Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn't know anything about this book but liked the title. I really enjoyed it - enough mystery to keep it from being plodding, and enough surprises to keep it from being the same old Victorian mystery one might expect.
This book is one-of-a-kind, especially when you consider that it's yet another fantasy novel set in Victorian England, mostly in the 1880s. It's the story of Thaniel Steepleton, a telegraph clerk in the Home Office with a modest background and music in his soul. A watch mysteriously appears in his room in his boarding house, and after he's had it about six months, it sounds the alarm which gets him out of harm's way when a bomb explodes at his workplace. After the explosion, Thaniel is finally able to open the watch, which has the maker's name inside and takes him to Filigree Street in the Japanese quarter of London, where he meets Keita Mori, a Japanese watchmaker whose talents and labors serve to create incomparable timepieces, as well as whimsical mechanical robots such as birds, fireflies, and delightfully, an octopus called Katsu. Thaniel moves in to Mori's empty room, and the two solitary men become close friends. There's a third main character, a young physics student called Grace Carrow, whom we meet at Oxford and who enters the London story. I end up really not liking her. This is a charming tale of friendship and magic and the details from historical Japan and the Japanese community in London lend it a richness that makes this novel stand out from other similar titles.
Reread: 4.5 stars
I decided to reread this after finishing sequel. And honestly, I am so glad that I did because this book was so much better on reread. It is so nice to pick up all the little things that I did not notice on first read. For example, how Mori referred to Thaniel by his first name in his diary <3
First read: 3.5-4 stars
This was my first Natasha Pulley book and I didn't really know what to expect. I thought the pacing was a bit slow and it took a while for me to warm up to it. But everything does come together nicely at the end. Still want to read the sequel.
I decided to reread this after finishing sequel. And honestly, I am so glad that I did because this book was so much better on reread. It is so nice to pick up all the little things that I did not notice on first read. For example, how Mori referred to Thaniel by his first name in his diary <3
First read: 3.5-4 stars
This was my first Natasha Pulley book and I didn't really know what to expect. I thought the pacing was a bit slow and it took a while for me to warm up to it. But everything does come together nicely at the end. Still want to read the sequel.
emotional
mysterious
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
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The writing dwelt on details that weren't important and it seemed like two books stuck together. I'm unclear whether we should find Grace Carrow likeable, pitiable or something else entirely, and most of the characters were fairly two dimensional.
hopeful
mysterious
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
adventurous
mysterious
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
How could I NOT love this?
A watchmaker surrounded by coincidences. A telegraph operator who should be dead. A physicist on the brink of understanding. A mechanical octopus hell-bent on stealing your socks.
Delightfully whimsical to its very soul. I search far and wide for books that make me feel this way, I am so happy to have found Natasha Pulley. I read a short story of hers involving these characters in an anthology recently and I instantly bought the rest of her books.
A watchmaker surrounded by coincidences. A telegraph operator who should be dead. A physicist on the brink of understanding. A mechanical octopus hell-bent on stealing your socks.
Delightfully whimsical to its very soul. I search far and wide for books that make me feel this way, I am so happy to have found Natasha Pulley. I read a short story of hers involving these characters in an anthology recently and I instantly bought the rest of her books.
I read this book right after Bedlam Stacks because I adored BS, which was a bad idea because it did not live up to BS in my mind. From what I can gather of the Pulley readers is that people either favor BS or they favor Watchmaker. I’m on the BS side. Upon rereading, this is still true.
That being said, this is still really good—I’m convinced Pulley can’t write a bad book. The depiction of clairvoyance is exceedingly clever. I think I largely dislike the setting (Victorian England isn’t my jam). I might have liked the sequel more if only for the setting. I’m picky about settings like that.
That being said, this is still really good—I’m convinced Pulley can’t write a bad book. The depiction of clairvoyance is exceedingly clever. I think I largely dislike the setting (Victorian England isn’t my jam). I might have liked the sequel more if only for the setting. I’m picky about settings like that.