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A review by wellworn_soles
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
2.0
The first part of this book and the second half really deserve to be rated separately (with the exception of the final section, which i will cover in more detail in a moment). The character vignettes were intriguing, as always by David Mitchell. But two of the characters - Crispin and Ed Brubek - are so tangential to what turns out to be the overall plot that they feel as though they were originally part of a different book.
The paranormal aspects of this book, rather than becoming more convincing the more you sat with them, became sillier the more that was revealed.
The last part of this had me mostly checked out, which was a shame because I have Covid right now and would have loved a more gripping story. 2.5 stars, and the .5 is due to some of the earlier narrative perspectives being quite well presented. The final story, set in 2043, is also quite nice due to its intimacy. This novel works when its scope remains small; it fails when it bloats itself with delusions of grandeur.
The paranormal aspects of this book, rather than becoming more convincing the more you sat with them, became sillier the more that was revealed.
Spoiler
The chapters with Marinus and the psychosoteric war had Marvel-plot vibes; it was all sudden, people oddly accepted it more readily than I expected, and "twists" were foreshadowed in exposition only pages before their conclusion. Not very good writing in this last part, with a lot of mumbo-jumbo words that were the equivalent of "techno-babble" in an action flick.The last part of this had me mostly checked out, which was a shame because I have Covid right now and would have loved a more gripping story. 2.5 stars, and the .5 is due to some of the earlier narrative perspectives being quite well presented. The final story, set in 2043, is also quite nice due to its intimacy. This novel works when its scope remains small; it fails when it bloats itself with delusions of grandeur.