THE CHIMES

by Anna Smaill

There are a handful of books that have been on my list to read since before I started noting who made the recommendation and this book is one of them. As a result I have no one to ask, “What the heck did you like about this book?!?” Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the ruling class uses some sort of musical chimes to control the memories and minds of the common people, the prose is dense and meandering with so much music terminology worked in I felt like I couldn’t understand at least 25% of what I was reading, and I consider myself to be fairly musically literate.

By about three-quarters of the way through I got drawn into the plot, but I wasn’t even satisfied by the ending after all that. Unless you are a classically trained music theoretician, I’m not sure I’d recommend this book, and it was certainly not my cup of tea. (Lily)