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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I like Kate Morton's books. This one was a bit too far into the "suspend disbelief" spectrum for me, even though I liked the characters, etc. I like books with connections down the generations (one of my early favorites--I'm talking decades ago--was/is The Source by Michenor) but you can do that without the supernatural.
I did find that keeping track of the characters from the Victorian era was difficult for me. Maybe I'm just too old.
I did find that keeping track of the characters from the Victorian era was difficult for me. Maybe I'm just too old.
I loved this novel! Kate Morton has the ability to tell a great story, you find yourself immersed in it. This is long book, with many characters and timelines. At times, I found myself a bit lost but as I read further, the answers appeared and the connections became clearer. I loved the story of Edward and Birdie, I was interested to find out exactly what happened that night in 1862. There was enough of a mystery to hold my interest throughout the story and the author did a very good job of revealing just enough but not everything until the end.
I'm not normally a fan of anything historical but this author is probably one of the few that does it well...
I'm not normally a fan of anything historical but this author is probably one of the few that does it well...
I'm honestly a little embarrassed about how much I loved this book.
It pains me to only give 3 stars to a Kate Morton book (really it's more of a 3.5). She is one of my favorite authors and can always be counted on for an absorbing read, but this one jumped around into different timelines with different characters and I found it to be a bit scattered. It's Kate Morton, so I still kept turning those pages, but it's probably my least favorite of her books.
Not my favorite Kate Morton novel. There are a large number of timelines and POVs, and I felt the resolution for some of them to be too subtle.
2.5 stars. I found this one disappointing. Kate Morton books are never beach reads - they require more concentration and investment of time. But this one didn’t seem as worth the effort. I was able to follow all the different characters, although sometimes the timeline made me have to flip back and forth through the book ... but I managed to keep up. I just didn’t feel that connected to the characters, and it took me forever to get into Birdie’s chapters. I will definitely read the next Kate Morton book, but I won’t be revisiting or recommending this one.
Slow to get going but in true Kate Morton fashion I couldn’t read the last 100 pages fast enough. I appreciate the author gives just enough resolution to be satisfied while still leaving things running wild in our imaginations.
Kate Morton's The Clockmakers daughter is a beautiful story. The mystery surrounding the house and the different families who lived within its walls is a good one.
My disappointment comes in at the execution of the plot for this story. As many others have said, there are far too many characters. it is difficult to differentiate between the primary and secondary characters. There also is a lot of jumping around. Within 1 chapter, it could be the ghost observing something happening in present day in one paragraph and then the immediate next it was back into the late 1800s when the ghost was a young woman... Then within that 1800s memory... is a story of the ghosts' younger childhood life.
The other part that is very difficult to swallow is after a lengthy plot and mystery, there is no resolution. The reader is robbed of the conclusion for every single character, including the ghost. everything that the writer had been building up to, just ended anticlimactically.. with a mere hint of what possibly happened. There is no relief for the reader, even if it was a tragic end.. there wasn't even that.
My disappointment comes in at the execution of the plot for this story. As many others have said, there are far too many characters. it is difficult to differentiate between the primary and secondary characters. There also is a lot of jumping around. Within 1 chapter, it could be the ghost observing something happening in present day in one paragraph and then the immediate next it was back into the late 1800s when the ghost was a young woman... Then within that 1800s memory... is a story of the ghosts' younger childhood life.
The other part that is very difficult to swallow is after a lengthy plot and mystery, there is no resolution. The reader is robbed of the conclusion for every single character, including the ghost. everything that the writer had been building up to, just ended anticlimactically.. with a mere hint of what possibly happened. There is no relief for the reader, even if it was a tragic end.. there wasn't even that.
Just....lush. The story, like all of Morton's works, pulls you in deeply and then reveals itself in poignant, beautiful layers. So rich and intricately written.