The Girl with a Clock for a Heart By Peter Swanson

This marks a new chapter for Odds & Hens. I was sent this advance copy novel by The Reading Room/HarperCollins Publishers earlier this year with an ask for a review. I enjoy finding books through many sources, friend recommendations, interview candidates (love asking “What’s the last book you read for fun?”), library displays, pretty covers in airports, Smithsonian, professors etc. Hence, I review books for fun and every review is my personal opinion (good, bad or indifferent) and is not swayed whether I paid for the book or if it was given to me by an author or publisher.

Perhaps I had high hopes for this book, given the success of other books with similar title cadence (The Girl with [fill in the blank]). A quick Amazon Book Department search of “the girl with” returned 28,000 entries….. Unfortunately, I found this book to be neither thrilling nor sexy as proclaimed on the cover. I don’t like giving bad reviews, because frankly, I don’t think I could write anything near as good as someone else’s average but the story felt pieced together as it went, and the “sexy” part was about an pretty ordinary guys infatuation with a first love (who obviously screwed his young impressionable brains out) and his inability to “perform” during these “brief” encounters. I enjoy books with better character development and plots that pull you through, and if you are going to call something “twisty, sexy, electric thrill ride” or “cerebral noir thriller”, then you better pile on the details!

So, all in all not bad but not all that stellar either. It’s an easy read and I do appreciate the back and forth style between young and current George. I am still not sure where the title comes from….