Nell Crane has always been an outsider. In a city devastated by an epidemic, where survivors are all missing parts—an arm, a leg, an eye—her father is the famed scientist who created the biomechanical limbs everyone now uses. But Nell is the only one whose mechanical piece is on the inside: her heart. Since the childhood operation, she has ticked. Like a clock, like a bomb. As her community rebuilds, everyone is expected to contribute to the society’s good . . . but how can Nell live up to her father’s revolutionary idea when she has none of her own?
Then she finds a mannequin hand while salvaging on the beach—the first boy’s hand she’s ever held—and inspiration strikes. Can Nell build her own companion in a world that fears advanced technology? The deeper she sinks into this plan, the more she learns about her city—and her father, who is hiding secret experiments of his own.
Source | Format | Pages | Publisher | Genre | Publication Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Titan Books | Final Copy / Paperback | 403 | Titan Books | YA/Fantasy | February 6th, 2018 (October 4th, 2016) |
*Many thanks to Titan Books and author Sarah Maria Griffin for making this gorgeous paperback copy available for me. I love it! Although, struck by cover love and filled with gratitude, I will remain honest in my review.*
Spare and Found Parts is about a girl with a clockwork heart in a post-technological Ireland feeling lonely and building herself a boy with, well, spare and found parts. Imaginative, intelligent and utterly captivating, this book swept me away and I was in love!
But not at first sight. Because love takes time and effort… You see, starting this book, I admit, it was a bit hard for me to get on board with the style of prose. There was one sentence in particular that I read about 5 times before I wrapped my head around it. BUT!! This is not the book’s fault or the writer’s fault. The fault was mine. Why? Because I have become so accustomed to reading books that hand me simple, easy sentences, nothing too complex, nothing too quirky. Thus, I became determined to understand, to visualise and to embrace the prose. I wanted to be immersed in all that this book was going to give me. I found my stride and I am so glad I did… and you know what? I am going to be bold and say, Sarah Maria Griffin is a true Irish writer! True to the nation’s wonderful characteristic artistry with words, music, attitudes. Spare and Found Parts is ‘poetry in motion’.
As the story unfolded bit by bit, I was sucked into this ‘different’ Dublin- The Pale (I found this particular distribution of the country into The Pale and The Pasture especially clever! Google it and find out for yourself…) – a multi-layered environment. In parts a well-oiled machine with a system in place following the ‘collapse’, in parts closed doors and undergrounds where something against the grain is ‘cooking away. The atmosphere of the place was equal parts mechanical, modern yet historical, wondrous and even magical.
I really enjoyed how elements of the story presented the opposite ends of themselves. For example- The Pale is recovering from an epidemic, and yet, there are still those futuristic aspects of wonder. The wonder of artificial limbs so good they move in sync with human bodies as if metal and wire was flesh and blood.
The great little fresh oases of nature peppered amongst the turmoil of human emotions- frogs who use the opportunity of a kitchen door left open to cover the floor, the elephant roaming in what once was a well-tended park. These small elements of life amongst the bleakness and ash covered not-life. Wondrous, indeed!
And the characters (of whom I will only mention a few)…
Nell, our main character, is complex indeed. I started the book by understanding her loneliness. The understanding slowly developed into dislike as her stubborn drive and obsession with creating herself a companion from inhuman parts made her drive away her real friends. The dislike turned into admiration as more about Nell’s life was revealed and how she dealt with cold, hard truths simply made me see her as a character of strength and fairness. A perfect imperfection.
Oliver, a young man persistent in trying to win Nell’s favour, didn’t strike me as the bad boy Nell wanted me to see him as. There was no need for her to treat Oliver so badly at all times and yet all it made me think of what I was once told- we tend to dislike the people who mirror our own shortcomings. Yet, Oliver tries, man, does he try to win Nell’s heart.
But Nell has a clockwork heart… and it’s ticking and making noise, and she doesn’t feel like she could ever be truly accepted or understood the way she is by another human. With the obligation to contribute to society, with high expectations looming over her as the daughter of one of the most important contributing men and wanting to hold a boy’s hand who can really understand what it means to be different, to be not all made of blood and flesh and cartilage, Nell will draw and gather the parts and build a boy! A thinking, talking, moving boy who is not a boy.
Io- Nell’s hard work, Nell’s companion and contribution to society. You can read this book and take Io at face value. He doesn’t exist until he does and when he does he has all this knowledge from the past, and music! And answers to everything. He dances and prepares meals and tend to illnesses.
Or, you can take and see Io as the boy who means more than just his kettle head and mannequin hand and wires and a computer for a core. Io, the walking and talking impossible. Io, the should not be! Io, the very embodiment of humanity’s collective innovation, bad decisions, failure and fear. A chance to face the mistakes made and a chance to do better. Io to me, delivered a very simple message- it is only humans who can create the things we can create; it is only humans who can make the choice whether to use a creation for good or bad; it is only humans who blame their creation for the bad human errors.
True, Io was only ready to appear in the story a bit later than some readers would perhaps like. But this is not meant to be a love story in between a girl and a weird looking robot. Who has time for puppy love and hormonal teenagers when there is a paradigm shift ready to tear a crack in society’s norms? Beautiful stuff! I believe Io made an appearance at the right moment, giving me time to understand this world I was now experiencing and the rules within it, giving me time to get to know Nell and her friends and family, giving me an opportunity to appreciate and enjoy Io’s ‘birth’ even more.
All of the character interactions, their still waters running deeper than appears at first glance, build up to a roaring crescendo as the book draws to a close. Through an explosion of emotions both good and bad, the revelations both wonderful and horrific, the story itself is like witnessing a major turning point in history. That first step towards a new dawn. A computer, considered blasphemy and evil, is powered up by the hands of a teenage girl, out of loneliness no less, and it sets in motion a whole row of dominoes falling.
I love this book… from cover to cover, everything in between and for everything that it made me stop and think about. It is more than the beauty outside, it has a lot to offer once you dig deeper.
Find Spare and Found Parts on Goodreads ¦ Amazon UK ¦ USA
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this book. I really feel like i need to give it another try when my head is maybe a bit clearer. I really feel like there is a good reason I struggled beyond me just not enjoying it.
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Thank you Claire! 🙂 Aye, I thought at first this was not going to end well for me, this book, but at some moment it simply clicked and the more I read the better it got, I felt… Qhenever you decide to give this another try, I hope it works out better for you! 🙂 ❤
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I have not heard of this book! It sounds really good! Awesome review!
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It’s quite the read! 🙂 Thank you 🙂
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This reminded me of the book Ticker which is about a girl with a clockwork heart. In that book augmentation is a new technology and her parents get kidnapped and they are supposed to deliver the technology or something. So basically a completely different story, but it made me think of it. It was very good. I had to scroll nearly through my entire goodreads list to find it, but I gave it 5 stars back in 2014.
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Ooooh… sounds interesting and thanks for scrolling through your GR list! hahaha… Once something starts to niggle at the beack of your head – what’s that title again? – you end up spending hours on Goodreads trying to find it! 😀 Thanks for the rec and for stopping by! 🙂
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Wow, high praise indeed and the book sounds awesome. It kind of reminds me a bit of the manga Battle Angel Alita, and that is a goodvthing indeed. Also love the setting itself that you are describing here, and that cover is gorgeous. Great review as always! 😊😊
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Thank you!!! 🙂 I really thought this book is a little gem with all that it has! brilliant…
manga! I cant say I have tried out any manga at all, yet… But if you’re comparing here somewhat I may just need to take that exploration into Battle Angel Alita! 🙂
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Cool 😊I hope you will enjoy it, and there is a movie coming out for it, this year as well 😀
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Oh! A movie… Nice one! Thanks for the heads up! 🙂
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Fantastic review! I love the sound of this one.
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Thank you! 🙂 It’s very quirky and charming and good! 😀
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Brilliant review! It’s going on my list 🙂
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Thank you and woohoo 🙂 I hope you enjoy it… It certainly is charming!
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Fantastic review Lizzy.👌 Heard some good things and negative things about the book but you sell it well.📚😀
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Thank you Drew! 🙂 I really really love this book.. one for a reread for sure and I hardly ever reread books! 😀
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What a fantastic review! I think I may actually have this on ny tbr. Is there a different cover possibly? I will have to pull my list up, but this sounds like it. And now I am reminded of why I added it! I love stories like this where there is that perfect blend/balance of complexity and depth. The execution sounds highly successful! I always know when a book challenges me intitially (i.e. rereading parts or sentences) that I am usually in for a treat 🤗
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Thank you, Dani! yep, it’s quite possible you have it on TBR already- it was first published in 2016 (I think if memory serves right) with a different cover! 🙂
That is a good point re challenging books! I need to keep this in mind.. luckily I didn’t give up this time.. it wasn’t that bad, really, I was just afraid I wasn’t going to understand at all.. but whatever brainfog I had must have lifted and it’s a beauty to read! 🙂
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It is the one on my Goodreads list 😉 I just checked and only 3.99 on Kindle. So snagging it now. Not sure how soon I can read though haha.
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Wonderful review! You have convinced me I need to add this title to my TBR right away… The story sounds utterly fantastic.
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woohoooo- so glad I could convince you… I sure do hope you enjoy this book as much as I did! 🙂
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Wonderful review! I get what you mean about complexly written books- it can take some time to get into- but I loved what you said about Griffin being a true Irish writer! And I love the sound of the atmosphere in the book. I really like the sound of the characters (and how the book seems to touch on ideas of what it is to be human) And honestly, this sounds like an absolute must-read book. Your review was so beautifully written- if the book is even half as good, I’m sure it’ll be sensational!!
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I had never even heard of this, but it sounds super interesting?? And now I’m wondering why I’ve not seen others talking about it.
I get what you mean about the writing. I’ve read books where the writing was completely different in some way or other, and for the first few pages I was constantly re-reading, trying to understand, but eventually I got into it and got used to it and ended up really appreciating it. So I’m very intrigued by what you said about the writing. The whole thing sounds great though! I’m adding this one to my tbr!
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I had loved the cover from first sight and now you have made me want the story between those covers. Ha ha. Another fabulous review from you and another addition to my teetering TBR. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one. 💜
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Cool- glad I’ve managed to get you interested in the story! I think you’ll find it rather interesting… well… one of the author reviews for the books put the ‘feminist’ label on it and throughout the book I was a bit enraged.. but man it’s such a long story to try and explain here… furthermore, Nell, the MC, managed to get me pissed off more than once! But sometimes that’s the beauty of the whole thing! Overall I really liked the theme and tone and style of the book… perfectly quirky and intelligent! 🙂 Would be interesting to see what you thought of it- you always find something intriguing to point out! 🙂
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Wow, I don’t know how I haven’t heard of this one before! Sounds original and deserving of all the praise! Awesome review, Liz. 🙂
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Lashaan, I think you would actually wuite like this book and Trang would probably LOVE this book 😀 hahaha…
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