From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell

Discussion: . Week 3: Book Turned Into Movie

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. Week 3: Book Turned Into Movie

* Week 3: Introduction
By Jessica · 45 posts · 391 views

last updated Feb 27, 2015 05:34AM

* Week 3: Progress Post
By Jessica · 46 posts · 176 views

last updated Nov 06, 2015 06:53AM

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What Members Thought

Aug 06, 2014 Rae rated it did not like it

Shelves: couldn-t-finish, adult-fic

I have to concede defeat. I'm just not going to finish this book.

I got 200 pages in, and it took me almost two weeks to get that far because this book slowly but surely turned out to have a lot of things that I just can't stand.

First of all, as I've noted in other reviews, any book that does the "all the characters are mysteriously connected" thing makes me insane. I knew that this book was going to have connected characters, but I thought it would be more along the lines of different dimensions I have to concede defeat. I'm just not going to finish this book.

I got 200 pages in, and it took me almost two weeks to get that far because this book slowly but surely turned out to have a lot of things that I just can't stand.

First of all, as I've noted in other reviews, any book that does the "all the characters are mysteriously connected" thing makes me insane. I knew that this book was going to have connected characters, but I thought it would be more along the lines of different dimensions or reincarnation or... I don't know. Something more novel than the diary you were just reading turns out to be read years later by another character whose letters turn out to be written to another character who turns out to be a character in a book (?!). There's also a mysterious comet shaped birthmark that I'm sure helps wrap up the connections, but I just don't care enough to find out.

The bigger issue for me was the incredibly gimmick-y thing with making each segment of the book a completely different genre. We go from historical fiction diary to present day mystery to (poorly done) science fiction. Hooray, David Mitchell, you can write in many different styles. Unfortunately, not a single one of the styles captivated me. Even if I did get into the flow of a segment of the book, it would end and then I would have to start all over with a new world, new voice, and mostly new characters with the exception of whichever singular character carried over from the previous story.

Bleh.

The terrible science fiction chapter, with bizarre language changes to make sure we know it's the future, was almost impossible to get through. When I saw the next section was written entirely in southern dialect, I was OUT.

I'm not sure who the intended audience is for this book, but it's not me. And I've decided to just accept that and move on to one of the many books that have been calling for my attention while I tried to convince myself to slog through just one more segment of Cloud Atlas, thinking surely it would get better and maybe the gimmicks would pay off. ...more

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