Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by niharikaaaaaa9
The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
3.0
This book had the same hallmarks of all the books I've enjoyed in the past - each chapter alternating both who the narrators are and when their story takes place. We're first introduced to Elodie, who comes across a mysterious picture in a satchel in the present day, and then we're abruptly introduced to a ghost, who we later learn is important to the story, who narrates both in the present and the past, and then there's the revolving door of narrators in the past, some of whom we see time and time again, while others only appear for 20 pages, never to be seen again.
And so while this book had all the hallmarks of books I've enjoyed, I did not enjoy this book at all. Elodie appears primarily at the beginning of the book, and then only at the very end. It was unclear to me why the author included her story at all in the novel - except as a set up to the other two narrations - especially when her story had many gaps in it. For example, throughout Elodie's story, Morton hints at a tension between Elodie and her fiancee, Alastair, but it's left at just that. There's no explanation or resolution to this conflict, and the reader (me) was left wondering why it was included at all.
The ghost's portions of the book confused me, partially because the transitions between the ghost and the other narrators were incredibly abrupt. In books that alternate narrators, often what makes them so interesting to read is that the transition between the narrators' stories is smooth - one event ends in one narrator's story, only to have a related event begin in the other story. This book was not like that. We wouldn't be done with an event in Elodie's story, before the ghost would jump in. And trying to switch from a human narrator to a ghost (who makes it very clear that she can just observe all and will go up to people and blow in their ears to make them do things) was, for lack of a better word, weird.
The only redeeming quality of this book, in my opinion came with specifically Birdie & Lucy's - two women in the past - stories. For those two recurring narrators, Morton did a fantastic job with the way she described their lives - the detail given to the characters, their interactions, and their emotions were incredible and vivid, and I found myself glued to those parts of the stories (only to be rudely interrupted when the book switched back to the perspective of a ghost).
Overall, the expressive, colorful stories of Birdie & Lucy's pasts weren't enough to save this book. I only finished it because I needed to know what happened to the main characters.
And so while this book had all the hallmarks of books I've enjoyed, I did not enjoy this book at all. Elodie appears primarily at the beginning of the book, and then only at the very end. It was unclear to me why the author included her story at all in the novel - except as a set up to the other two narrations - especially when her story had many gaps in it. For example, throughout Elodie's story, Morton hints at a tension between Elodie and her fiancee, Alastair, but it's left at just that. There's no explanation or resolution to this conflict, and the reader (me) was left wondering why it was included at all.
The ghost's portions of the book confused me, partially because the transitions between the ghost and the other narrators were incredibly abrupt. In books that alternate narrators, often what makes them so interesting to read is that the transition between the narrators' stories is smooth - one event ends in one narrator's story, only to have a related event begin in the other story. This book was not like that. We wouldn't be done with an event in Elodie's story, before the ghost would jump in. And trying to switch from a human narrator to a ghost (who makes it very clear that she can just observe all and will go up to people and blow in their ears to make them do things) was, for lack of a better word, weird.
The only redeeming quality of this book, in my opinion came with specifically Birdie & Lucy's - two women in the past - stories. For those two recurring narrators, Morton did a fantastic job with the way she described their lives - the detail given to the characters, their interactions, and their emotions were incredible and vivid, and I found myself glued to those parts of the stories (only to be rudely interrupted when the book switched back to the perspective of a ghost).
Overall, the expressive, colorful stories of Birdie & Lucy's pasts weren't enough to save this book. I only finished it because I needed to know what happened to the main characters.