| Title | : | The Clay Lion (The Clay Lion, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0615764967 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780615764962 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 253 |
| Publication | : | First published March 11, 2013 |
| Awards | : | Readers' Favorite Book Award, Kindle Book Award Young Adult (2015) |
The rules are simple. If you want to travel back in time, you need to be at least eighteen years old. You can only travel within your own lifespan for a maximum of six months. And above all else, you must never, ever, change the past.
But that's exactly what Brooke Wallace plans to do.
As Brooke faces existence without her beloved brother, his life cut short by a rare disease, she can think of only one solution - travel back in time to prevent his death. However, her attempts at fixing the past challenge her to confront everything she believes to be true about herself. And ultimately, she is forced to discover whether or not we can ever truly be in charge of our own destiny.
The Clay Lion (The Clay Lion, #1) Reviews
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Brooke loses her brother to pulmonary fibrosis and attempts to go back in time to save him. Along the way she encounters obstacles she never dreamed she would, including a love that had eluded her in her original timeline. A gripping read that will simultaneously break your heart and warm it, The Clay Lion will transform readers’ perspectives as the main character plays with fire, teetering dangerously on the borders between mind and matter, fate and free will, and loss and life.
Author Amalie Jahn skillfully creates moments of powerful imagery interspersed with moments where the picture is left to the readers’ personal interpretation. The overall message of the book is that everything happens for a reason, and that no matter what, we just have to keep moving forward. It shows that destiny and fate are two different things, that while we control our fate, destiny can’t be avoided.
The Clay Lion is highly recommended and has earned the Literary Classics Seal of Approval. -
"The Clay Lion" by Amalie Jahn is an amazing piece of heart-breaking and uplifting fiction. Aimed probably at young adults as main target audience the book however has a lot to say that is relevant to people of all ages.
It is the story of one brave young woman that choses to go back in time to try and save her fatally ill younger brother.
The idea of time travel did not appeal to me at first since it has been done many times and some authors in the genre can try to be too clever for their own good.
"The Clay Lion" is way above that level and raises some fascinating and worthy questions about regrets, missed opportunities, second chances and destiny. By doing so successfully the book qualifies - in my humble opinion at least - as literary fiction and philosophical offering on the subject of turning back time. It made me think hard about what I would chose to relive and try and change in my life.
The main story - the disease of her younger brother - is often sad but always full of hope and positive and important messages, a tribute to courage and an appeal to the good side in all of us.
Written with charm and emotional wisdom this is hugely rewarding and captivating. A powerful and important read and a talented author to watch.
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When I started reading this book, I was sneaking a chapter or two in here and there whenever I had a few minutes of quiet time. But as the characters developed and started to become my friends, I realized that a chapter here and there was not enough.
So, today, I sat down with The Clay Lion and did not get back up again until I had finished the remaining 183 pages. What a perfect way to spend the day! The characters and their relationships were so engrossing that I found myself wishing that I could read faster so that I could find out what was going to happen to them. This book takes you from smiles to tears and back to smiles again.
A story about love, hope and healing. You will not be disappointed! -
Brooke loses his little brother to an illness and she wants to travel to the past to save him, but she ends up learning you can't change the past, or its main events, without altering lives and timelines. In her efforts to try and save him she ends up discovering the pain lf losing someone, the effort it takes to let go and the discovery of acceptance and wanting to move forward with life, even to honor those who are no longer here but we were lucky to met.
This is a very nice story, amazingly compelling and well-written. A nice find for me :) -
I'm surprised so few people have read/reviewed this one on Goodreads. It's well written, made me cry, and has a reasonable theory of time travel. Plus, not just the same old recycled YA plot. Recommended!
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A compelling story elevates a sometimes shaky execution to make The Clay Lion a book I had trouble putting down over the week or so it took me to read it. Although this is hardly a science fiction novel, the author demonstrates a pretty good theory of time travel (essentially that you can claim one Groundhog Day style trip into your own past during your life), and uses the idea of a young girl attempting to prevent her brother's death to create a highly relatable plot. Who among us has never wished that we could use hindsight to correct our past mistakes, or to attempt to change a tragedy we never saw coming? I love that the timeline is always slightly in flux in ways that the main character doesn't cause or foresee (could these be the effects of others' trips?), and the author is able to wring a surprising amount of drama out of ostensibly mundane "butterfly effect" moments like waiting for some kids to kick a ball onto a roof. Combine an emotional main character with a high-stakes situation and an unexpected love story, and you've got a recipe for a hit movie adaptation!
What this book is crying out for, though, is a better editor. The characters, including the narrator, often sound wooden and unnatural (the teenagers use so few contractions and so little slang that they all sound like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation), and too often, the style falls back on cliche (so and so "died of a broken heart"). A lot of the description is either too perfunctory ("[t]he football game ended in a victory for our team") or too florid ("it was, in a word, delicious"), and the author misses many chances to flesh out her characters by describing important scenes instead of showing them to us. One scene near the end stands out in particular: the main character has separate fights with each of her parents, but because we only get two sentences' worth of narration dedicated to each fight, the parents wind up seeming interchangeable, whereas actually seeing the fights could've presented a critical chance to teach us who the parents are, both as individuals and in relation to each other. The presentation could also be a bit more polished and professional (there are a noticeable number of typos and unintentional line breaks in the Kindle version I read, plus the three sections of the book are inconsistently called "The First Trip," "The Second Trip," and "Trip Three"), but that's a minor quibble compared to the overall uncanny valley effect present in the book's world. The right editor would push the author to ask deeper questions about her characters and the setting, drawing out personalities and voices that would seem more realistic and varied. You can tell, reading the book, that those fully-realized elements do exist in the author's head, but because the editor didn't challenge her to reach for them, it's the reader who winds up having to do the reaching.
Still, if you're willing to put in that bit of effort, patience, and imagination, this is quite a good story, and one I'm comfortable recommending. It sticks with you, and although not everyone will love the conclusion, it's clear and unashamed about what it wants to say. I'll definitely be checking out the second volume in this series. -
I'm not gonna lie, I can't think about time travel for too long because it totally blows my mind. Travelling back to someone else's present day and...nope, I'm not gonna get started. It makes my brain hurt.
In Brooke's world, which is similar to ours in all aspects but one, everyone is granted one 'trip'. They may use their trip anytime after the age of 18, meaning they will be able to relive a particularly sweet memory; honeymoons, birthdays, and the like. There is always, however, the chance that they return to present day after their allotted 6 month trip to find things different; if even the smallest thing changed during their trip, it could result in divorces or deaths. Many people choose not to use their trip; Brooke uses hers to try to save her younger brother from dying.
I liked this book to start with; I liked the concept and I liked how devoted Brooke was to saving Branson (side note: I can't stop thinking about pickle whenever I read the name Branson). I didn't particularly like the part where Brooke tries to 'achieve' the diagnosis of depression - it struck a bit too close to home for me, and the way it was written was a little insensitive. BUT I overlooked it and enjoyed the book until we met the freaking love interest. Because, you guessed it, there's insta-love.
Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes insta-love can work in books and I don't mind it. But this cheesiness? No thank you. In fact, the whole second half of this book is just full on cheesy. The conversations with Charlie (the love interest), even Brooke's interactions with her family...not good.
I have given this book 3 stars because it did a brilliant job of drawing me in initially; it's just a shame it didn't last.
*thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book* -
I loved this book!!. It is an inspiring story of a sisters love for her brother and I loved the way if ended. I cannot wait for Amalie Jahns next book!!
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Many authors rely on suspense and cliff hangers to keep readers moving through their books. Amalie Jahn did not need to rely on such artifice and instead kept me engaged by writing a truly touching story. But what impressed me most when I finished the book was how much I actually cared about her characters, because that doesn't happen very often for me. For instance, a very well-known author recently published a book that was quite different from the first seven she wrote as a series. Her plot was also interesting, but she failed to make me care about what happened to the characters by the end of the book; I was just glad it was finally over. I think Ms. Jahn's skill in developing her characters is what made this debut novel even more notable to me.
I did find some of the logistics of the time travel a bit difficult to wrap my brain around. It wasn't clear what happened to the physical body of Brooke when she was time traveling. I ultimately decided that it was more her consciousness that was moving through time and inhabiting the physical body that was living during whichever point in time she visited. However I found this issue to be trivial enough that it did not affect the overall story that was being told.
The poignant challenges, likable characters, sweet romance, well-written dialogue, and overall story found in The Clay Lion make me eager to read the next offering by Ms. Jahn because she is clearly a skilled storyteller. -
There is nothing I love more than well-written stories that hit me right in the heart. Amalie Jahn has written just such a novel.
In a world where time travel not only exists but can be used by pretty much anyone (though only once, per government regulations), young Brooke Wallace decides to use her allotted "trip" through time to save the life of her beloved younger brother, Branson. Determined to thwart the circumstances that caused his sudden and tragic demise, Brooke soon discovers that changing the past is not as easy as it seems.
Though the concept of time-travel technically makes this book "sci-fi", what The Clay Lion is, in reality, a character study. How one girl deals with grief, denial, change, consequence, the gut-wrenching circumstances of love found and love lost, futility, depression, and acceptance that life is, and always will, play out as it was meant to, no matter how much we wish it were otherwise.
The Clay Lion will grab you from the very first chapter and it will not let go, even after you've finished reading. It will tear your heart out of your chest and piece it back together again, stronger than it was before. You will experience every emotion from A to Z and back again, and you will have grown as a person for having read it.
Thank you, Ms. Jahn. This is one of the best books I have ever read. Your accolades are well-deserved, and I will be moving on to the next book in the series immediately. -
The Clay Lion is about loss, love, and destiny. It is written in the close, third-person point of view of Brooke, a relatable high school girl who genuinely cares about her family. When Brooke's brother is diagnosed with an incurable illness, she decides to go back in time to try to find a way to prevent him from contracting it.
Brooke is at her most compelling when she allows herself to be physically free, like when she plays tag in the snow with Charlie's little sister or when she ice skates with her brother. With his affable charm and unique life as the son of a famous politician, my favorite character is high school athlete and Brooke's love interest, Charlie Johnson.
The Clay Lion has a tightly woven plot and a good message--especially when it doesn't beat you over the head with it. Multiple food references (lasagna, pot roast, waffles, etc.) made me hungry, which isn't a bad thing. The Kindle version of this book had a handful of technical glitches in which words from two different lines were transposed, so that was a little confusing but not insurmountable.
Favorite line: For him to feel brave, I would need to be the one to show courage.
Pet peeve: When fictional teenagers sound like they're middle-aged, for example: "Your sincerity was felt by all."
The Clay Lion raises an intriguing plot question about Charlie, which I'm curious to read about in the second book, Tin Men (Clay Lion #2). -
There is a reason for all these great reviews . . . The Clay Lion by Amalie Jahn is wonderful. I’m a sucker for opening lines (Prologue aside) and this one grabbed me right away. “The first time Branson died, the ‘original’ time, as I would come to refer to it, I almost died with him.” That’s a great line and the book is filled with them. It’s beautifully written and well thought out which is important anytime time travel is part of the plot. Another cool line that ought to be on bumper stickers, “It was a dark period in the history of time travel.” Read that one a few times, it just keeps getting better.
I’m finally getting to this review, because book two has just been released - Tin Men (The Clay Lion Series Book 2) – and I can’t wait. I have a feeling it will even be better.
I wish I had a sister like Brooke. A clever character that is as real as any I have read. You’ll love this book. And want to go back in time to reread it again for the first time (just don’t try to change the past). But if you aren’t sure what to do, get ice cream. “When in doubt, always get the ice cream.”
Very highly recommended. -
Gave this a try based on the mountain of positive reviews and am now positively baffled. What an awkwardly written, repetitive and trite mess this was. Full of plot holes. Dialogue that made me cringe so hard I think I sprained something. Flat characters with relationships that never feel fully real. Time travel that follows no sensible logic. No sense of time or place. This is just bad. Really bad.
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This was an interesting read - a very clever idea about time travel and how a girl uses it to go back and try to change the past. It is a YA book and as such was a very quick read. The relationship between Charlie and Brooke was written beautifully but some of the dialogue was a little stilted and did not ring true. Overall however an excellent book.
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4/5 stars.
I picked this up on a whim because I needed an audiobook to listen to, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The Clay Lion is a story of grief and family, wrapped up in a sci-fi novel involving time travel. Brooke, the protagonist, is mourning the death of her brother. It's months into the fog after his death that she suddenly sets off on a plan - she is going to travel back in time and prevent his illness. Everyone is allowed one time travel trip, as long as they make no attempt to change events in the past, but Brooke has no qualms about breaking this rule to save her brother.
It's heart-breaking watching her mission unfold, as she dedicates so much of her life to bring back someone already gone. The novel was wonderful in how it showed how much Brooke cared for her brother and the lengths she would go to, even at the expense of her own life. It was an emotional read that I really enjoyed. -
Check out my review and current giveaway of this book on my blog:
Feed Your Fiction Addiction
The Clay Lion is a time travel story that focuses on the emotional repercussions. When Brooke's beloved brother dies of a disease that could have been prevented if he'd avoided an unknown trigger, she vows to go back in time and save him. Though the government monitors time travel and doesn't allow travelers to make changes to their timelines, Brooke is sure that she can outsmart them. She researches her brother's disease and finds two likely causes - and then she sets off to prevent him from encountering them. However, neither her first attempt or her second attempt at saving her brother are successful (you find this out right at the very beginning of the book, so it's not a spoiler) and Brooke finds that her actions are causing harm to herself and others around her. She has to decide if she's willing to risk inflicting more pain or if she can learn to accept the things she cannot change.
What Fed My Addiction:
Brooke and Branson.
I loved the closeness of Brooke and Branson's sibling bond. These two were typical teenagers but they had a deep, abiding love for each other that ran deeper than we often see in YA books. I could completely understand why Brooke felt like her life was crumbling around her when Branson died and why she would go to such lengths to save him!
Charlie.
Once Brooke (mistakenly) believes she's saved Branson in her second repeat timeline, she lets go of the tension she's been holding onto and allows herself to fall for Charlie. Of course, at first she's a bit nervous at first since she knows she's changing more than just her brother's future, but she can't help herself - and once she's with Charlie she falls fast. Charlie is extremely sweet, and I loved his relationship with his little sister. Unfortunately, things get complicated between Brooke and Charlie, but I was rooting for them right till the very end. I loved that Brooke kept her promises to Charlie in the end, even when it caused her pain.
The final repeat timeline.
This one was definitely my favorite and shows how much Brooke has grown throughout her experiences - good and bad. I loved the messages in the final section of the book and I thought that Brooke made incredibly mature decisions that brought her to a better place in the end.
Touch of faith.
I loved that Brooke's religious faith was touched on in this book (but wasn't a major focus at all). In a story about life and death and fate, the questions that Brooke asks herself about faith fit in seamlessly.
What Left Me Wanting More:
Some time travel related plot holes that nagged at me.
One aspect of the plot that I just couldn't get past was why Brooke didn't just tell Branson why she didn't want him to do certain things. After all, everyone knew about time travel, so it's not like he wouldn't have believed her if she'd confided in him. She spent so much time trying to get Branson to avoid the things that she suspected may have caused his disease when she could have just told him that she had traveled back through time to help him avoid a terrible fate. Considering how close they were, it seemed like the logical way to do things. But she never considered this avenue, even for a moment - and I didn't understand why (besides the fact that it would have taken away half the plot of the book). This really bugged me through parts of the book because it was so illogical.
I also had trouble believing that most people who went back in time supposedly went back without changing anything. First of all, it seems to me that many people would be way too tempted to "fix" something that had gone wrong in their lives, even with numerous warnings about how dangerous it was. It would be really hard to resist, and I can't imagine that most people would completely manage it. Plus, these people went back and re-lived up to six months of their lives. How could someone possibly re-live six months of their life and keep everything the same, even if they tried to? You couldn't possibly remember every action you'd taken, all the little things you'd said and done (especially if you went back in time quite a bit). Inevitably, things would change - and tiny changes could have huge repercussions. Unfortunately, I spent much of Brooke's first trip back in time pondering these things and it took me longer to connect with the book because of it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this bittersweet story about love in all its forms. Though there were a few logistics with the time traveling that gave me pause, I thought this story had a beautiful message, and I definitely plan to read the next book in the series. I went back and forth on my rating for this one, but finally settled on 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.*** -
The Clay Lion
by Amalie Jahn
The rules are simple. If you want to travel back in time, you need to be at least eighteen years old. You can only travel within your own lifespan for a maximum of six months. And above all else, you must never, ever change the past. - from The Clay Lion
Brooke Wallace is a girl on a mission. Losing her beloved brother to a tragic decease has brought her own life to wrenching stand-still, and nearly destroyed her family. To rectify this, she decides to use her one ticket to go back and save his life, but Brooke's single-minded determination has far-reaching and devastating consequences, not only for her and her family, but also for the people around her.
The Clay Lion (the a first in a series of young adult novels) reads like a the Twilight Zone episode: it isn't so much sci-fi as it is a thoughtful coming-of-age story and Jahn keeps a good pace. The book's themes of love, loss, responsibility, trust, and learning when to let go are tough subjects to handle without slipping into melodrama, but Jahn's clear writing style and crisp pace treats the heavy emotional load with grace and ease.
Brooke emerges as a wounded, but ultimately well-rounded character that you can really cheer for, and the relationship she has with her brother is heartfelt, never cloying. With a good cast of supporting characters, an intriguing premise, and a strong, satisfying ending, The Clay Lion is one Indie book you'll want on your shelf.
- Killarney Traynor (
www.killarneytraynor.com) -
A Lovely Touching Youth Novel
"The Clay Lion" is lovely uplifting fiction for young adults as well as people of all ages.
Turning back time in life a tribute with courage written with an emotional wisdom that is captivating. This book is an emotional and powerful read, written from deep within the heart and soul, with youth’s love and affection by a talented author. It is personal story with love, loss, of human emotion. An excellent read about life, growth, loss and love which relates to many of us in true life. Look forward to more great reads from Amalie.
Highly recommended! -
The Clay Lion is a magnificent story where Brooke learns that you cannot change the past and how to accept loss in her life while making the most of it. I loved this book because it is enthralling without being actioned packed. I think feeling sad about something that happens in a story like Branson's death or her breakup is the reason I read because that is what shows the characters are genuine when they make you feel something like you are part of the story.
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my review? proceed with care - don't expect that the time travel in this story is logical because the whole concept is not, well at least as far as i know… i have conflicting emotions on brooke's character. her narrative can be tedious at times and repetitive since this is about time traveling back to the past
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An outstanding book. Brooke's travels have you guessing what the final outcomes of those travels will be and how will she deal with the results. It is a heartwarming and at times a heart-wrenching book which is hard to put down.
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I had high hopes for this one because of the 4.16 average rating, and because I'm a big fan of time travel, but there were too many weak points in this novel to give it anything above 3 stars.
My first criticism was the writing, which was a bit stilted and perfunctory. The emotional story the author was trying to tell here deserved a bit more polish and care. I agreed with
this review's assessment, that there was a lot of missed potential. I disliked the many awkward summaries about moments being so touching, or memorable, but the scenes were not actually described, and so it seemed forced and didn't let the reader feel the emotion in response to events as they happened. The omission of one critical scene highlights what what I felt was missing from the book.
My second criticism was the time travel logistics. I did actually enjoy the author's ideas about time travel initially, because she seems to be attempting a kind of "Groundhog Day" speculation of how we can change things we wish were different, how we might wish to get our lives "right". This is the fantasy of time travel at its core, is it not? The idea that our lives could be better if we just had more chances. It's certainly why I am drawn to time travel stories. (That, and the mind-blowing paradoxes!) But the rules seemed a bit preposterous to me. Also, the rules were treated somewhat inconsistently. .
My third criticism was with the inconsistency in some of the themes. I did appreciate the thought-provoking ideas and soul-searching the author conveyed here. The ruminations on dealing with loss were relevant and poignant , and I came away with a "you don't change time as much as time travel changes you" kind of vibe which was pretty deep. However, the author had some pretty wacky contradictions in places. Example: the main character seems pretty religious, and on more than one occasion we find her praying for the strength to accept things as God has willed them. But she is going back into the past to change history. That, my friends, is the very definition of mixed messages! And this was particularly evident in the final resolution
Overall, this was a story with an insane amount of potential, that was flubbed a bit by the execution. Despite this, I'm glad I read it because I have enjoyed thinking about the provocative ideas presented here. Hopefully this review will help you decide whether this one is right for you. -
This book has been on my Want-To-Read list for sooooooo long I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get to actually read it. Between it being a story about time-travel, one of my favorite story elements, and practically every review granting it a glowing five-star rating, I expected it to easily be the best out of the three self-published books I’d gotten (and I enjoyed the other two quite a bit).
Well, let this be a lesson – one I’ve taken many times before but always seem to forget – not to trust Goodreads reviews. This book was not good, and it just… baffles me why it’s so highly rated.
First off, holy frick the dialogue is BAD! No character in here talks like a normal person, especially the main character, Brooke, and her brother. They’re so cheesy and cringey, it was hard to imagine this was an 18-year-old and 15-year-old talking, and can we please please STOP making sibling characters call each other “sis” and “bro”? No one does that! If I ever refer to my siblings by their relationship to me it’s never in a serious context and definitely not that often. On a related note, the relationship between Brooke and Branson was so forced, it was honestly kind of uncomfortable sometimes. Like okay, sisters and brothers love each other, but they don’t act this affectionate towards one another. I don’t know, I felt like more time was given to Brooke telling us how much she loved Branson than was strictly necessary, but it never really felt like an authentic sibling relationship.
Second, this book was absolutely littered with typos. I know it’s self-published and all but c’mon, you can’t have this many instances of repeated words or missing words or wrong-word usage if you’d actually proof-read your own text.
Third, the time-travel that I was looking forward to? It doesn’t make any sense! I mean, time-travel is a very hard plot-device to use without it not making sense, especially the more you think about it, but I dunno, the way it was used here really did not do it for me. I don’t think it was so much the time-travel itself as it was the way it’s described to exist in this world. In this book, time-travel is something that just anyone can do, so long as they’re over 18, and even though Brooke does have to go through certain protocols and prerequisites before she’s allowed to time-travel, and there supposedly are rules and laws against misusing it… it was way too easy for her to get away with changing the past! Like seriously, there are ZERO real precautions against a person just going back to the past and changing things around like Brooke did not just once or twice, but THREE times! And it makes even less sense that there are even laws against changing the past to begin with because once they HAVE changed the timeline, no one could possibly know any different! How are these things tracked exactly? For that matter, if each person is supposed to have only one “trip”, how could the government possibly keep track of when it’s been used or not? Wouldn’t the person’s ticket “regenerate” or something after they’ve returned to the present, since they’d be in a timeline where they never used it? Because this isn’t a “when you go back there’s a present-you and a past-you” kind of time-travel, this is a “when you go back you become your past-self” kind, and when you return to the present your past is “rewritten” according to what you did when you traveled. So “past you” wouldn’t know you’ve used your trip already and would still be eligible for a ticket…?? Really, I know the time-travel itself is not the focus of the book, but even for a time-travel story this had WAY too many holes in it, to the point that it was distracting.
Fourth, wow. Wow. Wow. Just. Talk about a Bad Romance. This book has got to have the absolute WORST written “romance” I have ever seen. I’m not even kidding. Here we have this main character who is borderline obsessed with saving her brother – like she traveled back in time with the intention to illegally change the past so that he can live – and in the midst of her rescue mission she just happens across this guy – doesn’t even MEET him by the way, just sees him from a DISTANCE – and afterwards she can’t seem to “get him off her mind”? Because in the few seconds she saw him she thought he was… hot, I guess?? Look, “love at first sight” as a concept is already bad enough on its own and one I’ve never believed in at all, but the fact that this author also expects me to believe that Brooke could have fallen in love with someone she only saw from a distance in the middle of her all-important mission to save her brother, the person whom she’s been building up the entire book up to this point is the most important person in the world to Brooke, is utterly, laughably ridiculous. And you know what, this could’ve been fixed, easily, if instead of making this guy a complete stranger whose name Brooke didn’t even know, he’d been a secret crush she’d had very briefly – even briefly enough that she forgot all about him until the moment she saw him again in the past – and had never pursued because of what happened with Branson driving everything else from her mind. Or, you know, at the very least, not make it so that she fell in love with him immediately upon seeing him! She could’ve actually met him first, and subsequently come across him several times after, and unknowingly and naturally built up a relationship with him while she worked on saving Branson.
But regardless of how Brooke fell in love with Charlie (and I actually had to go open the book again to get his name because he was so bland and faceless I couldn’t remember), there’s still also the matter of their relationship being so utterly boring, clichéd, and completely devoid of any real romantic tension or chemistry. I’ve already talked about how Brooke’s reasons for falling for Charlie are practically non-existent – though I suppose after she started going out with him she’ll have said things along the lines of him being so smart and kind and funny (I don’t remember but it’s that kind of relationship so I’m willing to bet at least two of those exact adjectives were used to describe him) – and Charlie’s reasons for liking Brooke seem to be that she’s a very “special girl”. Why is she special? Because she talks like a soap opera heroine, which Charlie deems as evidence of how smart and deep and “not like any other girl” he’s met. Oh and when do they find out all these things about each other? Their first date – which is only the second time they’ve ever actually interacted, the first time being their introduction to each other. And let’s not forget to mention that they have their first kiss at the end of their first date. Seriously, I was actually laughing from disbelief at how by-the-numbers the progression of their relationship went: girl meets boy, girl and boy go out, girl and boy kiss, boom, they’re officially in love, with no need of anything in between those bullet points to actually develop their relationship and make me give a single crap about whether they stay together or not. If you want a good time-travel story about a main character falling in love with someone they wouldn’t otherwise have met while trying to save someone else close to them, play or watch Steins;Gate. The romance aspect of this book is like, the bargain bin version of the romance in Steins;Gate.
And finally, we have the message. It is a good message, albeit one you could predict from the get-go. The problem is that the cumulation of all the previous points about how bad the characters, dynamics, and writing are make it so that the message holds virtually no emotional weight whatsoever, especially considering the fact that Brooke learns her lesson so abruptly and out of nowhere. Again, she’s spent the entire book absolutely driven by her need to save Branson, jumping through so many hoops and screwing up so many things for herself and other people, all because she’s convinced that there’s a way she can succeed… and all it takes is one incident for her to do a complete 180 and change her mind, and accept things as they are? It feels so tacked on, like the author just decided that this should be the place where the message gets hammered home, rather than having Brooke lead up to it by having even a few doubts, or people trying to give her the message in their own way. Instead we had both her parents and her doctor enabling her and helping her in her illegal attempts to resurrect her brother, and she – being the “special” girl that she is – gets to figure out the right thing to do entirely on her own at the flip of a switch.
So overall, as I said before, this book was bad. It might even work itself up to being terrible in my mind as time passes, because I can’t really think of anything good that I can look back on other than that it was light, droll reading. I don’t know if anyone will ever come across this review now as it’s several years too late, and it will doubtless become buried amongst all those deceptive five-star reviews singing this book’s praises about how it made people cry. But hey, if the majority of people liked this book then there’s a good chance that most future readers will too. BUT if you believe anything I’ve said here, then please, stay away from The Clay Lion. This kind of trite cannot be encouraged. -
Read this review and more on my blog.
The Book Return Blog
*I received this book for free from the Author (via YA Books Central) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Brooke's brother has died a rather sudden death. In Brooke's world, she can go back in time only once. Will she be able to save her brother? Will she be punished for breaking the rules of time travel?
I am a huge fan of time travel. I've been hearing about 'The Clay Lion' for some time now and I finally got a chance to read it.
The story takes place in what seems to be a mirror image of our universe but one where time travel takes place. The characters can't travel back and experience historical events. They can only travel back in their own lifetime. They only have six months before they need to travel back to the present day. This means that they are only reexperiencing events in their own lives.
Jahn really kept the story moving. I literally had a hard time stopping myself from reading the next page, then the next chapter. I just had to find out what happens with Brooke's travels next.
I love when there are paradoxes that blow my mind (think the origin of the watch in 'Somewhere in Time'). So I was super excited when I found them in 'The Clay Lion.'
There were a few tiny things that took a little getting used to for me. One is the information that is dumped at the beginning of the book. I feel like this happens a lot in time travel books as there is a need for the rules to be laid out so this is somewhat inevitable. I also kept wondering why the people in the past timelines (since they knew about time travel) didn't suspect Brooke was from the future. If I knew that time travel was possible and someone was acting strange, I would totally be suspicious that they were time traveling. However, I guess that they knew that one of the rules is that Brooke wouldn't be able to admit she was from the future.
I loved this story and jumped right into the rest of the series as soon as I was finished with this one. Spoiler alert I loved the rest of the series just as much.
This review was originally posted on The Book return... -
I tried to persevere with this because I love a good time-travel trope, but too much time was spent in Brookes head and not enough....travelling? Also everything was spoon-fed. Even down to the affection between siblings, sis this and bro that. It was enough for you to NOT root for a good ending.
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So. Much. Wasted. Potential.
I really don't understand the overwhelmingly positive reviews.
• The dialogue was so unbelievably cheesy. Brooke and Branson and pretty much every character in this book came straight out of a kids' cartoon. I cringed internally every time Brooke called Branson "Little Brother" or he called her "Sis". I get that the author wanted to portray their closeness, and it would have worked if they were 4 or 5 years old, but making an 18 year old talk the way she does with her 15 year brother? Unbelievable cringe. Nobody sane talks like that! It's just unrealistic and weird. "My brother and I shared a bond that was uniquely ours." Yep, unique, for sure.
• Every single person Brooks knows or meets is two dimensional. They're all good hearted, sweet, loving, understanding decent individuals. None of them have a bad bone in their body, and obviously I understand that people like that exist, but seriously, EVERY character? ALL of them angels? They could have all been replaced with cardboard cutouts and I don't think the story would have been affected in the slightest.
• The insta-love between Brooks and Charlie had me rolling my eyes. She's just lost her brother (twice!) but the minute she sees a boy with a nice smile, she forgets all about her save-brother-mission for several weeks and decides to drastically alter the timeline of several other people, knowing it's fully against the law and there's no way this won't end badly. Also, she's 18 and has never shown any interest in boys before, but then Charlie comes along and.. breathes? And suddenly she's head-over-heels. And of course, he turns out to be this perfect human who takes two seconds to fall in love with her and is the bwest boyfwiend in the whole wide world. Nothing less than the best for our dear Brooks. I wanted to barf at their every interaction, except the one where Charlie finally tells her to piss off when she turns up at his front door after breaking his heart and stamping on it. I was genuinely shocked that Charlie didn't immediately prostrate to Brooks and immediately fling his trip voucher into her hands. Finally, a scene that's not all rainbows and butterflies and smiles and pumpkins? Finally, a scene reminiscent of a real human interaction? Gasp.
• So, Brooks firmly believes that there is something in the attic of the store that her brother works at that caused him to get ill and die, yes? Okay. Now, if you finish the book, you find out that it doesn't make the slightest difference if Branson ends up working at the store, he'll end up dead anyway. YOU know that. I know that. WE all know that. But BROOKS doesn't know that! Let me reiterate, she FIRMLY BELIEVES that it was the asbestos in his workplace attic that killed him. Keep that in mind when you read this next bit:
When she goes back in time for the first time, she has no idea how to persuade him not to work at the store and spends days, if not weeks, contemplating it. Hmm, surely it would have been more prudent to devise a solid game plan before jumping in to save the day? Considering she pretty much had unlimited time before the trip. Anyway, continuing forward, Brooks decides that she'll dissuade him to work at the hardware store by persuading him to work at the mall. Now, I don't know about you, but if I experienced the demise of a dearly beloved, and I had the chance to stop it and all I had to do was make sure that they don't go to a certain place, I would raise hell to make sure that I succeed. I would cajole, bribe, and blackmail as I see fit. And if that doesn't work, I would bring a hammer to their knees to make damn sure that they STAY AWAY FROM BAD DEATH PLACE. You know the saying, cruel, kind, all that. What's a broken leg or two in return for a longer life? But our dear protagonist Brooks doesn't do ANY of those aforementioned things. When she can't persuade him, she just...gives up and cries.
• By the way, it's never explained to us why she can't just TELL Branson that if he works at the store he'll end up dead. I mean, really, what's the worst that could happen? And if it's because it's illegal, well, she ends up breaking a bazillion time travel rules anyway so why not add this one to the list?
• When Brooks has that screaming/wailing fit in the car after she realises Branson has no plans to not work at the store, her beloved brother watches her having a fit and does absolutely nothing. He doesn't even ask if she's okay. Neither does anyone else in the car. Like, ahem, what about their 'bond'? Yet they all treat her obvious distress like an inconvenience, not acknowledging that it's completely out of character and that there's something complex at the heart of it. I don't buy it.
There's a bunch of other things that didn't sit right with me but it's all slipped my memory. I was really excited to read this book. I wish someone would take the base idea and do a complete rewrite. Preferably someone who doesn't get their character inspiration from Peppa Pig or wherever the author got hers from. -
The Clay Lion by Amalie Jahn
About the Story:
“The rules are simple. If you want to travel back in time, you need to be at least eighteen years old. You can only travel within your own lifespan for a maximum of six months. And above all else, you must never, ever, change the past.”
Can we find the strength to leave the past in the past?
The Story:
This time-travelling debut follows Brooke, who has lost her younger brother. We follow her as she endeavors to alter time and save her brother. The Clay Lion has all the elements of a good young adult novel; a bit of love, a bit of the unknown, and a bit of heartbreak. This novel is suitable for early teens and above.
The Characters:
The reader is instantly drawn to Brooke, the main character. We suffer with her, care for her - as she displays unerring kindness to those around us. Brooke is a role-model in many ways, to all young adults, despite the things she does in the name of love. In fact, the choices she makes are understandable. She develops and strengthens throughout the story.
Though Brooke was over eighteen, more resistance from her parents toward her plan could have strengthened my believability, despite the close relationship between Brooke and her parents, and their worry over her depressed state.. Later in the story, we do see them begin to question her decisions.
The World:
A nice, traditional town; the visualization of the setting was strong, and the culture of the township and Brooke’s family came through easily in Amalie Jahn’s prose.
More insight into the intricacies of the time-travelling would have been a great adjunct. In this world, time-travelling is now common-place. Because of this, I can understand that it might not be something the main protagonist finds interesting enough to think about. At the same time, if it is common-place, I would expect everyone of Earth to know a little about how it’s done.
The reader gets a good sense of the past and present times.
Readability:
Wonderfully easy to read. Jahn’s writing style is clear, and concise. The description is balanced with how much we learn of her characters, and of the world itself. The formatting of each trip worked to heighten excitement and pace. And the introduction of a love-interest part-way through, avoided the common ‘dip in pace’ at the two-third mark.
Final Verdict:
Great flow, characters we care for and a few important life-lessons. This is a beautifully crafted literary fiction for young adults.
Favorite quote:
“I would either fall forward into the hope of my future or backward into the despair of my past.” -
Heart wrenching. That's what this was. Not in the ball my eyes out sense - I didn't really cry much - but it was more of an understanding of grief that made this story so touching. An understanding that, given the chance, most of us would do whatever we could to save the people that we love.
In this case, Brooke wants to save her brother. There is nothing so special as the bond with a sibling and she is forced to watch her beloved brother wither away until he was no longer with her. Once the depression fog lifts somewhat, her first thought is of how she can get him back, how she can save him. So, she travels back in time. Wouldn't we all? It sounds sci-fi, right? wrong? Somehow, this books makes time travel seem like it's the most normal thing in the world. I was soooo thankful for that because the time travel itself was not what this book was about. It's amazing it didn't serve as a distraction.
Through her many trips back in time, trying to change the future, Brooke learns a lot about herself. She gets to spend extra time with her brother and she also finds something unexpected. There's something so sweet and innocent about this story. Even though Brooke is breaking the law. Even though she is knowingly changing her timeline and the timelines of those around her, you can't help but root for her.
There's a very profound message hidden in these pages. You get glimpses of it throughout but you don't truly understand it until the very end of the story. It's the kind of thing that sticks with you and I am going to stick with it as I continue reading Ms. Jahn's works.
