The Clock Needs an Alarm

This is another true confessions blog post. I have never read a John Bellairs book, until now.

If The House with a Clock in it's Walls is any indication of all of his books, well....I have to say I wasn't missing much.

This wasn't one of those pretentious deals when I get angry at the audacity of the author. So I didn't feel mad like I did, say after When You Reach Me. It was just really long and rambling.

Some of it was funny and at times it had a lot of potential. Lewis is a young boy who, after the death of his parents goes it live with his uncle. Turns out his uncle is a warlock who lives in a pretty creepy haunted house.
The house was owned by the Izards who were witches, too. But these two were nasty ones. The Izards hid a clock in the walls of the mansion that will bring about the end of the world.
The whole end of the world deal can't happen though, because the Izards are dead...but...Lewis, in an attempt to make a friend, messes around with his uncle's spell books and accidentally brings Mrs. Izard to life. Of course the first thing she wants to do now that she's up and about again is get back to destroying the world.
It's up to Lewis and his uncle to stop her.
This books is called a gothic novel. I did a quick wiki look up of gothic fiction and got this:
"Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets, and hereditary curses."
That's HWACIIW for sure. That's why I wish I liked it more.
There are a million books in the series and maybe next time I should read one instead of listening to it. H is illustrated by the amazing Edward Gorey. I am sure that would have added to the book.
Listening to it was good though, because it was read by George Guidall and he is amazing. He narrated the first Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus book I ever listened to and a lot more of my favorites. It was weird listening to him do this though because I kept thinking Lewis's uncle was Lieutenant Decker!
So maybe I'll try to read another Bellairs...but H didn't thrill me.