imijen 's review for:

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

2.0

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2.5 stars? For a dystopian novel, the premise really didn't seem that radical or far from our current state, and I can't say if that works in the book's favour or not. I was touched most by Ro's (the "biographer") story in particular. I can sympathise with her self-doubt and desperate questions of her own motives and desires, while feeling unfulfilled and disillusioned by life. The rest of the novel, however, felt all over the place. Each of the female narrators are given, I think ironically, a name referring to their failed roles: The Biographer, The Wife, The Daughter, and The Mender. Unfortunately, I just felt that all 5 of these characters were lacking depth. The reveals of the coincidental connections between these characters also felt forced. The choppy writing style was jarring initially, but it did grow on me as the book went on, and I felt it gave the novel a good, urgent pace. All in all, this book felt more like a concept or experiment that didn't quite pay off for me, even if I liked some of the ideas.