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aisclaradm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A great book about music, drugs, love, grief, but mainly about youth, and about how difficult it can be to find yourself and your identity as a young person. It was so immersive and engaging, and even though at times it felt fan-fictionesque because of interactions with real artists of the time, this added a lot to a nostalgic feel for a decade I haven’t even experienced. Some plot lines were brilliant and completely unexpected, such as the discovery that Jasper’s schizophrenia was actually due to a very real supernatural entity lodged in his mind, and I really really loved these arcs, though I wish they had had more of a central role in the story. The ending was a bit of a gut-punch, and Dean’s death, right after having had his numerous epiphanies about life, disappointed me hugely, but I suppose it had the intended effect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Minor: Confinement, Genocide, and War
inkamaar's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
An interesting, entertaining, and - at times - confusing story of a band and its members. You never fully knew what was going to happen next. Very detailed work on musical processes and life as a musician in the '60s, the author sure did his research. I enjoyed reading it, although there were times when I felt like the book would never end. In the end I kind of wished it never did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
jackgoss's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Rape, and Death of parent
lucawartna's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
What a ride. I loved every page of this book. The band’s chemistry is amazing, and their friendship is beautiful to witness. I love how every person gets the depth of character they deserve. The 60’s vibe, and the music scene vibe, are so much fun. I also appreciate how drugs are handled in this book - as vehicles for good times and bad times, depending on usage… and Dean’s acid trip description is so good.
This is my first David Mitchell book and I did not see the supernatural plot twist coming, but I’m here for it! It has gotten me curious to his other books. This one was super enjoyable!
This is my first David Mitchell book and I did not see the supernatural plot twist coming, but I’m here for it! It has gotten me curious to his other books. This one was super enjoyable!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
exiledjester's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is a cool book, it could be noatalgic for people who lived in the 60s era. Great inspiration for music lovers. Story was easy to follow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
rworrall78's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I listened to this as an audiobook and I really didn't get on with the narrators voice to start it sounded really smarmy. But the narrator did a pretty amazing job doing all the many, many accents.
The characters were well set up, quickly which is often a challenge when you're telling a story from multiple viewpoints. I came to really love the characters and the invested in what was happening to them.
I was listening to something recently saying how it's really difficult to represent either sport or music in fiction. And I think it's pretty much impossible to describe musical things without it being a little bit cringy. The celebrity cameos were a bit ridiculous too, and as others have said they take you out the story, but equally I think they were done as well as those kind of things can be. And how else can you tell the story of the late 1960s music scene without having those characters appear?
I definitely enjoyed the human stories of the main characters more than the party scenes or even the gigs scenes.
I didn't love the dream scenes at all and I'm sure they were more symbolic than I realized. But I think Jasper's story was very cleverly done.
As with all writing that is very long and tells the story in almost slower than real time, I always wonder whether that level of detail was necessary, but when it's well done I begin to find myself reveling in it and I did with this book.
The characters were well set up, quickly which is often a challenge when you're telling a story from multiple viewpoints. I came to really love the characters and the invested in what was happening to them.
I was listening to something recently saying how it's really difficult to represent either sport or music in fiction. And I think it's pretty much impossible to describe musical things without it being a little bit cringy. The celebrity cameos were a bit ridiculous too, and as others have said they take you out the story, but equally I think they were done as well as those kind of things can be. And how else can you tell the story of the late 1960s music scene without having those characters appear?
I definitely enjoyed the human stories of the main characters more than the party scenes or even the gigs scenes.
I didn't love the dream scenes at all and I'm sure they were more symbolic than I realized. But I think Jasper's story was very cleverly done.
As with all writing that is very long and tells the story in almost slower than real time, I always wonder whether that level of detail was necessary, but when it's well done I begin to find myself reveling in it and I did with this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, and Violence
plantainicus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Grief, and Death of parent
ninadickens's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
jujubees22's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
watermelleon's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
If you haven't read this book, read it with as little foresight as possible. Do not read reviews, pass go, sink in unprepared.
If you have read it, read this:
Vague enough spoilers await..
Disclaimer, it's my 4th (. 5?) book by David Mitchell. As a stand alone with no prior knowledge, it is a 5 star read.
If you've read any other David Mitchell novel, it becomes even more special.
This book is a beautifully skilled craftwork jigsaw puzzle, with pieces that snap into place perfectly despite at first being unpredictable. You can start in the centre or form the edges, or from a corner outwards. It does not matter which order you fill them to get the satisfying conclusion that appears.
An odessey through the 60s, this book is your own personal tour through time, it's glitter and it's failures. It's real, but understands naivety, inspiration, hope and other complicated human feelings.
This novel hinges on the story of human potential, who we are and who we will become (or who we could be, given the chance). We follow the band reach stardom and everything in between in the peak of their youth, but we also see revisited characters in their younger selves, and the legacy of others long gone, their periods of potential and hope. This 'glory days' epic reminds you there will be an eventual end to these experiences, but they will never leave who you have become in the way they have changed you.
Bone clocks spoiler - I think back to an older Levon speaking to an older Crispin hersey, both with their own regrets, what they could have done better. At the time, Levon loved his band and forgave them for their youthful incidences. Because of this I expected a fallout, a feud over losing a record deal, a dramatic end, a tour bus that crashed. Instead I was hit with the nature of life - the script doesn't pick and choose favourites, it shoots where it may.
Thoughts and questions that made me existential while reading this book:
A young Crispin Hershey points a finger gun at Dean. And then the writer erases him.
Is the love between luisa and elf really forever? An older elf writes on amongst the stark cliffs of sheep's head.
Speaking of Holly Sykes, it's peculiar that she's a gravesend girl too.
Bolivar is a scary and familiar sight. But what does he want? Is it a call forwards into something new, or someone we have seen before? Who had to die at that point in time to be there?
"I hope somebody made a quality bootleg of this"
How popular were utopia avenue then to be forgotten now? Is it a universe teetering on the edge of ours, or a perfect copy? Is another point being made about what happens to David Mitchell's world when it comes to the end of the timeline?
"it makes you wonder if you've actually been living not in the real world but only a description of it" -
It is only a script after all.
Speaking of the end of the world, only some unknown coincidence in hawaii saved utopia avenue's last record. And a man with impossible technology that almost disappeared from the world in only 50 years.
I wonder if/when the horologists will show us any possibility of moving through time in order to preserve it, and I wonder if any meddling has taken place so far.
Griff Griffin. I guess it wasn't his time to be a Protagonist yet. I wonder about Steve also. An important part of the band, written as "an important piece of the puzzle", or a "heartbeat", you're convinced he's important but you're left wondering how. He never thinks out loud to us. It's curious. Or maybe he's just dyslexic and can't write a chapter.
Why does the cloud atlas sextet sound so familiar to Jasper?
I wonder what sixsmith was doing at this point in time.
"How come the rich own the world when they're so bloody useless?" - dean's transition through social class and what remains. The poetry of ordering a boring sandwich as room service. Class was a point of contention initially for dean/griff and elf, seeing their relationships change was a voyage.
Other things about elf and griff that can be thought and not written. If David Mitchell is Elf, I'm Levon.
If you have read it, read this:
Vague enough spoilers await..
Disclaimer, it's my 4th (. 5?) book by David Mitchell. As a stand alone with no prior knowledge, it is a 5 star read.
If you've read any other David Mitchell novel, it becomes even more special.
This book is a beautifully skilled craftwork jigsaw puzzle, with pieces that snap into place perfectly despite at first being unpredictable. You can start in the centre or form the edges, or from a corner outwards. It does not matter which order you fill them to get the satisfying conclusion that appears.
An odessey through the 60s, this book is your own personal tour through time, it's glitter and it's failures. It's real, but understands naivety, inspiration, hope and other complicated human feelings.
This novel hinges on the story of human potential, who we are and who we will become (or who we could be, given the chance). We follow the band reach stardom and everything in between in the peak of their youth, but we also see revisited characters in their younger selves, and the legacy of others long gone, their periods of potential and hope. This 'glory days' epic reminds you there will be an eventual end to these experiences, but they will never leave who you have become in the way they have changed you.
Bone clocks spoiler -
Thoughts and questions that made me existential while reading this book:
A young Crispin Hershey points a finger gun at Dean. And then the writer erases him.
Is the love between luisa and elf really forever? An older elf writes on amongst the stark cliffs of sheep's head.
Speaking of Holly Sykes, it's peculiar that she's a gravesend girl too.
Bolivar is a scary and familiar sight. But what does he want? Is it a call forwards into something new, or someone we have seen before? Who had to die at that point in time to be there?
"I hope somebody made a quality bootleg of this"
How popular were utopia avenue then to be forgotten now? Is it a universe teetering on the edge of ours, or a perfect copy? Is another point being made about what happens to David Mitchell's world when it comes to the end of the timeline?
"it makes you wonder if you've actually been living not in the real world but only a description of it" -
It is only a script after all.
Speaking of the end of the world, only some unknown coincidence in hawaii saved utopia avenue's last record. And a man with impossible technology that almost disappeared from the world in only 50 years.
I wonder if/when the horologists will show us any possibility of moving through time in order to preserve it, and I wonder if any meddling has taken place so far.
Griff Griffin. I guess it wasn't his time to be a Protagonist yet. I wonder about Steve also. An important part of the band, written as "an important piece of the puzzle", or a "heartbeat", you're convinced he's important but you're left wondering how. He never thinks out loud to us. It's curious. Or maybe he's just dyslexic and can't write a chapter.
Why does the cloud atlas sextet sound so familiar to Jasper?
I wonder what sixsmith was doing at this point in time.
"How come the rich own the world when they're so bloody useless?" - dean's transition through social class and what remains. The poetry of ordering a boring sandwich as room service. Class was a point of contention initially for dean/griff and elf, seeing their relationships change was a voyage.
Other things about elf and griff that can be thought and not written. If David Mitchell is Elf, I'm Levon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and War