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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After more than two years: my white whale. Only the last 120 pages were read in 2025 and 100 of those over the last two hours. What an achievement. I am obliged to give it 5 stars, not because my reading experience was unblemished - it took me two years to read - but because it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, and due to my absolute, unshakeable certainty it will be 5 stars upon reread. Too and unnecessarily long? Yes. Earned? No. But it does not fall apart. It never falters. I faltered before the book did. And I'm already looking forward to picking this up again.
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Charming and imaginative.
A real tome of a novel. With great pacing, it often reads like an anthology of short stories set in this richly detailed and researched part of history. I loved all the footnotes and sense of discovery that one has while reading it, and the depictions of magic. It shares some of its themes with Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose about the nature of knowledge, which it handles wonderfully.
All in all, it is simply enchanting.
All in all, it is simply enchanting.
Clarke brought magic to the 21st century!
This compelling book written with a familiarity to the Pickwick Papers by Dickens enthralls with its own history built right into the book! Not only does Clarke expand on Norrell and Strange's life but also "historical" events mentioned by characters. Footnotes! I was so excited when I started reading her footnotes because it was like reading a story within a story!
If you like fantasy and originality and imagination, be prepared to be whisked away to parallel universe where magic is trying to make a comeback!
This compelling book written with a familiarity to the Pickwick Papers by Dickens enthralls with its own history built right into the book! Not only does Clarke expand on Norrell and Strange's life but also "historical" events mentioned by characters. Footnotes! I was so excited when I started reading her footnotes because it was like reading a story within a story!
If you like fantasy and originality and imagination, be prepared to be whisked away to parallel universe where magic is trying to make a comeback!
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
This book was hecka long, but hecka worth it. She's such a clever writer, extremely witty but also somehow serious. And the end was (perhaps unintentionally) filled with a lot of really cool Gospel imagery. The world is almost Tolkien-esque in the amount of background she put into it--you got the sense that you were only reading a very small portion of a very large story. And it was thoroughly unpredictable, which is exciting for me because I have a knack for predicting where story-lines are going.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this absolute tomb about every 2 or three years. Not one to read if you're packing light, though.