Book Review: The Clocks Have Stopped by J.L. Oakman
This book is rather difficult to review, because it’s an anthology containing numerous short stories and poems, and obviously I’ve enjoyed some of them more than others. All of the pieces in this collection are poetic and thought-provoking, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with the philosophy presented in all of them. The writing style, though it varies from story to story, is extremely engaging and otherworldly, like the stories themselves, and many of the stories take unexpected twists that leave you mildly bewildered (which, in the case of this book, was a good thing). I particularly enjoyed Deux Ex Experia; that twist was wonderfully executed.
I don’t tend to be a huge fan of poetry, but the majority of those contained in The Clocks Have Stopped were engaging and read more like stories than poems (though, as I said, the whole collection had a poetic tone to it).
While there were a few pieces I found myself not enjoying, they were only a few, and in a collection like this you can stand to read a few less enjoyable pieces among a lot of more engaging pieces.
I would warn that there is language used, and there are a few instances of other more mature details (nothing too glaring for me personally), so you may want to read with caution.
Overall, it earns four stars from me.
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