The House with a Clock in Its Walls

I originally read this book as a kid and had forgotten all about it until I found it among a pile of weeded books in a school library. It was the same 1974 Dell Yearling copy I remember reading and immediately the memories of its delicious creepiness came flooding back. I scooped it up and brought it home for my 10-year old, who loved it as much as I did. He even recommended it to his teacher as a class read-aloud.

The illustrations by Edward Gorey are fantastic but what is best about this book is how it taps into a child's wild imagination to help immerse him or her into Lewis's world of Gothic horror. I was ecstatic to rediscover one of my favorite scenes (the nighttime car chase to the bridge) - my 42-year old self had retained this show more vivid scene (and the intense, creepy emotions it invoked) but had forgotten which book it was from.

Without realizing it, this book was probably the impetus for my love of books with creepy, magical themes (e.g., Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is an all-time favorite read...and listen...and viewing). Now that I have this little gem back in my possession, I will not be letting it go. show less

In 1948, Lewis Barnavelt is orphaned at the age of ten when his parents are killed in a car crash. His Uncle Jonathan becomes his guardian, and Lewis takes a long bus ride to a small town in New York, where Uncle Jonathan collects him and takes him to his home at the top of the very well-named High Street.

But Jonathan Barnavelt is not your average bachelor uncle who has suddenly inherited his brother's son. He and his neighbor & good friend, Mrs. Zimmerman, are witches. Jonathan's house previously owned by Isaac Izard and his wife, Serenna, who were also witches--but not good witches. They're dead, but not entirely gone. There's a clock, with a sinister purpose, somewhere in the walls of the house.

At first, Lewis is delighted just to show more watch the magic his uncle and Mrs. Zimmerman perform. What they show him is friendly magic, mainly for entertainment suitable for a child. Jonathan has quite serious magic books included in his library, but those are off limits to Lewis, though he has free run of the rest of it.

But Lewis is a lonely child, fat, unathletic, and far away from the few friends he had in his midwest home. He isn't making new friends here, until Tarby, a very popular boy, breaks his arm and is temporarily sidelined from sports. For a while, Tarby is happy to hang out with Lewis, try to improve his softball game, and come over to his house sometimes. But as the arm heals, Tarby is getting restless, and in an attempt to hold on to his one friend, Lewis makes a reckless promise--that he can raise the dead, and will demonstrate this to Tarby on Halloween.

He sneaks books from the magic section of the library, and on Halloween, he and Tarby accidentally choose the Izard mausoleum.

This is where Lewis discovers the unfriendly side of magic, and things get very, very scary.

The characters are well-developed and interesting. It's 1948, and a different world from today, or even from 1973, when it was written. Bellairs makes the world real and believable and lived-in, as different as it was from contemporary life even four decades ago. The magic is not a deus ex machina; it has its own complexities and price.

Recommended, even if you don't have a kid in your life to be your excuse.

This is an old favorite of---not my childhood, when theoretically it would have been appropriate. It hadn't even been written yet. In college, I read The Face in the Frost, and some time after that I met Bellairs at a book festival. In conversation, I learned that he had spent a year teaching English at the very college I was attending--a Catholic women's college.

He didn't like it there. That's why he only lasted one year. I mentioned him to my advisor at the school, the chair of the history department--who remembered him favorably, was sorry he hadn't stayed, and was happy to hear he was doing well. He asked me to pass on his good wishes, which I was able to do because by this time I had roped Bellairs into being a program participant at a local science fiction & fantasy convention. He was astounded that anyone from the college remembered him at all, much less favorably!

I suppose the only point of this digression is that we never know the impact we have on other people.

I bought this audiobook. show less

Young Lewis goes to live with his uncle, who turns out to be a wizard. Which is fine with Lewis, although the mysterious clock that keeps ticking away somewhere in the walls of his house but can never be located is a little disconcerting. And when Lewis, trying to impress a friend, brags that he can do magic, too, and offers to demonstrate by raising the dead, things start to get really creepy.

This book was given to me by a friend who, upon discovering that I had not read any Bellairs in my childhood (and only a couple of random things by him as an adult), decided that this could not be allowed to stand. And how right he was! I started out with this one feeling very sorry that I hadn't read it as a kid, because I would surely have loved show more it then, but somewhere in the middle adult me stopped thinking about how much kid me would have enjoyed it and just started enjoying it in her own right. It's delightfully spooky, with some nice touches of humor, and the Edward Gorey illustrations are a pleasant bonus. Definitely recommended for younger readers, and at least some older ones. show less

A new all time favorite book! Can't believe I didn't read this when I was a kid. This book is so in touch with the emotional experience and anxieties of childhood. Lewis is wonderful, and such an unusual choice for a protagonist - I want to see more main characters like him! Also, much to my delight, almost every time something spooky happens within the story, it's immediately followed by something pleasant and comforting. It's classic cozy horror!

A re-read before the film.

What does it take to get me into a movie theater? After ten years of ignoring the reboots and super hero flics, I finally get a film adaptation of one of my favorite childhood books.

I found this book on the shelf of the library when I was in fifth grade; the book had been published a couple years previously. I knew when I saw the cover art that it was the sort of book I would like. The illustrations really enhanced the reading experience for me.

The story is set in the fictional Michigan town of New Zebedee, in Capharnaum County. It is based on the real town of Marshall, Michigan, which has many beautiful historic homes. I would know, I'm a Michigan girl, I could jump in my car and take the secondary roads to show more Marshall and be there in a little over an hour.

Although Lewis is recently orphaned and basically a sad kid, he was excited when he arrived in New Zebedee to live with his uncle Jonathon. His old home town had been new and featureless and he was intrigued by New Zebedee and the Victorian era homes he saw. The best part was Uncle Jonathon's house, an eccentric structure full of marble fireplaces, second best back parlors, crooked, winding staircases and it even had a secret room. The house appealed to Lewis in the same way it appealed to me; I always wanted to live in a house like that, rather than my parent's sensible post-war bungalow.

As Lewis first suspects on arrival; he has come to a magical place.

What we get is an atmospheric gothic tale for kids. As it was published in 1973 I wouldn't recommend it for readers who enjoy the current formula for YA novels. This book is old school and they won't have the patience for it. Lewis is never transformed into a badass. He is always a wimpy fat boy; but he does overcome some of the challenges he faces in this book and becomes a stronger, wiser person with better self-esteem. I'm a sad, reality based old person who isn't charmed by Mary Sue superhero characters engaging in action packed battle sequences throughout the entire book.

Since this book was published at a transitional time for me, I have never read any of the other books in the series. It was one of the last favorite books of my childhood. After this I did a brief year of YA reading and then discretely headed for the adult fiction section. All the books I wanted to read were there.

This re-read was fun and nostalgic. I hope for good things from the movie, but they are never as good as the book. If I get some amazing art direction and a fantastic looking house I will be happy with that. show less

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, by John Bellairs, is the first book in his Lewis Barnavelt series of gothic horror novels for young readers. Orphaned when his parents are killed in an auto accident, ten-year-old Lewis comes to live with his Uncle Jonathan, in New Zebedee, Michigan in 1948. Lewis is lonely, frightened, nervous about meeting his unknown relative, and worried about what his future holds. This could be the beginning of any number of orphaned-children novels. But Lewis’ Uncle Jonathan turns out to be a wizard – the scandalous black sheep of the family. And the story soon takes a unique and uncanny turn: Together with neighbor Florence Zimmermann (who just happens to be a witch), Lewis and his uncle must locate a show more magic clock hidden somewhere in Jonathan's spooky mansion, before it destroys the world.

The clock was the handiwork of Isaac Izard, an evil warlock who was the original owner of Uncle Jonathan's house. Izard practiced black magic and lived a hermetic existence there in the mansion along with his wife Selenna until her mysterious death. Isaac himself died shortly after that, one night during a wild thunderstorm. And though no one understands why he did it, Izard devised a clock that would bring about the end of the world and hid it somewhere in the walls of the house. Now every night Lewis and his uncle search for the clock while they hear it ticking off the minutes leading up to doomsday.

Bellairs’ story is decidedly creepy, but also whimsical and endearing. Uncle Jonathan’s house has some very surprising characteristics – such as stained glass windows with pictures that change without notice. And a secret passageway that leads to Mrs. Zimmermann’s house next door. And Jonathan and Florence are constantly engaged in good-natured bickering, and delight in addressing each other with pet names like “Hag Face,” “Frizzy Wig,” and “Weird Beard.”

Lewis is portrayed as a very real boy, with a real child’s insecurities and fears, forced to deal with very exotic and peculiar and even perilous situations. His desperate struggle to maintain an unlikely friendship with a popular boy in his class at school serves as the main mechanism for some of the most dangerous action in the book. And although he’s certainly instrumental in the effort to destroy the forces of evil, he’s not portrayed as a superhero. In the end, he’s content to sit around a bonfire with his uncle and Mrs. Zimmermann, drinking cocoa and eating chocolate chip cookies. Of course, the bonfire eventually turns into a jack-o-lantern, with a scowling orange face – but then, Uncle Jonathan is a wizard, after all.

This is a very appealing introduction to what promises to be a fascinating series of books. The characters are wonderfully eccentric and the storyline is exciting and bizarre. And Edward Gorey’s illustrations are a special treat, and a perfect match for Bellairs’ mix of ordinary everyday action with a supernatural element. It all combines to make The House with a Clock in Its Walls a delightful experience for readers of all ages. show less

DNF @ 20%
Because I did not sign up to suffer.

The thing is - the book does not make sense. It meanders. It drags. It drones and keeps piling useless details we can do without. It made me want to scream from the page one. And characters are far from likeable. Lewis is insufferable. His uncle and the old lady are not eccentric, they are COMPLETELY CERTIFIABLY MAD.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure how this book got published, let alone evolved into a series.
*looks at the publishing date*
Okay, I can see the How.

VERDICT : AVOID LIKE PLAGUE