Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by a_manders
The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
3.0
I love Kate Morton and often recommend her to fans of historical fiction (which, admittedly, is not my usual genre of choice, but her ability to blend timelines and mysteries is usually thoroughly enjoyable). Unfortunately, this one fell a little flat to me. The writing is still beautiful, her ability to set the scene and transport you to a place is amazing.
My main problem with this book is that there are SO many characters and each has it's own time period and point of view. It's abrupt and jarring to try to skip back and forth between them. In the end, because there were so many threads to tie up, I didn't feel as though any of them were settled in a satisfying way. There were too many questions. Also, I wanted to see some character resolution that never happened.
(Spoilers ahead now)
I was also completely annoyed by Lucy's decisions. She was supposed to be a woman of facts and logic who loved her brother completely, yet she chose to allow him to live a life of anguish when she could have given him all the answers. Then, she gets rid of all the evidence with the hope that someday a person will find it. Why? Why didn't she just tell everyone? I guess she wanted to start her school without interruption, but that wasn't a success anyway so she could have said something after that point.
When did Edward and "Pale Joe" meet? And why did he give him that satchel? Did Edward commit suicide? Did he want someone to carry on the memory of Birdie? Why did Joe feel guilty about it? Nothing was mentioned about this.
I don't know, maybe I need to read it again to put all the pieces together, but it's a long book so that probably won't happen.
My main problem with this book is that there are SO many characters and each has it's own time period and point of view. It's abrupt and jarring to try to skip back and forth between them. In the end, because there were so many threads to tie up, I didn't feel as though any of them were settled in a satisfying way. There were too many questions. Also, I wanted to see some character resolution that never happened.
(Spoilers ahead now)
I was also completely annoyed by Lucy's decisions. She was supposed to be a woman of facts and logic who loved her brother completely, yet she chose to allow him to live a life of anguish when she could have given him all the answers. Then, she gets rid of all the evidence with the hope that someday a person will find it. Why? Why didn't she just tell everyone? I guess she wanted to start her school without interruption, but that wasn't a success anyway so she could have said something after that point.
When did Edward and "Pale Joe" meet? And why did he give him that satchel? Did Edward commit suicide? Did he want someone to carry on the memory of Birdie? Why did Joe feel guilty about it? Nothing was mentioned about this.
I don't know, maybe I need to read it again to put all the pieces together, but it's a long book so that probably won't happen.