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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Chaotic Academia
Only pros can jump rope with this timeline
History and art and love
Shakespearean levels of tragedy, could have been perfect if the timing and circumstances took just one step closer.
Only pros can jump rope with this timeline
History and art and love
Shakespearean levels of tragedy, could have been perfect if the timing and circumstances took just one step closer.
Morton weaves together generations of characters and stories. Well written, but very slow.
beautifully and evocatively written, this book will transport you through the lives of each character! every seemingly random thread is carefully chosen to create the finished tapestry of the story. a gorgeous book in every way.
A gentle read, initially with a protagonist who didn’t really appeal to me if I’m honest, but the book spans time and other characters (more interesting and enigmatic) step into the spotlight.
It’s a nice story, but there were a few loose threads at the end which is always a mild disappointment. As if the author’s put away their sewing while thinking about other things, and a needle has slipped unnoticed down the side of the sofa. You don’t really miss it, but…
It’s a nice story, but there were a few loose threads at the end which is always a mild disappointment. As if the author’s put away their sewing while thinking about other things, and a needle has slipped unnoticed down the side of the sofa. You don’t really miss it, but…
Kate Morton is one of my favourite authors and The Forgotten Garden is one of my all-time favourite books, so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of The Clockmaker's Daughter. I really enjoyed the story but wavered between giving it four stars or five stars. However, it was the ending that made me finally settle on four. It's hard to explain, without giving away spoilers, but I was hoping for a kind of Spielberg/Disney fantasy ending (with all the characters' talk of time and space). But as this is a historical and NOT a fantasy, I obviously didn't get one!
The story is in the main part is about a Victorian woman called Birdie, who overcomes her Oliver Twist style background (thieving and picking pockets) and falls in love with an upcoming artist named Edward Radcliffe, before tragedy strikes at a house party in 1862. A woman is murdered, Edward leaves England never to return, and the priceless Radcliffe diamond is lost forever. In the present day Elodie, who works in an archive, finds Edward's satchel and sketchbook, with drawings of a house she thought only existed in a children's fairy story, and is determined to solve the mystery.
I had thought The Clockmaker's Daughter would switch between Birdie and Elodie's viewpoints, like an Eve Chase or Lulu Taylor novel, but instead it told the story of everyone who had lived in Edward's Elizabethan manor house (Birchwood Manor) up until the present day. The only connection between each of these characters is the house and the fact that they have all lost someone - either through a tragic death or removal by distance. It reminded me of The Suffolk Trilogy by Norah Lofts. And this was another reason the rating dropped to a four: I'd rather have read about Birdie, who was a fabulous creation, and Elodie, who kind of disappeared beneath the weight of all these other characters - some of whom I didn't feel added anything to the story. Having said that, I did love how we discovered the ways all the characters were ultimately connected - Elodie's Great-Uncle Tip, for example.
I always love stories about old houses and I loved the mystery of what happened that night in 1862; to Edward and Birdie, the necklace and the painting. I loved the stories of Pale Joe and Ada - she was my favourite character! I think it could have done with being shorter (it's way over 700 pages) and have less characters. Having said that, I was completely gripped and read it very quickly! I really enjoyed the way the stories wrapped around each other and I'm happy to give it a solid four stars. If you're not hung up on ghosts deserving their happy ending along with everyone else, you might want to give it five!
The Clockmaker's Daughter is out in the UK on the 20th of September 2018.
Thank you to Kate Morton and Mantle (Pan Macmillan) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.
The story is in the main part is about a Victorian woman called Birdie, who overcomes her Oliver Twist style background (thieving and picking pockets) and falls in love with an upcoming artist named Edward Radcliffe, before tragedy strikes at a house party in 1862. A woman is murdered, Edward leaves England never to return, and the priceless Radcliffe diamond is lost forever. In the present day Elodie, who works in an archive, finds Edward's satchel and sketchbook, with drawings of a house she thought only existed in a children's fairy story, and is determined to solve the mystery.
I had thought The Clockmaker's Daughter would switch between Birdie and Elodie's viewpoints, like an Eve Chase or Lulu Taylor novel, but instead it told the story of everyone who had lived in Edward's Elizabethan manor house (Birchwood Manor) up until the present day. The only connection between each of these characters is the house and the fact that they have all lost someone - either through a tragic death or removal by distance. It reminded me of The Suffolk Trilogy by Norah Lofts. And this was another reason the rating dropped to a four: I'd rather have read about Birdie, who was a fabulous creation, and Elodie, who kind of disappeared beneath the weight of all these other characters - some of whom I didn't feel added anything to the story. Having said that, I did love how we discovered the ways all the characters were ultimately connected - Elodie's Great-Uncle Tip, for example.
I always love stories about old houses and I loved the mystery of what happened that night in 1862; to Edward and Birdie, the necklace and the painting. I loved the stories of Pale Joe and Ada - she was my favourite character! I think it could have done with being shorter (it's way over 700 pages) and have less characters. Having said that, I was completely gripped and read it very quickly! I really enjoyed the way the stories wrapped around each other and I'm happy to give it a solid four stars. If you're not hung up on ghosts deserving their happy ending along with everyone else, you might want to give it five!
The Clockmaker's Daughter is out in the UK on the 20th of September 2018.
Thank you to Kate Morton and Mantle (Pan Macmillan) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.
“Each clock is unique…And just like a person, its face, whether plain or pretty, is but a mask for the intricate mechanism it conceals.”
There were so many characters in this book. I was grateful to have the xray function on my Kindle for this one. It was pretty slow going during the first third of the book. It felt jumpy and I just couldn’t see how everything was connected. As soon as I figured out what was going on with the POV (the narrator’s situation, family, friends, etc.), it would suddenly change to another POV and I’d have to start all over again without any context.
Once I figured out the rhythm of the narration switches, the relationships between the characters and their history, and places in history, the story started to come together for me, and I flew through the rest of the book fascinated. It took me 7 days to get through the first third of the book and then less than 2 to finish it. There were a few things in the end that I found frustrating, but overall, I really enjoyed the weaving of the story. It was like a complicated spider web woven through time.
“He believed that music had the power to alter people’s lives—'their very minds…’”
There were so many characters in this book. I was grateful to have the xray function on my Kindle for this one. It was pretty slow going during the first third of the book. It felt jumpy and I just couldn’t see how everything was connected. As soon as I figured out what was going on with the POV (the narrator’s situation, family, friends, etc.), it would suddenly change to another POV and I’d have to start all over again without any context.
Once I figured out the rhythm of the narration switches, the relationships between the characters and their history, and places in history, the story started to come together for me, and I flew through the rest of the book fascinated. It took me 7 days to get through the first third of the book and then less than 2 to finish it. There were a few things in the end that I found frustrating
Spoiler
I still don’t understand why Lucy didn’t tell someone that “Lily” was in the priest hidey hole, why on earth did she think someone had let her out?“He believed that music had the power to alter people’s lives—'their very minds…’”
From the book:
"Don't slide down the rabbit hole," Alan in her mind said cheerily. "The way down's a breeze, but climbing back's a battle."
"Don't slide down the rabbit hole," Alan in her mind said cheerily. "The way down's a breeze, but climbing back's a battle."
Later on, when the frustration ebbs out of my being, I will simply feel a sadness that I felt compelled to rate a Kate Morton book so low. But right now I am mainly just frustrated...and disappointed.
See, here's the thing about Morton's books—They typically start out very slowly. Frustratingly so. It normally is a testament of my patience. She takes her time and introduces everyone slowly and it can take up at least a ⅓ of the book. While this can sometimes be a pleasant, peaceful, and paced way of getting to know the important people in the book, The Clockmaker's Daughter simply has too many characters trapped within too many time periods.
There can be a large number of characters and time periods. Again with the lengthy introductions, but extended because some you will revisit many times, while others are for but a brief couple of pages. Normally, all the main characters for their respective time periods will be deeply connected (sometimes unknowingly) to the mystery surrounding the book's story. But here, there were too many who were barely connected, circumstantially connected, or connected but by an added degree of separation. With any book by Morton, you can expect a lot of jumping around over the different eras that make up the core of her story, but with this one, the sheer number of characters and their time periods simply made it too messy and jumbled to be enjoyed properly or remain essential to the overall arc.
Normally I really enjoy the middle of a Morton book. The part where the book is starting to really reveal what the true mystery is and how the characters are beginning to tie in together is typically such an exciting portion of her stories. But this was still working on introducing people, settings, and time periods. It hardly had a true middle.
The mystery is normally simple. At times Morton's novels are fairly predictable in a general sense, but the enjoyment is really going along with the characters as they uncover the necessary truths and tie them together. That's not really the case here. Again, the mystery is very simple, but it was disappointingly simple by the end, and no big reveal awaited me. And with all those characters holding a tiny piece of the puzzle, it was hard to really care. In fact, the ending was so loose and frayed that I was quite surprised it wasn't wrapped up more neatly. Rather unsatisfying to come all that way and feel fragmented and unfinished.
The "present" day character will often act as a guide to the other eras visited. Quite often in whatever year acts as present day to the book (the most recent time to the real present), that main character will be the one driving the quest to unravel the mystery. But here, the present day character, Elodie, was not the one holding the map. Although she does drive some pieces of the puzzle to come together, it is really a small portion and, after her first opening chapters, the reader hardly spends any time with Elodie at all. And then it is only through the eyes of the titular character, the mystery herself...the clockmaker's daughter. She remains either aliased or nameless throughout the book, and it is she who is really driving the novel. This is a strange decision for a Morton story. Not only did it break with her normal pattern, but it really prevented me from feeling like I got to know any of the characters well. She was too removed...too wrapped up in the mystery of herself...too, "I know almost everything that happened, but I can't tell you yet, dear reader."
Morton's skill is clearly at creating great characters and settings. No exception here...the characters are very well written, and the main setting, Birchwood Manor, feels every bit of being a character on its own for much of the book. This is something I really find joy in when reading a Morton novel. Her characters are often written with such care and such delicacy that they do really come to life in your mind. The wonderful, often mysterious, settings are equally vivid and amazingly real. I make no argument here against this case, even for this book. I will just say that she mixed in too many characters, and her mystery got away from her a little bit here because of a choice in structure and delivery.
Ultimately I feel that Morton grappled with who her lead character actually was, because no matter all the little ways in which the characters tie into the mystery, no one really stood out other than the title character and the house itself...which really seemed like the only essential piece to this story. Some characters, either as a main character for the time period or as a side character, would be introduced and fall off the face of the book—never to be heard from again.
Although I understand the ongoing theme of time in the story (I was, in fact, beaten over the head with that one), there was really no reason for the woman to be the daughter of a clockmaker. It made no difference to the story. She may as well have been The Father's Daughter, The Philosopher's Daughter, or even The Pauper Turned Muse because it was not essential to her story or the mystery. The title choice is irksome for me—overly romantic and unnecessarily poetic in nature for no reason...other than perhaps to be a bit misleading on what is central to the plot. Because when you get right down to it, the novel was centered around too many tiny, little changed-my-life moments for far too many characters.
The Clockmaker's Daughter was too messy and forced for the flaws to be outweighed by Morton's beautiful writing, fantastic characters, and transportive setting—typical attributes from her books. Bottom line, this was disappointing from what I've come to anticipate from Morton. I do still look forward to her next one.
See, here's the thing about Morton's books—They typically start out very slowly. Frustratingly so. It normally is a testament of my patience. She takes her time and introduces everyone slowly and it can take up at least a ⅓ of the book. While this can sometimes be a pleasant, peaceful, and paced way of getting to know the important people in the book, The Clockmaker's Daughter simply has too many characters trapped within too many time periods.
There can be a large number of characters and time periods. Again with the lengthy introductions, but extended because some you will revisit many times, while others are for but a brief couple of pages. Normally, all the main characters for their respective time periods will be deeply connected (sometimes unknowingly) to the mystery surrounding the book's story. But here, there were too many who were barely connected, circumstantially connected, or connected but by an added degree of separation. With any book by Morton, you can expect a lot of jumping around over the different eras that make up the core of her story, but with this one, the sheer number of characters and their time periods simply made it too messy and jumbled to be enjoyed properly or remain essential to the overall arc.
Normally I really enjoy the middle of a Morton book. The part where the book is starting to really reveal what the true mystery is and how the characters are beginning to tie in together is typically such an exciting portion of her stories. But this was still working on introducing people, settings, and time periods. It hardly had a true middle.
The mystery is normally simple. At times Morton's novels are fairly predictable in a general sense, but the enjoyment is really going along with the characters as they uncover the necessary truths and tie them together. That's not really the case here. Again, the mystery is very simple, but it was disappointingly simple by the end, and no big reveal awaited me. And with all those characters holding a tiny piece of the puzzle, it was hard to really care. In fact, the ending was so loose and frayed that I was quite surprised it wasn't wrapped up more neatly. Rather unsatisfying to come all that way and feel fragmented and unfinished.
The "present" day character will often act as a guide to the other eras visited. Quite often in whatever year acts as present day to the book (the most recent time to the real present), that main character will be the one driving the quest to unravel the mystery. But here, the present day character, Elodie, was not the one holding the map. Although she does drive some pieces of the puzzle to come together, it is really a small portion and, after her first opening chapters, the reader hardly spends any time with Elodie at all. And then it is only through the eyes of the titular character, the mystery herself...the clockmaker's daughter. She remains either aliased or nameless throughout the book, and it is she who is really driving the novel. This is a strange decision for a Morton story. Not only did it break with her normal pattern, but it really prevented me from feeling like I got to know any of the characters well. She was too removed...too wrapped up in the mystery of herself...too, "I know almost everything that happened, but I can't tell you yet, dear reader."
Morton's skill is clearly at creating great characters and settings. No exception here...the characters are very well written, and the main setting, Birchwood Manor, feels every bit of being a character on its own for much of the book. This is something I really find joy in when reading a Morton novel. Her characters are often written with such care and such delicacy that they do really come to life in your mind. The wonderful, often mysterious, settings are equally vivid and amazingly real. I make no argument here against this case, even for this book. I will just say that she mixed in too many characters, and her mystery got away from her a little bit here because of a choice in structure and delivery.
Ultimately I feel that Morton grappled with who her lead character actually was, because no matter all the little ways in which the characters tie into the mystery, no one really stood out other than the title character and the house itself...which really seemed like the only essential piece to this story. Some characters, either as a main character for the time period or as a side character, would be introduced and fall off the face of the book—never to be heard from again.
Although I understand the ongoing theme of time in the story (I was, in fact, beaten over the head with that one), there was really no reason for the woman to be the daughter of a clockmaker. It made no difference to the story. She may as well have been The Father's Daughter, The Philosopher's Daughter, or even The Pauper Turned Muse because it was not essential to her story or the mystery. The title choice is irksome for me—overly romantic and unnecessarily poetic in nature for no reason...other than perhaps to be a bit misleading on what is central to the plot. Because when you get right down to it, the novel was centered around too many tiny, little changed-my-life moments for far too many characters.
The Clockmaker's Daughter was too messy and forced for the flaws to be outweighed by Morton's beautiful writing, fantastic characters, and transportive setting—typical attributes from her books. Bottom line, this was disappointing from what I've come to anticipate from Morton. I do still look forward to her next one.
Plot: Elodie is a young archivist in London who comes across a leather satchel with an old photograph and an artist’s sketchbook with a drawing of a house on a riverbend. The house feels instinctively familiar to Elodie, but she can’t figure out why. This plunges us into the tale of the house, Birchwood Manor, on the banks of the Upper Thames, and its history all the way back to 1862, when a group of artists spend their summer at the house, ending in tragedy and a missing heirloom.
My thoughts: Somehow I’ve never read a Kate Morton book before, although they’ve always seemed just like my thing. On reading this one, I’ve decided – yes, they definitely are my thing! Set across multiple time periods, with a hint of the gothic, a splash of mystery, romance and even the supernatural, it’s got all the elements of an excellent book. Throw in that fantastic plot and you’ve got me hooked! The only place I’d say it falls down is that, at times, the multiple characters were a little confusing – each section was told from a different viewpoint, which meant that the characters’ stories were cleverly intertwined with some appearing in each others’ stories, but there were a lot of them!
My thoughts: Somehow I’ve never read a Kate Morton book before, although they’ve always seemed just like my thing. On reading this one, I’ve decided – yes, they definitely are my thing! Set across multiple time periods, with a hint of the gothic, a splash of mystery, romance and even the supernatural, it’s got all the elements of an excellent book. Throw in that fantastic plot and you’ve got me hooked! The only place I’d say it falls down is that, at times, the multiple characters were a little confusing – each section was told from a different viewpoint, which meant that the characters’ stories were cleverly intertwined with some appearing in each others’ stories, but there were a lot of them!
Yes, this book is complex: there are several different plot lines, involving a large number of characters. And they're all interwoven. It's a little daunting at first, but stick with it; it really is worth the effort.
The conception and execution are top-notch. One of the best books I've read in the last few years.
The conception and execution are top-notch. One of the best books I've read in the last few years.