by this. The story follows 5 boys living on their own, the killer and the memory of their mother.

If you’re a fan of action packed fantasy, then this book is not for you. It has a slower pace and deals with everyday problems of a broken family. Like in real life, there isn’t a definite end to the story, but at the end of the book, you feel like you’re part of this big family. You’ve lived through their tragedies, you’ve coped with them, and you’ve grown, and in my opinion that’s the best part of this all.

Some might also find the book challenging because of the way it is written: one chapter takes place in the past, and one in the future. Although, with such writing, it would normally be harder to keep up with the story, The Bridge of Clay avoided that fate. Coming back to the past a lot makes sense for a grieving family, and as readers it’s interesting to put a story together piece by piece.

The characters all have a distinct personality, influenced by their past. For me, one of the worst things an author can do, is provide the readers with questions, and not answer all of them by the end, here it is thankfully not the case. All the mysteries laid out before us in the beginning of the book, eventually make sense.

If I had to sum my review up, this is not a very action packed book, at first, you’ll need to to get into reading it, but by the end, the characters, the journey you took with them, will make all of the inconveniences worth it.

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