The Bone Clocks: A Novel
The New York Times bestseller by the author of Cloud Atlas - Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize - Named One of the Top Ten Fiction Books of the Year by Time, Entertainment Weekly, and O: The Oprah Magazine - A New York Times Notable Book - An American Library Association Notable Book - Winner of the World Fantasy Award "With The Bone Clocks, [David] Mitchell rises to meet and match the legacy of Cloud Atlas."--Los Angeles Times Following a terrible fight with her mother over her boyfriend, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her family and her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life. For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics--and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly's life, affecting all the people Holly loves--even the ones who are not yet born. A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting on the war in Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list--all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder. Rich with character and realms of possibility, The Bone Clocks is a kaleidoscopic novel that begs to be taken apart and put back together by a writer The Washington Post calls "the novelist who's been showing us the future of fiction." An elegant conjurer of interconnected tales, a genre-bending daredevil, and a master prose stylist, David Mitchell has become one of the leading literary voices of his generation. His hypnotic new novel, The Bone Clocks, crackles with invention and wit and sheer storytelling pleasure--it is fiction at its most spellbinding.
Named to more than 20 year-end best of lists, including
NPR - San Francisco Chronicle - The Atlantic - The Guardian - Slate - BuzzFeed "One of the most entertaining and thrilling novels I've read in a long time."--Meg Wolitzer, NPR
"[Mitchell] writes with a furious intensity and slapped-awake vitality, with a delight in language and all the rabbit holes of experience."--The New York Times Book Review "Intensely compelling . . . fantastically witty . . . offers up a rich selection of domestic realism, gothic fantasy and apocalyptic speculation."--The Washington Post "[A] time-traveling, culture-crossing, genre-bending marvel of a novel."--O: The Oprah Magazine "Great fun . . . a tour de force . . . [Mitchell] channels his narrators with vivid expertise."--San Francisco Chronicle
Named to more than 20 year-end best of lists, including
NPR - San Francisco Chronicle - The Atlantic - The Guardian - Slate - BuzzFeed "One of the most entertaining and thrilling novels I've read in a long time."--Meg Wolitzer, NPR
"[Mitchell] writes with a furious intensity and slapped-awake vitality, with a delight in language and all the rabbit holes of experience."--The New York Times Book Review "Intensely compelling . . . fantastically witty . . . offers up a rich selection of domestic realism, gothic fantasy and apocalyptic speculation."--The Washington Post "[A] time-traveling, culture-crossing, genre-bending marvel of a novel."--O: The Oprah Magazine "Great fun . . . a tour de force . . . [Mitchell] channels his narrators with vivid expertise."--San Francisco Chronicle
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Community Reviews
This is the second David Mitchell book I've read, the first one being Cloud Atlas. So I definitely didn't catch some of the Easter egg characters and connections some other reviews have mentioned. That being said, this book felt like Cloud Atlas in unique style of Mitchell's books - a series of connecting stories over time that slowly reveal an answer to a mystery and leave you with a bit of existential crisis.
I had trouble rating this book because frankly, it didn't feel like one coherent book. The beginning was great. I was immediately hooked by the first section, and the clues were setting up a good backbone for some interesting lore. However, that was where the problem came. Although I certainly liked other sections on their own, they felt disconnected, like Mitchell had gotten lost writing his own story. And in a book with this type of structure, that disconnected feeling was definitely a barrier for me.
In truth, I agree with another review which remarked that this book would have been much better as two or three separate novels. I still gave it four stars because I was hooked on this idea, and I really enjoy Mitchell's style. Sorry to say I was a tad disappointed when I finished just because of all its great potential.
For example, the first two sections were a nice set up that left me wondering about the Radio People and Immaculee Constantin, etc. The third section (narrated by Ed) was great, one of my favorites, but it only felt distantly related. The characters were familiar, sure, but the themes seemed completely new. The fourth section (narrated by Crispin Hershey) was probably my least favorite. I honestly believe most of it could have been edited out. The fifth section was full of so much Atemporal jargon and 'handwaving' magic that I didn't really feel the suspense this climax was obviously supposed to hold. The maze was nice, but not surprising, and the fight in the chapel (?) didn't really rely on powers that Mitchell had already shown us. As a result, it felt a bit like watching my cousin play World of Warcraft as a kid. The last section was actually one of my favorites in a way, both in the themes and the portrayal of them, but again, its connections to the beginning of the story felt a bit frail. I was hoping for more of a revelation, and it just fell a bit flat.
I had trouble rating this book because frankly, it didn't feel like one coherent book. The beginning was great. I was immediately hooked by the first section, and the clues were setting up a good backbone for some interesting lore. However, that was where the problem came. Although I certainly liked other sections on their own, they felt disconnected, like Mitchell had gotten lost writing his own story. And in a book with this type of structure, that disconnected feeling was definitely a barrier for me.
In truth, I agree with another review which remarked that this book would have been much better as two or three separate novels. I still gave it four stars because I was hooked on this idea, and I really enjoy Mitchell's style. Sorry to say I was a tad disappointed when I finished just because of all its great potential.
For example, the first two sections were a nice set up that left me wondering about the Radio People and Immaculee Constantin, etc. The third section (narrated by Ed) was great, one of my favorites, but it only felt distantly related. The characters were familiar, sure, but the themes seemed completely new. The fourth section (narrated by Crispin Hershey) was probably my least favorite. I honestly believe most of it could have been edited out. The fifth section was full of so much Atemporal jargon and 'handwaving' magic that I didn't really feel the suspense this climax was obviously supposed to hold. The maze was nice, but not surprising, and the fight in the chapel (?) didn't really rely on powers that Mitchell had already shown us. As a result, it felt a bit like watching my cousin play World of Warcraft as a kid. The last section was actually one of my favorites in a way, both in the themes and the portrayal of them, but again, its connections to the beginning of the story felt a bit frail. I was hoping for more of a revelation, and it just fell a bit flat.
There's no good way to summarize this book at all, let alone do it without giving away the whole thing. So without mentioning the plot, what I can say is this: if you liked Cloud Atlas, definitely read this book. If you didn't like Cloud Atlas, read this book anyway, because although it too is a genre-bending book, it's really very different. Ditto for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (both are among my favorite books, by the way). What it boils down to is the David Mitchell is one of the most talented writers around and anyone who wants to read a book that will be a lot of fun, but also be challenging, should read his books.
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