Review by Anarchel -- The Watchmaker’s Doctor

[Anarchel]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Watchmaker’s Doctor" by G. M. T. Schuilling.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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This is a review of the novel The Watchmaker’s Doctor by G.M.T. Schuilling. In this book, the protagonist is a doctor named Anaya whose patient is a retired watchmaker. By means of a watch he created, he gives her an opportunity to travel back in time, to the point where she made her biggest mistake in life. Although the experience increases her happiness, she also has the unexpected feelings of guilt and sadness.

I rate this novel 2 out of 4. One positive aspect of this work is its descriptive language because it leads to immersive storytelling, which encourages imagination. From chapter three onward, the writing style and language used made reading the novel very enjoyable because characters and scenes were portrayed with care and attention to detail. Another positive of the book is that I did not notice a single error in spelling or grammar in any of its chapters, which means that it was edited exceptionally well.

The novel The Watchmaker’s Doctor seems to have more negatives than positives. One negative is that the doctor’s life before time travel seems too condensed and, therefore, very rushed. I wish the author spent more time portraying this period of Anaya’s life, especially since it is the reader’s first exposure to her. As a result of the first two chapters being overly condensed, scenes that should be impactful are not, Anaya’s feelings are not sufficiently explored in many scenes, and some story details are not clearly explained, which leads to confusion as to how they fit into the plot. This made me feel like not continuing to read the rest of the book. The pace of the novel slows down considerably in chapter three which leads to a better reading experience but the writer briefly falters again toward the end of chapter eight by overly condensing the scene. I wondered if the scene being depicted was an afterthought.

Another negative is that the author was sometimes more concerned with using big words than with effectively portraying the scene. This caused me to lose interest because I had to stop and reread the sentence(s) to really understand what was happening.

The author recommends this book to new adults and describes it as Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I agree with this description and would also recommend it to new adults. Many people are plagued by their life’s regrets and would take a second chance at life in a heartbeat. For this reason, I believe this novel would appeal to many new adults, especially if they love Sci-Fi/Fantasy. However, my recommendation is dampened by the fact that this concept is by no means novel and its portrayal is less-than-perfect.

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The Watchmaker’s Doctor
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