Title:
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (La Mécanique du cœur)
Autor: Mathias Malzieu
Genre:
Fantasy, romance, fiction.
Published:
2007
Pages:
177
English
edition:
Price:
$11.05 USD at Amazon and Barnes&Noble
Publisher:
Vintage
Translator:
Sarah Adrizzone
Year
of publishing: 2011
Rating:
★★★✩✩
Since I saw the
cover of this book it caught my attention, it reminded me of “The Nightmare before
Christmas” and “Corpse Bride” movies by Tim Burton, also the plot seemed
interesting.
This book tells
the story of Jack, a boy that is born in the coldest night, because of that he is
born with a frozen heart. To survive Dr. Madeleine places a cuckoo clock in his
chest, but to keep living jack must follow 3 rules: don’t touch the hands of the cuckoo-clock
heart, master his anger, and never, ever fall in love. After his birth Jack’s
mom abandons him, and madeleine raises him, overprotecting him. On his tenth
birthday they finally go out to the city and Jack listens the beautiful voice
of a street performer girl, Miss Acacia, and falls in love with her. That’s when
his adventures begin, he must confront his own weak heart, and he must fight
for the love of Miss Acacia against Joe.
The story
begins with a magical and fantastic feeling that involves you completely and
makes you feel empathy for the protagonist. Since the beginning I liked Jack, a
poor soul that suffers for love and decides to go after it despite knowing it’s
not good for his heart, something that shows an interesting character development.
At first he is shy, quiet and reprises himself a lot because of his condition,
and then he decides to fight for his love. Jack matures in that aspect during
the book.
Despite I liked
jack, I can’t say the same of his love, Miss Acacia. There was something in her
that I didn’t like at all; I felt she was too self-centered and kind of
egoistic. I never understood why he loved her so much.
There are other
important characters in the book, but to me they didn’t stand out. The most
important are Madeleine, the doctor that took care of Jack. Madeleine’s
friends/patients, they helped jack when he needed. Méliès, yes, the famous filmmaker, he meets Jack in his journey and
joins him helping him with his cuckoo-clock, and giving him love advice. And
the last one is Joe, the nemesis of jack; he is in love with Miss Acacia and
hates Jack because he knows Jack loves her too.
 |
| Movie cover. |
As I said
before, the book starts with this magic feeling, but it gradually fades out, I thinks
that is because the book is in Jack’s point of view, and he matures and changes
his way of thinking.
I didn’t notice
it, but it seems there are some time inconsistences along the book, there are
things that shouldn’t exist yet in that time… but I don’t think that’s too
important, it’s a fantasy book after all.
The finale was
not surprising, it was kind of predictable because of Miss Acacia’s
personality, thou I didn’t like it at all I think it was ok.
In 2014 a movie
adaptation was released, it’s a musical 3D animated film; the music was
composed by the book’s author, Mathias Malzieu, who is also the voice actor of
Jack in the French version.
It’s a really
short book, you can read it in few hours, but don’t let its length and cover
fool you, it’s not a children’s book (I thought so). It’s a light reading,
short but entertaining. If you want to read something light, with romance and a
bit of fantasy, I recommend it :)
Have you read
it? Tell me your opinion in the comments ^^
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