writing my first ever review for a book on here of a reasonable length because I have 10,000 thoughts and nowhere to put them. spoilers should be hidden so anyone can read it!

I originally became aware of cloud atlas when the movie was released (sorry, i'm one of those). I think we found the dvd on sale in a local blockbusters when they were getting rid of excess current release stock (probably a good indicator of how long ago that was...). I believe my brother and mum watched it when I wasn't around, my brother loved it and re-watched it with me, but for whatever reason I was really tired that day and fell asleep; to be fair from what I've heard the movie is pretty long. I remember seeing a beautiful shot of a man with a piano and then waking up in some weird scene with a key (?), so my knowledge was pretty limited from the get go. But I digress, I was at a party a few days after this and someone told me the film was nothing compared to the amazingness of the book.

Few months later, I came across a copy in the charity shop so I bought it and decided to read it before watching the dvd again. 4 years later and I've actually read the thing that has been moping on my bookshelf for so long and I can legitimately say it has changed my life.

I've been pretty much a case of verbal diahorrea so far so here is a basic breakdown of my thoughts for each individual section:


The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
1) initially disappointed with the style of this, found I was thrown into the deep end in terms of language before I had really fallen in love with any part of the book
2) initially questioned for the first third of the book why this had such an early placement in the book
3) eventually realised that the placement in the book was literally perfect

Letters from zedelghem
1) favourite character, story arc everything
2) Robert Frobisher. kind of a young but more musical Oscar Wilde. broke my heart more times than all of my own real previous lovers.
3) the use of musical language was perfect. it was beautiful.
4) interesting sense of perspective considering everything is told from one very biased point of view - I would honestly give David Mitchel my left kidney to have the writings of other characters within the same time frame.
5)

"we both know in our hearts who is the true love of my life"

6) kind of an antihero thing going on and that is great.


Luisa Rey
1) Bad ass boss lady; ambitious to excel in her career. more book characters like Luisa Rey pls.
2) love love love the use of multiple perspectives in this, really adds so much depth
3) first impression: what is this boring tack
4) midway impression: this is meant to be tack. its perfect.
5) towards the end impression:

LUISA YOU'D BETTER NOT BE DEAD IN THAT CAR I SWEAR TO GOD MY BABY DON'T GO OVER TO ANOTHER NARRATIVE NO NOT NOW NOOOO

Timothy Cavendish
1) this made me so happy
2) this was so cinematic, it just read like a film

before I even discovered it actually was one

3) the second part just hit so heavy for me. such interesting social commentary throughout that still rings relevant.
4) just loved the time placement and location of this one too
5) I wished I could have stayed in this world so much longer, out of all the sections this was the one I just zipped through the quickest; it was just moving and funny and such a delight to read!!

an orison of sonmi-451
1) going to be honest, this sort of thing isn't my kind of genre and I found it hard to get into. also struggled with the Q&A format a bit.
2) The concepts and everything were really interesting though.
3) started randomly thinking about orwell towards the end of the 1st half, and then by the second half I really got into it and realised that this whole concept was terrifying.
4) really got seriously attatched to sonmi towards the end, was willing to fight for her even though the premise was very much indicative of the story's end.
5)

the ending was literally horrifying. a lot to say about that one in terms of free will and technology.

sl'sh's cr's'n 'n' th' hor'bl' apostrp'y inv's'n
1)David Mitchell managed to invent a new language, congrats to him
2) felt like I actually achieved something after reading this
3) the first 5 half narratives took me 6 days total; this middle section alone took me 4.
4) language aside; I genuinely believe it made the second half of the book so much easier to read; I really struggled with ewing's writing but flew through the second half.
5) I would point out though that anyone who is not a fluent native speaker of english will probably have quite a bit of trouble. Audiobook is always an option which I tried, however the language sounded hillarious to me and I found it easier to read in the end, go figure.
6) I also did actually really like the content of the story; its just definitely a difficult section to process.
7) theory: "a half finished book is like a half finished love affair" was written with this section in mind.

as a whole
1) the stories do hold their own as standalones; however the power of them together as one unit is incredible. they lean on each other; at times I became more attached to a character through the connections running between the narratives.
2) I've heard a few comments about how the

birthmark/reincarnation

thing is a bit silly/too obvious/whatever but I actually loved this. Instead of the characters

suspiciously looking the same

it was a nice use of a motif throughout for me, which also dare I say added a really nice touch of magical realism/fantastical elements.
3) the structure was great. I couldn't think of a better way for it to be done; and I understand that some may struggle with a narrative being left for some time, but the point Mitchell intended was that the narrative would be returned to and completed, unlike [b: if on a winter's night a traveller|19457742|If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Passes By|Syd Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387013630s/19457742.jpg|27544713] where the narrative never really reaches a conclusion, it is just caught up in a web of other narratives. Not necessarily a bad thing either, but I am aware in an interview Mitchell referenced this and wanted to experiment with what would happen if this wasn't the case.

I have so many other thoughts on this so please feel free to discuss this with me in the comments!! this book has become one of my favourites of all time, and I already can't wait to read it again, now it is time to [finally] watch the movie once more with my brother, I've had a coffee this time.