📚Review📚
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk.

" not all gifts are a blessing"

Synopsis:

In 1754, renowned maker of clocks and automata Abel Cloudesley must raise his new-born son Zachary when his wife dies in childbirth.

Growing up amongst the cogs and springs of his father's workshop, Zachary is intensely curious, ferociously intelligent, unwittingly funny and always honest - perhaps too honest. But when a fateful accident leaves six-year-old Zachary nearly blinded, Abel is convinced that the safest place for his son is in the care of his eccentric Aunt Frances and her menagerie of weird and wonderful animals.

So when a precarious job in Constantinople is offered to him, Abel has no reason to say no. A job presented to him by a politician with dubious intentions, Abel leaves his son, his workshop and London behind. The decision will change the course of his life forever.

Since his accident, Zachary is plagued by visions that reveal the hearts and minds of those around him. A gift at times and a curse at others, it is nonetheless these visions that will help him complete a journey that he was always destined to make - to travel across Europe to Constantinople and find out what happened to his father all those years ago.

📚 Likely to appeal to historical fiction and fantasy lovers, this debut novel has vibrant descriptions that bring all the locations to life and helped me immerse myself into the world of Zachary Cloudesley.
Love, loss and family relationships are subtly described and add so much to this great story.
The cover illustration is also excellent, portraying really well the story that the reader is about to read!!!

Thank you to @doubledayukbooks for this book proof and opportunity!!

Beautifully written and engaging with an interesting plot and great characterisation. Very emotionally involving too. I Loved it.

This was such an interesting read. It's not completely my kind of thing but it's incredibly vivid and the world it builds out was fascinating. It took a while to get going but even it the early stages, I enjoyed seeing about the relationship between Zachary and his father. As we go on, it gets really inventive although the fantasy type element didn't end up being quite what I expected as the idea of second sight doesn't really hold as we go on. Overall the writing style is stunning with descriptions of London, Europe and Constantinople that I could really visualise. Not exactly my kind of book but a good one.

What a brilliant book! The descriptions of the places is so vivid and the characters are engaging and quirky!
This is a well written and magical story, which follows the extraordinary life of Zachary, from his birth through all his adventures.
It’s a nostalgic story of magic, love and life. And I loved it.

A historical novel set-in 18th century England during the 7 years’ war with an unusual set of characters; a clock maker exporting to the levant, bereft of a wife who died at child birth leaving with a son who inherited the gift of second sight from his mother. Nurtured by a formidable wet nurse in parallel with her infant daughter. Events cause the wet nurse and the children to leave London to live with an eccentric noble land-owning aunt with affairs in disarray, but soon to be brought to order by the wet nurse. In childhood he loses an eye playing in the workshop which is replaced by a metal golden eye made by his father’s young assistant, a boy/girl. All their lives are upset when the father with his assistants is forced to go to Turkey on a disastrous scheme to enable him to eves drop on government meetings. What transpires over the years after his arrest, with no news of him and the efforts by his family to find and free him makes an unusual story.

I absolutely loved this book set in the 18th Century in London .Zachery Cloudesley is a special boy with a special gift of second sight .His Father is a clockmaker making extraordinary very special automaton clocks .I thought the characters were excellent and could imagine them as real people .I especially liked when the story moved to Constantinople with all the vivid descriptions of colour and scents .The story is fast paced and gripping ,a very interesting historical novel .I look forward to reading more from this Author .Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley is a wonderful read. So well written and such interesting, well rounded characters. Moving between England and the Ottoman Empire, wondrous inventions and awful cruelty it is a tale of love and obsession in many forms. Highly recommended and with thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an e-ARC to read and review.

I was utterly enthralled by this book, and it’s firmly in my favourite books list now. Until I read the notes afterwards I hadn’t appreciated how much of the story was based on reality, and how much sheer effort the author had put into pulling this together.

The authors work has paid off….and the storytelling is phenomenal quite honestly. I couldn’t put this down from the first page onwards.

It’s an adventure and a half, absolutely addictive. I didn’t want it to end!

My thanks to Netgalley and Transworld Publishers, Penguin Random House UK for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

Raised amongst the cogs and springs of his father's workshop, Zachary Cloudesley has grown up surrounded by strange and enchanting clockwork automata. He is a happy child, beloved by his father Abel and the workmen who help bring his father's creations to life.

He is also the bearer of an extraordinary gift; at the touch of a hand, Zachary can see into the hearts and minds of the people he meets.

But then a near-fatal accident will take Zachary away from the workshop and his family. His father will have to make a journey to Constantinople that he will never return from. And, years later, only Zachary can find out what happened.

A beautifully crafted historical mystery that will take the reader from 18th century London, across Europe and, finally, to the bustling city of Constantinople.

'an excellent historical, magical realist novel'
'beautifully written'
'full of love and humour'
'original and rich in historical detail'
'my best book of 2022'
'totally engrossing...unforgettable'

I’m not sure what I expected when I requested this book but it definitely wasn’t a story on this scale. The tale begins in London in 1754 with the death of Alice Cloudesley in childbirth. Her husband Amos is devastated but finds some solace in his son Zachary. This first part of the story has an almost Dickensian feel to it as we have a cast of strange characters with Zachary at the centre of everything. We meet the wet nurse, Grace Morley together with her baby daughter Leonora. Also at the heart of the story is Alice’s Aunt Francis who has a strong desire to adopt Zachary and bring him up as her own.
Zachary’s accident in Amo’s clock workshop had very strong echoes of Louis Braille’s accident where he was blinded by an awl. It is after this accident that we begin to see Zachary’s second sight where he can sometimes see the past or the future of a person he has touched.
The story moves on to Constantinople where Amos is forced to undertake a mission that involves spying on the sultan. He is caught in the act and mysteriously disappears. However, Zachary still believes that he can hear his father and sets out to obtain his release.
We get lots of detail about life in London and Constantinople and the story is grounded in historical facts. However, I think that the plot begins to unravel in the second half. Zachary’s second sight doesn’t seem to be as important as I thought that it would be and although the romance is touching, again, it doesn’t have the importance that it could have. I enjoyed the ending but felt that the book lost its way a bit when the action moved to Turkey.
As a debut novel, I think that this is impressive and will look out for further work by this author.
Thank you to Net Galley and Random House UK for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

1754, and Abel Cloudesley maker of clocks and automata has just lost is wife in child birth and is left to raise his new-born son Zachary.
Zachary loves his Father's workshop and wants to know everything that is going on. Then he has an accident and is left blind in one eye.
His father sends him away to live with his aunt. She is slightly eccentric living with her birds and animals.
Then Abel is offered a suspicious position in Constantinople. He isn't given an option to refuse. but it will change his life forever.
Many years later Zachary travels to Constantinople to find out what happened to his father. But Zachary has the gift of visions that will help him on his way.

"The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley" by Sean Lusk feels like one of those unique books, similar (in uniqueness) to "Seven Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle" or a book by Claire North. It's not just an historical novel but also with automatons, clairvoyancy and a touch of 1001 Arabian Nights. Will look out for more books by Sean Lusk.

This is such an original story, inventive and engaging with delightful characters (and some quite horrible ones) and travel from England to Istanbul with places on the way. There are elements of fantasy but blended with historical and I enjoyed the journey. There are twists and unexpected outcomes and I felt absorbed into the 18tg century.

Unusual story which proved very hard to read. I quite enjoyed the beginning but it became very confusing and weird.

4****

I did request this because of the stunning cover. This book was an adventure and had fantastic descriptions of the places that the characters went. This was a mix of historical fiction and adventure, with some fantasy too!! The writing was additionally atmospheric to feel character emotions as well as a real sense of the settings.

I'll be shallow enough to admit I requested this book due to the gorgeous cover, without reading too much about it. I do find historical fiction novels hard to get into but I loved this one. I was hooked from the beginning and think it is a very well written debut novel!

Having recently read Anna Mazzola's The Clockwork Girl, I once again find myself in the exciting world of clockwork and automata inventions with Sean Lock's 18th century historical novel with its strong Dickensian elements, adventure, magical realism and fantasy. It is 1754, the remarkable Abel Cloudesley runs his popular clockwork automata workshop in Leadenhall, London, he is left feeling lost and out of his depth, overwhelmed with despair and grief, when his wife, Alice, dies in childbirth, leaving him alone to raise their newborn son, Zachary. This leads to the entry into the household of the memorable wet nurse, Mrs Grace Morley and her small daughter, Leonora. Zachary is no ordinary child, he is bright, honest and curious, whilst Abel loves his son, he does not really understand him. A fateful accident when Zachary is 6 years old leaves him almost blinded, and Abel feeling responsible and guiltridden.

Zachary begins to experience visions, a sense of what the future holds, and the uneasy and troubling gift of knowing the darkness residing within others, their regrets, hopes and their machinations. Abel finds himself with little choice but to travel to Constantinople but Zachary can feel the betrayal, fear and danger that awaits his father. As communications from father to son begin to cease and years pass, Zachary sets off to follow his father's journey across Europe to Constaninople, determined to find him despite the rumours of his death, as he strives to make sense of his visions. Will he succeed in finding his father? Lusk's world building is terrific, there is a wide and disparate stellar cast of distinct characters that include the eccentric Aunt Frances with her menagerie, and the courageous apprentice Tom with his own secrets.

Lusk evokes a wonderfully colourful and vivid picture of the locations in this thrilling adventure novel with his rich despcriptions. This is a gripping, engaging and atmospheric piece of fantastical historical fiction that touches on the themes of the many sides and forms of love, loss, identity, and father-son relationships. This is likely to appeal to fans of historical fiction, adventure stories and fantasy. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

What a gloriously inventive story! A more motley crew of characters I have never come across. My Lusk has created a story that grips the heart and soul .It effortless combines a wry comedy and deep pathos. There is a distinct feeling of rich research of the period and yet mixed in is a very believable magical whimsy that kept me rapt

This is a story with difference and a feeling of being on the periphery looking in , being at the core and yet it is a warm rollicking adventure where diversity is showcased in a delicate and tender way without it feeling forced .

One of the best stories I have read this year thus far!

Set in the 18th century, the novel opens with the birth of the title character, son of a kindly clockmaker. Zachary is brought up surrounded by an eccentric yet loving group of people, and as the title suggests, has unusual gifts. His 'second sight' is rather inconsistent, but includes the ability to see flashes of the future and of people's pasts, and to sense things that normal people cannot. When his father goes missing in Constantinople, the teenaged Zachary's talents might be the only hope for rescuing him.

The novel is one of those that can make you love the characters almost instantly, particularly Zachary's father, Abel. It's written with a nice turn of phrase, full of little quotable passages and things that made me smile. There is a good sub-storyline around a transgender character, which is sensitively written and fits well into the wider the story. Both London and Istanbul/Constantinople are conjured up effectively, and the author includes an introductory section explaining some of the terms and concepts related to the Ottoman empire which is useful.

I fully expected to give the book five stars during the first part, as it is really well written and the characters are great. However the plot didn't quite 'take off' and, whilst adequate, felt like it could have been much more. I'd hoped for more excitement and adventure, but every time I thought we were getting to the thrilling bit, it scaled back again. I never really felt that the characters were in very great peril. I was also frustrated by the storyline involving the single, childless woman attempting to steal away other people's children. It's a cliche and a harmful one, and I've never seen it applied to a male character.

If you enjoy historical fantasy, this is very much worth reading. It reminded me a bit of Natasha Pulley's 'Watchmaker of Filigree Street', although it lacks the thrills and tension of that novel. I'd certainly read another book by Sean Lusk as his writing style is enjoyable and he's capable of creating good, sympathetic characters.

the inspiration for this book is very clear, in that it's trying to sound like a victorian novel. And in a way, it does accomplish that, somewhat, but it takes a lot of the enjoyment out of reading, as sentences don't flow naturally. It is clear that this isn't the authors natural way of writing, which is a strain passed on onto the reader quite unfortunately.
It is only for the characters that I did not put this book aside, and by characters I mean mainly Tom. It is hard to describe how delighted I was to find someone who is kind of like me as an intregal part of this fantastical world, and he was a great character that I wish I could be like. That is not to say he was the only character I felt for, Abel was an interesting one as well. And I really enjoyed murray until... I feel like his betrayal falls into a category of trope that I am not entirely comfortable with, in the casting of an (at this time in history) rather opressed and disadvantaged group of people, and depicting the one member of said people as a rogue. I was so disappointed, because the believe in the second sight is such an intergral part of scottish culture it could have led to so much more. I was hoping the author would go into this at all, and felt robbed when it wasn't.
As to Zachary himself.... my opinions are varied expecially in the early book, I was really annoyed with him, with this perfect little student that had powers and knew about everything. then i realised some parts of his character reminded me of a person with autism, and I really appreciate that bit of representation. as he grew up he became less annoying to read about, as he was seemingly depicted as less perfect, which saved the book for me.
you might notice I am mostly reviewing character writing, this is because the story did not stand out to me as anything special. it was not bad, but not particularly new or refreshing either. Zachary's future sight also took some of the stakes away, as we knew going in that he and his father would survive. The ending being somewhat spoiled is something often seen in victorian novels, so I understand the inspiration, but I am not sure it works particularly well here.

All in all, enjoyable enough read, would recommend, but understanding the caviat that the writing style is rather dry.