The Night Clock, from Paul Meloy

Hello, there! Today I would like to introduce you to a book called The Night Clock, by Paul Meloy! We are on its release day, so I’ll leave a list of where to find it online on the bottom of the review 🙂 I received my review copy through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review, so thank you again!

from my Instagram ❤

I’ll do something different this time, as I was in love with the blurb available at NetGalley and Goodreads: instead of telling the story myself, I’ll let you guys see what I expected from the book and I’ll explain why later:

Goodreads Story

An incredible debut novel that will move and terrify you, as reality itself is threatened by a world just beyond our own.

And still the Night Clock ticks…

Phil Trevena’s patients are dying and he needs answers. One of the disturbed men in his care tells him that he needs to find Daniel, that Daniel will be able to explain what is happening. But who is Daniel? Daniel was lost once, broken by the same force that has turned its hatred on Trevena. His destiny is greater than he could ever imagine.

Drawn together, Trevena and Daniel embark on an extraordinary journey of discovery, encountering The Firmament Surgeons in the Dark Time – the flux above our reality. Whoever controls Dark Time controls the minds of humanity. The Firmament Surgeons, aware of the approach of limitless hostility and darkness, are gathered to bring an end to the war with the Autoscopes, before they tear our reality apart.

The Analysis

I apologize for not bringing the story myself, but I wanted you guys to feel what I did. The Night Clock sounded to me like an amazing sci-fi/horror story and I make no secret how much I enjoy fictional books that discuss on their narratives the capacity of our minds. I was so excited when I started it that pains me to say that I wasn’t the right audience for this book. Without a doubt it has an amazing plot and the narrative style is interesting, but I was bored to my bones. It takes too much time for the reader to realize the connections that Meloy does between his characters and the character’s manners also got me a bit. I can handle swearing and I don’t mind, but I don’t like vulgar and there were too many vulgar characters to my taste. I finished the book yesterday night and my overall evaluation was of two stars, as Meloy has good moves during the story and had an amazing plot to work with. Now, let’s begin the real analysis.

As I said, the plot was amazing. A doctor that starts to see his patients dying out of nowhere? A book that plays with the mind? Awesome! But I got so confused during the reading… I discovered that I didn’t like or connect with neither Phil or Daniel, so it was hard to be involved in the story. I really think that Meloy had an awesome idea, but I wasn’t ready for it, it was beyond my tastes as a reader and I apologize for that. I feel very bad for talking like this, because I know how much love, thought and effort takes to write and publish a book. Honestly, if you like sci-fi, give it a try, you may like it 😀

The narrative was a strong point of the book. The point of view of the characters was always changing, so you could have a big picture of what was happening during all the struggles and mysteries – but without realizing what was within The Night Clock. I was so anxious to know exactly what was The Night Clock that I made a dance when it was finally explained (it was part of the mystery of the book, so of course it takes time for us to be sure, haha!). I liked that no character was wasted for Meloy. If the person appeared, Meloy always had a way to tell the reader who that person was before their function on the book. I’m a very curious girl (cof journalist cof), so I was very happy with this, haha!

Which takes me to the characters. I didn’t like or connect to anyone, but also didn’t hate anyone. They were real people, don’t get me wrong. Just not my kind of people, I guess. I see book characters as someone you would like to be near in anyway and you measure how much you like them for the desire of closeness with them (we do this without realizing, trust me). I didn’t wish to be close to anyone in this book and you see, I have a soft spot for villains and bad guys. That’s why I said that I was the problem, that this book wasn’t for me. If you can’t connect with anything in the book, the problem is you, sorry, haha!

There’s something that I really wish to compliment: the looks of The Night Clock. I got a pdf for this review, but omg: it was BEAUTIFUL. The cover, the title page, the chapters… Seriously, I don’t regret owning this ebook at all and wish I could afford it on print. The art is breathtaking and deserves a space on my shellfish wardrobe ❤

The amazing title page ❤

the chapters ❤

I won’t make this as long as it could because I see no point: I really admire Meloy’s creativity and his narrative skills, his talent for making a story of everything inside of The Night Clock and I wish him all the success in the world 🙂

That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading, sorry if I wasn’t very helpful today. As promised, you can take a look here where to find the book 😀 And Happy release day to Paul Meloy!

Amazon

The Book Depository

Barnes and Noble

Kobo