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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Its a mixed bag for me with this book. The alternate history and lore within the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is great! Some of the characters are thoroughly enjoyable! The time it took for me to get invested into the book and those characters is not. When the first 100 pages put me off reading any more of this book, it makes it hard to recommend you read all 846.
Omg! It kept going! This book came to me highly recommended, so I was eager to pick it up. I didn't really get interested in this book until the last 10 chapters, but even then it wasn't worth it.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
TEDIOUS. I love a big tome, but the pacing of this is glacial. I’m shocked that this is the same author who wrote Piranesi, which I loved. The world building is impressive, but I never felt like I cared enough about the characters (except Stephen) to be invested in the various sidequests / details in the footnotes.
I have never hated a book that I gave 3/5 so much, but I have to applaud Clarke for the labour put into this. I made it about 500 pages deep (as the sunk-cost fallacy nearly ate me alive) but after chapter 46 I finally had to accept that this wasn’t getting better and life is too short not to DNF.
I also don’t understand why “shewed” and “chused” were used (in lieu of showed or chose) as often as they were. I understand that Clarke was going for 19th century style, but I found it odd that these were the only major words that were changed. It took me right out of it and I found it more annoying / distracting the farther along I was. Regarding language, I think that you should to the bit fully or not at all.
I have never hated a book that I gave 3/5 so much, but I have to applaud Clarke for the labour put into this. I made it about 500 pages deep (as the sunk-cost fallacy nearly ate me alive) but after chapter 46 I finally had to accept that this wasn’t getting better and life is too short not to DNF.
I also don’t understand why “shewed” and “chused” were used (in lieu of showed or chose) as often as they were. I understand that Clarke was going for 19th century style, but I found it odd that these were the only major words that were changed. It took me right out of it and I found it more annoying / distracting the farther along I was. Regarding language, I think that you should to the bit fully or not at all.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I tried, I couldn't. The relief I felt when I read the plot online and could finally close the book was heavenly. For me it was paced entirely too slowly with cheap payoffs. Piranesi was a joy, this was a job.
ran put of time w my library copy, but would like to finish one day
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes