The Bone Clocks

By: David Mitchell

Narrated by: Jessica Ball, Leon Williams, Colin Mace, Steven Crossley, Laurel Lefkow, Anna Bentinck

Length: 24 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

David Mitchell is an eloquent conjurer of interconnected tales, a genre-bending daredevil, and a master prose stylist. His hypnotic new novel, The Bone Clocks, crackles with invention and wit - it is fiction at its most spellbinding and memorable.

Following a scalding row with her mother, 15-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people", Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life. For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics - and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly's life, affecting all the people Holly loves - even the ones who are not yet born. A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list - all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world.

From the medieval Swiss Alps to the 19th-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder. Rich with character and realms of possibility, The Bone Clocks is a kaleidoscopic novel that begs to be taken apart and put back together.

©2014 David Mitchell (P)2014 W.F. Howes

It took a while, but worth it!

If you could sum up The Bone Clocks in three words, what would they be?

Long. Engrossing. Excellent.

What other book might you compare The Bone Clocks to and why?

I've read a lot of the new "climate fiction" genre. Although The Bone Clocks is about much more than that, I'd put it at the top of the list with "2084 - Stories of the Great Warming."

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I did tear up at the end. It's a long book, so by then you're really invested.

Very long, unmemorable

Any additional comments?

I only listened to this a month or so ago, and I can't even remember what it was about. Says something I suppose. Narrators were good though.

David Mitchell keeps growing on me.

Mitchell's multi generational yarns have a way of drawing you in. Truly inspired story telling.

brilliant mess

Would you listen to The Bone Clocks again? Why?

i would read the bone clocks again - some of the readers ( 3 and 4 ) aren't that great.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Bone Clocks?

Too many to mention. A messy David Mitchell book is better than most writers best works. Im giving it a 5 star review to compensate for the ridiculous 1 star reviews, 4 is probably truer for me.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The readers are great until reader 3 and 4. Reader 3 struggles with accents and to compensate shouts them out - i had to keep adjusting the volume. Reader 4 (Crispsin H ) - well thats why i need to read the novel, as opposed to hear it, as the problem may be in the writing.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed and cried. Its a remarkable and bonkers book written by the greatest writer i have read - the writing alone held me- but there was an uneasy sense that he was losing the plot. The deus ex machina at the end is a balloon popper.

Any additional comments?

This book will suffer by comparison to "Cloud Atlas " whose structure and stylistic jumps it echoes. It will also suffer because so far David Mitchell has hardly put a foot wrong and created/channeled books beyond most authors wildest dreams. It is still a wonderful book but suffers from too high expectations - from me - and the many reviews Ive read.

Disappointing, twice

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I tried very much to like this book, downloading it twice several months apart. On the surface, it had everything I tend to like in a book. But I never got past the first character, a teenage girl who, even given a lot of grace due to the usual adolescent angst I would expect, I found to be cloying. I could have overlooked that and allowed the book to progress except that the narration of that character was the worst. I could hardly understand the narrator , even when I listened at 3/4 speed. Maybe I forgot to do a test listen before I bought this. I am a fan of a good British narrator regardless of which area the accent comes from. But I just couldn't get past this one and consider it a credit badly wasted. Rats.

Has The Bone Clocks turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

She spoke way too fast and with too much urgency regardless of what seemed to be happening at the time. She was very difficult to understand.

Was The Bone Clocks worth the listening time?

Nope. I abandoned it before the second part started. Twice. I did give it the good college try.

Any additional comments?

Listen first.

Didn't need about 65% of the story.

Didn't need about 65% of the story, the other 35% was great. It took entirely too long to get into the main story line.

Totes amaze balls, dear reader.

This story is annoying, tedious, and at times frightening, but if you don't fall in love with the characters in it you obviously don't have a soul and are safe from being turned into black wine.

Fantastic Writing

Any additional comments?

Mitchell does a really incredible job of packing a lot of meaning and emotion into the small moments of life. There is essentially a "one night stand" in this story that is incredibly well done and really beautiful.

Overall, the story plays out in six smaller stories separated over time that essentially tell the story of one woman's life and a really interesting fantasy back story that plays out in small and large ways throughout the smaller stories.

One of my favorite listens of 2014.

Unique story blending fiction & fantasy.

I very much enjoyed the stories told in this book. The narration is very good. Definitely recommended!!

Filler galore

Sorry. This book was a massive waste of time. It just jumps around to different peoples lives in first person narrations that only have about 5% to do with the overall storyline conflict. This book could have been cut down to 20% of its normal size. Very dissapointed.