Book review: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book. All I knew was that it was told in six parts and they were all linked.
Each part was very different and there were some parts I liked more than others. The first part, the journals of Adam Ewing, was my second to least favourite. I've recently read Sea of Poppies and it was a very similar vein, so it felt old. Mitchell used & rather than the word and, which was very irritating. Thankfully he only used it for the first section.
The second section, about Robert Frobisher was my favourite, although I've heard other describe it as the least relevant. I love the language Frobisher uses and I was completely drawn into his story.
The third section was all about Luisa Rey. I got through this section the quickest, although it wasn't clear that it was set in the seventies until it was actually mentioned by a character. The connection between Letters from Zedelghem is much stronger.
The fourth section, about Timothy Cavendish was excellent, especially the second half. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the activities that Cavendish and his cronies got up to.
Sonmi~451 was very interesting, but could be difficult. You definitely had to concentrate as normal words were replaced with brand names which I thought was very clever.
The final section, Sloosha's Crossin' was my least favourite. If this had been the opening section, I would have stopped because it was so complicated and difficult to read. Sea of Poppies had similar language and I hated it! However, this held the biggest surprises, so it was the most worthwhile section.
I must admit I was expecting more twists than there was. A lot of reviews discussed 'reveals' and apart from Sonmi~451 and Sloosh's Crossin' there wasn't anything spectacular.

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