2014 book 213

David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks
I consider myself a pretty big David Mitchell fan, even though I bogged down reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and never did pick it back up again (this book actually references that one, and Black Swan Green, and probably some other Mitchell books that I just didn't pick up on). So I was excited about this one, but in a . . . tentative way. Luckily, the opening section was GREAT and drew me right in. It focuses on 15-year-old Holly in 1984, running away to live with her sleazy older boyfriend (a reader can see this isn't going to go according to plan), and dealing with some Weird Sh-t. She is completely charming, even though she's kind of a dumb teenager (though weren't we all?). Then we jump ahead in time to an absolute asshole of a Cambridge student, who is honestly a terrible human being and exceedingly unlikable--at least until he encounters Holly. And the story keeps jumping forward in time, as we see Holly through the eyes of others (including ANOTHER person who is unbelievably horrible until he encounters Holly!), and find out more about the Weird Sh*t (which = more of Mitchell's interests in reincarnation, good vs evil, etc, manifesting themselves). The final section comes back to Holly herself (finally!!!), in the 2040s, when the world is . . . not great (post-apocalyptic, you might even say). So yes, it has more of Mitchell's playing with structure, but I feel like it has a lot more heart than some of his other books, and it certainly feels more readable/straightforward. Yes, I think I liked this a lot. A/A-.