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iampotassium 's review for:

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
4.0

A story about family, brothers and grief. It’s told in a non-linear way and all the different stories converge with each other in a fun way.

Told from the POV of Matthew, the oldest of 5 brothers, this is the story of their family, and in particular the fourth brother, Clay.

It took me a while to get used to Matthew’s voice. He’s a little dramatic in the way he tells stories, which is fine, except I think he misses some details that are important to helping the reader understand what’s going on. I was kind of bored for the first 100 pages or so for this book because I felt like it took a while for Matthew to warm up as a writer.

All in all, this book is as compelling and heartbreaking as The Book Thief, but it’s more rough around the edges and more of a slog to get through. Maybe that was the point - that Matthew is not the best storyteller, but he feels like it’s his job to get his family’s, and Clay’s, story out there.