The boy with the cuckoo clock heart

Firstly: don't touch the hands of your cuckoo-clock heart. Secondly: master your anger. Thirdly: never, ever fall in love. For if you do, the hour hand will poke through your skin, you bones will shatter, and your heart will break once more.

The synopsis of this book is about a little dude, called Jack. Wee Jack grow's up differently from the other children in his area. Edinburgh late 1800's. He was born with a frozen heart and immediately undergoes a life-saving operation. His Medic is not a conventional one and surgically implants a cuckoo clock into his chest.

Jack is bullied because of this - his constant 'ticking' brings ridicule from his class mates. His medic constantly reminds him that he must resist strong emotion: anger is far too dangerous for his cuckoo-clock heart.  So with that feeling that he struggles with and the eventual big emotion to come, when Jack meets a pretty little missy who he 'digs' he is in danger - putting his life on the line. The emotion of love, that he had constantly been warned about can lead to disastrous and deadly consequences.

An interesting little book and a very quirky read. The word play from French author Mathias Malzieu is quite unique - with how he goes into great detail to describe things; capturing the reader, allowing one to fully visualise the scenes he has skillfully set. His selection of words and vocabulary are very, very artistic.

Decent book and funny in parts. However, it's April now, I really need to be completing the books that I start reading. This took me long enough.

Submitted by Demola, The Collective