A review by kaylee_giffhorn
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

3.0

I really liked this book, but I really tried so hard to love it. The story was beautiful and rounded. The characters were real, their pain was real, their camaraderie was real, and their story was very real. I enjoyed all the back stories and the way in which each character dealt with their own pain and suffering through a tragedy. I gave it 3 stars because even though the story itself was entertaining and raw, the way in which Zusak told it was a little confusing and overwritten. I think he was trying to write something lyrical and poignant and maybe just tried a little too hard. From the first page on, I often found myself stopping, flipping back, and wondering if I had missed something. But I didn't. He just talked, overly poetically, about events that the reader didn't know about yet, as if we already did. We would then later find out what he was talking about and things would slowly, and I mean very slowly, make sense. And there were parts of the story, like the mule and Clay's life at the end, that I just didn't understand at all. There were moments that felt like they were going to be very compelling and then fell flat. Although I enjoyed the story very much, it was told in prose too flowery for my taste.