The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt, #1)

by John Bellairs

Jonathan moved the stepladder to the part of the wall that contained his magic books,

Wait how big is this part of the wall are we talkin 10 books or 500?

It was a long black rod of some very hard wood. At

Sir. Again i request that you reread the sentence you have written

with his left forefinger cut the faintly shimmering surface into four quarters.

Ok they did that in jonathan strange andmr norrell

The three spectators had not left their chairs—Jonathan had told them to stay where they were—but they craned their necks around a good deal trying to figure out what the wizard was doing.

Why is this narrative so dick sucking to j

“Is your uncle going to wash his hair?” whispered Tarby.

Team tarby

Now Jonathan did something very unlikely.

Lol all that was already unlikely what are youtalking about

Slowly he raised his right hand and pointed at the sky. “Look!” he cried. All three of the spectators looked up.

Lol what if there just happened to be an eclipse that night and absollutely everythingv is bs

It was full of strange sights and sounds. The grass glowed a phosphorescent green, and red worms wriggled through the tall blades with a hushing sound. Strange insects dropped down out of the overhanging boughs of the willow tree and started to dance on the picnic

Yep that would be wid

If I could be two people, I’d station the other me across town to see if the eclipse was operating over there.” “Why don’t you ask Mrs. Zimmermann to go watch?” “Because she’d be crabby.

l makes a good point but j shutss him down

Lewis was happy to have a chance to show off Mrs. Zimmermann’s house to Tarby.

I guess hes been at her house. Why didnt we get tarbys reaction to the actual mansion? Because its been described for the reader already?

Tarby was a popular boy, and he was used to being right about everything. He had turned out to be wrong about Jonathan’s magic powers.

How dare tarby doubt the great and powerful j

Remember? I made you promise.” Tarby looked away. “Oh, yeah, I guess I did promise. Sorry.”

Lol that cis a kid reaction but honestly im on team tarby for teling someone

Jonathan had forbidden Lewis to look through these books without his permission, so Lewis felt very bad about what he was doing.

I guess he does if you say so

his assistant,Michael Kelly,

Missing space

At dinner that night, Lewis did not say much. This was odd because he usually talked his head off about everything under the sun, especially those things he didn’t know anything about.

Doesnt match the characterization of lso far. He mostly listens

can’t believe that Lewis is mixed up in anything bad. And I’m certainly not going to grill him like a mean stepfather. Still, I’d like to know what he’s up to.”

Thats pretty neglectful and not very kind

“Do you suppose it has anything to do with Tarby?

Thanku z for doing the bare minimum. God j is useless

Oh, by the way, have you noticed that the clock is louder now?”

Oh is that even still a thing

One thing for sure: you’re not going to do any good by barging around the house with a crowbar, prying open the wainscot and peering between floorboards.”

Y not

I’m even guessing when I say it’s a real, physical clock, and not just some illusion left here by old Isaac Izard to drive people mad.”

!!!!! U totally bsed to l oh why am i even surprised

“It’s best not to think about the thing,” said Mrs. Zimmermann. “Not until you have to, at any rate. You can’t prepare for all the disasters that might occur in this frightening world of ours. If the devil appears or if we find that the End of the World is at hand, we’ll do something.”

Wow z u losing points with me

Lewis felt sorry for the poor Duke. When he was reading John L. Stoddard in bed the night before, he had wished that he could be there in the Narrow Seas, commanding a stout English galleon. He would have emptied broadside after broadside into the Duke’s flagship, until she sank. But now he wanted to help the man, if he could.

The watch, which resembled the one Mrs. Zimmermann wore on a chain, dinged eight times.

This would be fun if it was weirdly crepy

He had looked at all the illustrations in Ridpath’s book, but he had never read the account of the battle.

Kind of makes him incurious

As the luminous hands of his new Westclox bedside clock crept around toward midnight,

Was that there before

Minutes passed. Suddenly Lewis sat up. He threw back the covers and stared at the clock. It was five minutes after twelve! He had promised to meet Tarby in the cemetery at midnight, and now he was going to be late!

??? I hope this is time dilation and not l being dumb af

There was a short cut, of course, but Lewis hadn’t intended to take it. Now he had no choice.

I guess the plot told him to take it

Lewis felt awful. It was like being sick to your stomach.

I think youb mean "lewis felt sick to his stomach"

He wished with all his heart that he could run into Jonathan’s room, wake him up, and tell him all about the adventure he was going on, and why he had to go through with it. But he didn’t do any of these things.

My favorite trope: it would make sense for the character to do this but he…didn't

the top of the hill, he dropped to his knees and crossed himself several times.

Religion reappears

It was no great triumph because Tarby had probably scaled the ridge in a tenth of the time it had taken him. But at least he had done it.

He felt depressed.

If u say so. The negative self talk before was much more effective

Tarby looked disgusted. “You mean you don’t know it?” “No, I don’t,” sighed Lewis. “Maybe if we sit here for a minute or two it will come to us.”

????? What is even going on

Then, for some reason, he picked up the chalk.

Oooo for plot reasons?

And something black—blacker than the night, blacker than ink spilled into water—was oozing from the space between the doors.

Oh hai night terror out for a rambe

The moon drifted out from behind a thin veil of clouds and stared down at Lewis as if it were scared too.

Moon done seen solme wild shit

As for the clothes, he could get them cleaned without Jonathan knowing about it.

Sure

Finally he did drift off, but he had a strange dream. Clock hands and skeleton bones were chasing him around and around a high stone tomb. Lewis awoke with a start and, for a moment, it seemed that his room, and the whole house, was filled with a loud ticking noise.

These had better be related. Oh maybe he resurrected the dead wife. She was buried on the premises tho

“I . . . I was up in the cemetery with Tarby a couple of times, Uncle Jonathan,” he said cautiously, “but I didn’t see any tomb with ‘Izard’ on it.” “Oh, well, he didn’t want his name on the tomb. When he had it fixed up for his wife’s body, he brought in a stonecutter who chiseled off the family name and carved an omega.”

Hahahaha

Lewis looked at Jonathan. Then he looked at Mrs. Zimmermann. He knew, as well as he knew anything, that they couldn’t wait for him to go off to school so they could discuss the matter alone.

wow.

Jonathan was not in the habit of peering in at the sleeping form of his nephew during the night,

Thank you for putting that image in my brain

Florence, what’s the best way—other way—back to New Zebedee?” “Take the next side road to your right. That’s Twelve Mile Road, and it runs into the Wilder Creek Road. And step on it. They’re gaining.”

Dang z has nerves of steel

he thought of what he had seen in the cemetery, and of what Uncle Jonathan had told him about Mrs. Izard’s eyeglasses. He was beginning to have a theory about how all these things fitted together.

They had never, since the start of the chase, been more than two or three car lengths away.

Wow that is way closer than i was imagijning

glimmering peacefully in the starlight—the moon had gone down some time ago—was Wilder Creek.

Ghosts cant cross runnikng water?

Lewis could not tell if there was anyone in the car, because the windshield was covered by a blank silvery sheen.

Is it even a car?

Witches and other evil things can’t cross running water. It’s an old rule, but it still applies.”

that iron bridge

Wards off fey too lol

He had let Mrs. Izard out of her tomb, and now she had stolen the key. The key that wound up the magic clock ticking in the walls of Jonathan’s house, ticking away morning, noon, and night; sometimes loud, sometimes soft, but always there.

I guess it was there the whole time?

Maybe it was because his mother had once threatened to send him to the Detention Home when he was bad. The

Lol this is like the only time we get a medntion of her