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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Loved this book. Just like the other books by Kate Morton the book switches back and forth through time weaving it's dark mystery. It kept me spellbound until the very end. If you like Kate Morton's other books, don't wait to read this one. You will love it also
This may be one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s the first Kate Morton I’ve picked up but it was incredible. Possibly better saved for an cozy fire and blankets during the winter but don’t let that stop you. Pay close attention, though, the true perfection of this book is in the tiny details.
I have lived all her books but am only going 4 stars on this one as it seemed more chaotic than other books. Too many characters in too many different time periods - instead of how nicely the stories weave together in her other books this was more difficult to follow the different characters and times and keep them straight and figure out how they all related to each other. Whew!
I am huge Kate Morton fan having read all her books and this didn't disappoint.
The story is a beautiful interleaving of several stories all based around Birchwood Manor and although a different means of story telling for the author the story pulls you in and I was gripped from the start and I loved the slightly open ending.
A beautiful story by a fabulous author
The story is a beautiful interleaving of several stories all based around Birchwood Manor and although a different means of story telling for the author the story pulls you in and I was gripped from the start and I loved the slightly open ending.
A beautiful story by a fabulous author
If you’re a fan of Kate Morton’s books, you know that two things are true of them: you wait for what feels like forever for the next one to come out and when it does, it stays with you for a very long time. The Clockmaker’s Daughter is no exception.
Morton’s latest novel is a haunting and richly detailed tome that spans more than 150 years, following the lives of several characters whose lives have intertwined because of their respective affiliations with Birchwood Manor, a sixteenth-century country house in England that could arguably be considered the main character of the story.
Similar to her other books, The Clockmaker’s Daughter jumps back and forth between time periods, follows multiple interconnected stories, and hinges on one tragic decision made by someone in a crisis that has been kept secret for generations.
Elodie is the latest in a series of people who are drawn to the mysteries and almost magnetic force of Birchwood Manor. She works as an archivist in present-day London for the estate of James Stratton, a successful Victorian banker, and she discovers among his possessions a leather satchel containing a sketchbook, a photograph, and a letter. The sketchbook contains a drawing of a house that Elodie is certain she knows, a house from a story that her late mother told her as a child.
She sets out to discover how it is that James Stratton came into possession of these items, what their significance is, and why the house feels so familiar. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel then traces the stories of several other people impacted by the house, including Edward Radcliffe, the artist who purchased the house in 1862 and whose fiancée was killed during the robbery; his sister, Lucy; his model; Leonard, a student writing a dissertation on Edward; and Juliet, a young mother who evacuated to Birchwood Manor with her children during the war.
The story does not progress chronologically, but rather, from all angles at once, as though time stood still and everything that had happened at the house could just as easily have been yesterday as a century-and-a-half ago.
I found the fantasy element in this book much stronger than in any of Morton’s others, making it read almost like a fairy tale. (Not the type of fairy tale where princes save princesses, mind you. The other, darker kind.) The writing itself is almost magical; Morton has such a beautiful way with words. She transports her readers to a variety of settings, and one cannot help but feel like they are actually in Birchwood Manor, or sitting by the river, or running from a policeman through the streets of London.
Consider her description of the Thames: “The Thames here had a vastly different character to the wide, muddy tyrant that seethed through London. It was graceful and deft and remarkably light of heart. It skipped over stones and skimmed its banks, water so clear that one could see the reeds swaying deep down on her narrow bed. The river here was a she, he’d decided. For all its sunlit transparency, there were certain spots in which it was suddenly unfathomable.”
Morton weaves these beautiful metaphors in subtly, avoiding unnecessary elaborations. For example, about two characters who are reminiscing over a loved on they’ve lost, she writes, “They were two moons bound in orbit around his memory.”
Her character development is almost as impeccable as her rendering of the places, though some of the character were more clearly developed than others. I loved Edward—how forward thinking he was, how passionate, how completely absorbed in his craft. As a central figure to the story though, I felt like I didn’t get enough of him.
On the downside, as with many novels of this magnitude, the book took a while to grab my attention. I love Kate Morton’s books, so I know by now that the build-up is always worth it, but usually I’m enraptured within a few chapters. With The Clockmaker’s Daughter, I honestly didn’t start whipping through the pages until I was about seventy percent of the way through. That isn’t to say that the rest wasn’t well written; it was just that the mystery itself didn’t particularly grab at me until that point. From then on, I struggled to put it down.
Further, I felt like there were, perhaps, a few too many coincidences to be believable; also, I was left with many unanswered questions. It is the kind of book that makes me want to go back and read it again after I’ve finished it to see what details I might have missed.
Finally, without giving to much away, I have to mention that I am not really a fan of ghost stories, and the ghostly nature of The Clockmaker’s Daughter did, at times, make this book uncomfortable for me. Again, the quality of the writing and the grip of the narrative outweighed my discomfort, but I did find it somewhat unnerving.
I would recommend this book to fans of Kate Morton’s other works, or to those who enjoy novels such as Sarah’s Key or Those Who Save Us.
[Special thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to review this special devotional. All opinions are my own.]
Morton’s latest novel is a haunting and richly detailed tome that spans more than 150 years, following the lives of several characters whose lives have intertwined because of their respective affiliations with Birchwood Manor, a sixteenth-century country house in England that could arguably be considered the main character of the story.
Similar to her other books, The Clockmaker’s Daughter jumps back and forth between time periods, follows multiple interconnected stories, and hinges on one tragic decision made by someone in a crisis that has been kept secret for generations.
Elodie is the latest in a series of people who are drawn to the mysteries and almost magnetic force of Birchwood Manor. She works as an archivist in present-day London for the estate of James Stratton, a successful Victorian banker, and she discovers among his possessions a leather satchel containing a sketchbook, a photograph, and a letter. The sketchbook contains a drawing of a house that Elodie is certain she knows, a house from a story that her late mother told her as a child.
She sets out to discover how it is that James Stratton came into possession of these items, what their significance is, and why the house feels so familiar. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel then traces the stories of several other people impacted by the house, including Edward Radcliffe, the artist who purchased the house in 1862 and whose fiancée was killed during the robbery; his sister, Lucy; his model; Leonard, a student writing a dissertation on Edward; and Juliet, a young mother who evacuated to Birchwood Manor with her children during the war.
The story does not progress chronologically, but rather, from all angles at once, as though time stood still and everything that had happened at the house could just as easily have been yesterday as a century-and-a-half ago.
I found the fantasy element in this book much stronger than in any of Morton’s others, making it read almost like a fairy tale. (Not the type of fairy tale where princes save princesses, mind you. The other, darker kind.) The writing itself is almost magical; Morton has such a beautiful way with words. She transports her readers to a variety of settings, and one cannot help but feel like they are actually in Birchwood Manor, or sitting by the river, or running from a policeman through the streets of London.
Consider her description of the Thames: “The Thames here had a vastly different character to the wide, muddy tyrant that seethed through London. It was graceful and deft and remarkably light of heart. It skipped over stones and skimmed its banks, water so clear that one could see the reeds swaying deep down on her narrow bed. The river here was a she, he’d decided. For all its sunlit transparency, there were certain spots in which it was suddenly unfathomable.”
Morton weaves these beautiful metaphors in subtly, avoiding unnecessary elaborations. For example, about two characters who are reminiscing over a loved on they’ve lost, she writes, “They were two moons bound in orbit around his memory.”
Her character development is almost as impeccable as her rendering of the places, though some of the character were more clearly developed than others. I loved Edward—how forward thinking he was, how passionate, how completely absorbed in his craft. As a central figure to the story though, I felt like I didn’t get enough of him.
On the downside, as with many novels of this magnitude, the book took a while to grab my attention. I love Kate Morton’s books, so I know by now that the build-up is always worth it, but usually I’m enraptured within a few chapters. With The Clockmaker’s Daughter, I honestly didn’t start whipping through the pages until I was about seventy percent of the way through. That isn’t to say that the rest wasn’t well written; it was just that the mystery itself didn’t particularly grab at me until that point. From then on, I struggled to put it down.
Further, I felt like there were, perhaps, a few too many coincidences to be believable; also, I was left with many unanswered questions. It is the kind of book that makes me want to go back and read it again after I’ve finished it to see what details I might have missed.
Finally, without giving to much away, I have to mention that I am not really a fan of ghost stories, and the ghostly nature of The Clockmaker’s Daughter did, at times, make this book uncomfortable for me. Again, the quality of the writing and the grip of the narrative outweighed my discomfort, but I did find it somewhat unnerving.
I would recommend this book to fans of Kate Morton’s other works, or to those who enjoy novels such as Sarah’s Key or Those Who Save Us.
[Special thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to review this special devotional. All opinions are my own.]
🕰 BOOK REVIEW 🕰 ⭐️⭐️/5
🕰 I’ve been reading reviews saying “if you don’t like this book, it’s just because you aren’t used to Kate Morton’s writing”. Eh- that rationale doesn’t work for me. I’m not a genre/author specific reader. If my favorite author writes a blah book...I will begrudgingly admit it. A good book is a good book is a good book. For me, The Clockmaker’s Daughter was not.
🕰 We follow a large cast of characters (narrators) over the course of many years (1800s-present) as they cross paths with Birchwood Manor. Birchwood Manor is more than just a home for these characters. It’s a place of refuge, a school for young women, the key to old mysteries, a beacon of inspiration. Within the house there is hope for a new future for each of them. There is a hinted at mystery involving an ominous death, however it was minor blip on the radar. The house and it’s history was the heart of the story. The book’s synopsis left me anticipating a multi-faceted murder mystery. I was expecting Clue! Alas, there was no Colonel Mustard with a lead pipe in the study.
🕰 The 985 narrator’s lives were meant to intertwine in the most magical and mysterious of ways. Instead, they are all held together by a measly dental floss tether and their interwoven relationships are of minor or non-existent significance. Many of the narrators could have been ditched in their entirety and the story would remain unscathed. The intentional over-complication of the story for the mere purpose of trying to create a “surprise” ending was exhausting. At the start of each chapter I’d find myself thinking “who the hell is narrating this?” or rereading passages because I either lost interest or couldn’t keep track of the tangent-ridden storytelling. Additionally, the overly descriptive language was at times, just way too much. “...a coppice of birch trees”. A coppice?!?!? Get outta here with your coppice. No need to explain what a house and a river look like 437 times with each new narrator. I’ve been in contact with both houses and rivers before. What this story lacked was MAJOR editing. If this was pared down and not so over-worked, we could have had something decent.
📚 Follow @kraysbookclub on Instagram for more books reviews!
🕰 I’ve been reading reviews saying “if you don’t like this book, it’s just because you aren’t used to Kate Morton’s writing”. Eh- that rationale doesn’t work for me. I’m not a genre/author specific reader. If my favorite author writes a blah book...I will begrudgingly admit it. A good book is a good book is a good book. For me, The Clockmaker’s Daughter was not.
🕰 We follow a large cast of characters (narrators) over the course of many years (1800s-present) as they cross paths with Birchwood Manor. Birchwood Manor is more than just a home for these characters. It’s a place of refuge, a school for young women, the key to old mysteries, a beacon of inspiration. Within the house there is hope for a new future for each of them. There is a hinted at mystery involving an ominous death, however it was minor blip on the radar. The house and it’s history was the heart of the story. The book’s synopsis left me anticipating a multi-faceted murder mystery. I was expecting Clue! Alas, there was no Colonel Mustard with a lead pipe in the study.
🕰 The 985 narrator’s lives were meant to intertwine in the most magical and mysterious of ways. Instead, they are all held together by a measly dental floss tether and their interwoven relationships are of minor or non-existent significance. Many of the narrators could have been ditched in their entirety and the story would remain unscathed. The intentional over-complication of the story for the mere purpose of trying to create a “surprise” ending was exhausting. At the start of each chapter I’d find myself thinking “who the hell is narrating this?” or rereading passages because I either lost interest or couldn’t keep track of the tangent-ridden storytelling. Additionally, the overly descriptive language was at times, just way too much. “...a coppice of birch trees”. A coppice?!?!? Get outta here with your coppice. No need to explain what a house and a river look like 437 times with each new narrator. I’ve been in contact with both houses and rivers before. What this story lacked was MAJOR editing. If this was pared down and not so over-worked, we could have had something decent.
📚 Follow @kraysbookclub on Instagram for more books reviews!
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This isn't my favorite of Kate Morton's books. The interweaving stories I found to be a little harder to follow than some of her other books and the ending a little less satisfying but her beautiful writing keeps the pages turning as usual.
I mostly enjoyed this book by Kate Morton. I love a book that has multiple story lines in different times periods that all tie together in the end. However, it was slow moving in parts, and the ending left me wanting, with a few loose ends I wish had been tied up!