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Members Starting the BR: Sammy & Donna / Page Pioneers
Challenge: Book Quest Adventures
Book: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell


Anyone is free to join in this Buddy Read! Happy Reading!

Start date: Jan 1, 2025

I've read the first 100 pages this morning.

So far so good. From what I can figure, there are half a dozen or so sections with different MCs, which should all tie together overall.

The first section was all about Holly, a typical know-it-all idiot teenager. I think we all know a Holly. Some of us were Holly 😆

There was a lot of eyerolling on my part at her naivite, but I think that was kinda the point. It all trundled along pretty much as expected until (view spoiler)[ suddenly things got really weird when she got to Heidi and Ian's place. (hide spoiler)]

I'm looking forward to seeing what's next.

Finished secrtion 2.

Not a fan of Hugo (again, I'm guessing we're not meant to be), especially since (view spoiler)[ I recently re-watched White Collar and Neal Caffrey is a very nice con man who only goes after unpleasant people and gets upset if innocent people are hurt because of his actions. In contrast Hugo's callousness when driving his friend to suicide (oh no, the money!), and abandoning his other friends in the pimp-situation just makes him look all the worse. I get the feeling he may be joining the "bad guys", but I guess we will see. (hide spoiler)]

I kinda like that we get just a little more of a hint at what's going on, rather than a full info-dump early on. Looking forward to piecing it together a little more in the next part.

I am only about 10% into this book and I keep getting interrupted. However, my initial thoughts...

I agree on the know-it-all teen aspect of Holly. I find myself annoyed at some of her choices but we will see how they turn out. I did find the whole hallucinations thing odd. I don't think they are hallucinations. I also don't think that doctor is normal. That is not any normal kind of treatment. He did something odd and maybe magical to her so she couldn't see & hear what she was.

What happened at Heidi & Ian's house just added to my confusion. There is something really odd happening here. Maybe a bit dangerous as well. I am wondering how she ended up in the middle of it. Obviously has something to do with those visions/hallucinations.

I am off to get my son and then hopefully read some more.

I am at18% and it is now Hugo that I am following. I am NOT a fan. How can he even call himself a friend to poor Olly? And don't even get me started on Ness. Hugo and Ness deserve each other.

yes, you are right about the hallucinations of course, which you should have found out a little more about at the end of Holly's section. I find it intriguing, but definitely enjoy everything isn't shoved at us from the start.

Also after all that hassle trying to find new year books, and there's a chapter set on New year's Day in Hugo's section 😆

I am at 46% and I am glad I am done with Hugo's section and it look like Ed's as well. I liked Ed better than Hugo but dang is that man stupid. He knows it too. You can choose to be a journalist and have a family. He doesn't have to travel. Choices. Men can be so dense sometimes.

I am just starting the section for Crispin.

64% okay... Crispin wasn't my favorite character but he wasn't my least favorite either. I did feel bad for him when Hugo made him pee his pants. That's kind of mean! I didn't see the logic of the ending of that section, though. (view spoiler)[How does Soleil think killing Crispin will make anyone read her poems? (hide spoiler)]

70% (view spoiler)[Wait...Is that what happened to Jacko? The Achorites stole his soul? That's really mean. Guess I will keep reading (hide spoiler)]

Ed bored me a little. l don't think I am in the mood for a war drama/political rant, which doesn't help.
The part where his daughter went missing hit home though! My daughter went missing on both her first day of Primary school (no idea what it's called in the US, but she would have been 4) and her first day of high school (age 12). Luckily she was ok both times. To say that I now have a very low opinion of schools' ability to keep kids safe is an understatement!
So yeah, that part brought it all back, and I'm not sure I needed heart palpitations this morning 😆

About to start on Crispin

Ed was a little boring. Crispin ain't a whole lot better...

I agree with the part about children going missing hitting home. It pulls at the heartstrings. My daughter has mental health issues and would take off. We had so many of those days & nights that I wouldn't wish on anyone else. It's hard not knowing where your child is for hours on end and knowing that anything could have happened to them.

Finished with Marinus & back to Holly (the end of the book). This was probably the best section of the book. There were too many POVs for me. I would have preferred the book to have been limited to Holly & Marinus if it had to be multiple POVs. The book did get better but it dragged in so many spots.

I think I have figured out why I prefer Crispin to Hugo...

Crispin may have done some pretty unpleasant things, and he's a miserable sod, but everything he does comes from a place of emotion. He is miserable, angry and petty because he is feeling jealous and insecure, and he let it get out of hand. It may not be nice, but it's human.

Hugo on the other hand doesn't seem to have any real emotions at all. There are surface emotions that don't really go deeper than whether or not he can get something out of the situation for himself. On the whole he's pretty uncaring though. In pretty much every way, he comes across as a sociopath.

Anyway, making headway and will hopefully finish this evening or in the morning.

um... I'm confused. If the whole soul eating thing pauses their body clock for 3 months, and Hugo has done this 11 times, that works out at 3 years approximately of stopped time.
So how does he still look 20-something when he is 50-something? Good genes? Did I miss something? Is Mitchell even worse at maths than I am? 😆

And is it totally geeky that I did a happy dance when they started talking about vampires so I can get the TBR bonus? 😂

Ok, so I really enjoyed the final section! I'm a sucker for a post-apocalypse though 😆

Got to wonder though... 6 eggs for pancakes for 5 people? Those aren't pancakes... they're omelettes! 😂

This one averaged out for me. Really enjoyed the beginning and end, but there was a lot of slog in between. Certainly an interesting premise, but could have done without the author trying to turn it into a political platform in the middle!

Sammy wrote: "Really enjoyed the beginning and end, but there was a lot of slog in between.."

That's the way I felt. The middle was not for me. I struggled so much with that middle part of the book.

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