Book Review: Timekeeper by Tara Sim (4 of 4)--Killing Draco Malfoy And My Final Thoughts

 *Spoilers*

This is a very cute little book...except for one thing which I do not like about it. There is a bully character, Lucas, who hates Danny for taking his spot as the youngest to be certified as a clock mechanic. He teases Danny mercilessly about being gay, and looks down on him for coming from a poorer background than he. His class snobbishness reminds me of Draco Malfoy, the bully from the Harry Potter series who looks down on those who don't come from prestigious magical families.
But imagine if, instead of giving Draco Malfoy a redemption arc, Rowling had instead killed him off, graphically, in the very first novel. Not only would it have been a needless death in a children's book, it would have thrown off the balance of the whole series. Harry's rivalry with Draco is one of the central conflicts in the story. Without Draco, it wouldn't have been as interesting.
Tara Sim killed off her Draco, by having him die of an explosion, embedding a clock gear into his chest as he choked on his own blood. (Yes, this is a Young Adult novel, people!)
Harry Potter had plenty of death, but Rowling didn't kill off a kid until the end of the fourth book. (Not counting the girl who became a ghost fifty years ago, that we meet in the second book. If they're ghosts, I don't think of it as a real death, so it's not so bad.) And there was way too much death in Harry Potter, anyway, in my opinion--it's a world full of wizards and magic, and Rowling didn't want to have everyone survive because that wouldn't be "realistic"?
Sim lost so much potential, here, by killing off the bully halfway through the first book. What would have happened, if Lucas had found out about Colton, his clock spirit boyfriend? Sim wasted an opportunity to use the phrase, "the cock of the clock" or "cock o' clock." Lucas's teasing would have been the perfect opportunity for Colton to comfort Danny. And since Lucas, like any other clock mechanic, can sense "time fibers," how would Colton use those fibers to take his revenge? If Lucas punches Colton in the face, what will happen to the clock face itself?
Like Draco Malfoy, this character was very much needed in this story. Voldemort may have been Harry's ultimate enemy, but Draco provided the everyday conflict. And his bullying tactics were brilliant, too, making me almost feel bad for laughing at them--singing "Weasely is our king," because Ron was so bad at magical sports that he let Draco's team win, and making magical flashing badges that say "Potter Stinks." As long as Sim didn't make Lucas overly homophobic and therefore truly hurtful, she really could have had fun with this character! Can you imagine how funny it would have been if Lucas had had a badge that flashed, "Danny Stinks"?
There is also no opportunity for Lucas to redeem himself in any way. What if Lucas was closeted all along, and that's why he picked on Danny? There are so many wasted opportunities, when killing the bully with clock cogs in the first book.

This was also the first time that the book switched to a perspective other than Danny's, so of course I thought, "As soon as we see other characters' points of view, they're going to die!" And when the book switched to a girl character who was somewhat like Lucas...she nearly did! She got somewhat of a redemption arc, though she had never really picked on Danny, to my knowledge, and she aided the bad guy out of ignorance, not evilness. She's obviously going to be a recurring character, though it's not the same as having a Malfoy, because she doesn't even pick on Danny and she's a somewhat sympathetic character.
The book became very predictable, in that aspect. And because it's the first in a trilogy, the whole series is going to be predictable in that way. It might have been nice to have other perspectives, and not have them get maimed or killed off, especially right away. But now we know what's going to happen, every time another character even has a thought of their own!

I would also like to know if the knowledge that towers do indeed have spirits, would affect the way that Danny repairs other towers. Is he assigned to repair other towers, during this time? The book doesn't say if he is.
 If I knew the towers could understand me, I would explain, "Here is what I am going to do. Your gears need cleaning, and your minute hand is rusting, so first I'm going to..." And I would address the tower by name, since Colton is also the name of Colton Tower. I would explain who I was, why I was there, and that I would take care of them. Kind of like how I treat injured animals now.

I just finished this book, and overall...it was okay. I kept reading, because I wanted to find out what happened next, but it wasn't that exciting. The tension of the final climax went on and on, and I kept waiting for something definitive to happen. Eventually, it did, but I had already seen that mixing clock cogs and human blood did something to the time fibers, so I knew that that would figure into the story later. I wasn't sure how that enabled him to actually control time, though, and the book brought the question up, but left it unanswered for now.
And when Danny did finally defeat the surprise bad guy, save Colton, and get his dad back, all I could think was, "Yep, those are the loose ends that will set things up for the next book. Right on time." It was very formulaic. Danny also did not tell his dad about Colton, at the end of the book, and according to the timeline, his dad would not even know he was gay. But since the other characters, other than Lucas, hardly reacted to it, there's not much tension or suspense on that front.
I really didn't care about the subplots regarding Danny's trauma from an accident at work, and his relationship with his mother. Those subplots have been done to death, and I knew that they would be resolved in the end, anyway--so why have them there? It's like how many heroes in thrillers struggle with alcoholism. You know that they're either going to get or stay sober in the end, so why have it? It's a cliche now.
One thing that also bothered me was that Danny and his mother seemed poor at first, then at the end, she buys him a new car for Christmas. A new car! And all this time Danny is wearing an old, tight, worn suit to special occasions, and has a worn collar on the jacket he wears every day, and is made fun of by Lucas for not being "successful" enough! The story can't decide what socioeconomic class he is in!
I actually rolled my eyes when his friend Cassie, an auto mechanic, invents the seat beat, or "auto holster," after her brother dies in an accident. Because in a world where the Industrial Revolution happened hundreds of years before it happened in ours, no one thought to strap people in so that they don't fly out of cars and break their necks. I feel like this subplot was just there to give Cassie something "important" to do, since the seat belt later saves his life. (As if he would bother with it, when he's not even used to wearing it, and Colton's life is on the line!)
I was also a bit confused by the description of his first auto. It said that the roof leaked, but then it talked of him wearing goggles to drive the car. So does the thing have a windshield or not? I don't think it's one of those old-timey cars where the (paid) driver sits outside, since the book mentions him looking back at Colton--and how would his dad afford a car made for rich people, anyway? The closet description of the auto that I could surmise was that it had a roof, but no windshield--it simply was like an overhang, over the driver and passengers. But how then would it say that the roof leaked, and therefore the auto flooded? Wouldn't the auto flood just because the rain came in under the roof as it moved?
I still have no idea, to this day, what his auto is supposed to look like, or why it actually floods. It was a very confusing description. (But one part that made me laugh was that Danny, frustrated that it wouldn't start, reacted to a policeman's inquiry as, "Of it's mine! It's a piece of shit, isn't it?" This book was sure a potty-mouth, for something written for fourteen-year-olds!)

When the second installment in this series comes out, I will buy it and read it. But only out of curiosity, not because it's necessarily all that entertaining. It's worth reading, at least until the big climax, because it is interesting to see all of the Victorian characters not even care that Danny is gay. But, well...it could have been written much better. It had so much potential there, and it ultimately felt very wasted. The author could at least have given us flashbacks, so that we know what Danny's coming out was like.