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booksandchocaholic 's review for:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
This is a tough one for me to review and an even tougher one to rate. I understand what the author intended and succeeded in doing yet somehow didn't completely align with my personal taste.
This book achieved to create a classic book that happens to have been written within the last 20 years. This book could deceive people into believing it to be a genuine classic. As a fan of classic literature this ticked a huge box. I was also indeed a fan of the footnotes which is quite polarising. Secondly I love both historical fiction and fantasy so a hard combination of the two was brilliant.
For all intense purposes this should be a five star read, excellent character work, immersive prose and descriptions that take you on a journey through England. A book that truly makes you believe magic existed in this world and is much more rooted in telling a historical fiction with magic in it than a grandiose epic high fantasy which is refreshing to see (though I do adore the epics). However I felt it hard work to drive through, times where I didn't want to pick it up, it made me feel sometimes like I were wading through water. Sometimes the scenes felt too long though every piece of information was needed. So as much as I enjoy the book in all that is important, I still have to factor in my enjoyment of the experience and also my likelihood of rereading. Sadly I am not giving it the five stars my brain thinks it deserves because my heart and soul are fighting for what reading is really about.
This book achieved to create a classic book that happens to have been written within the last 20 years. This book could deceive people into believing it to be a genuine classic. As a fan of classic literature this ticked a huge box. I was also indeed a fan of the footnotes which is quite polarising. Secondly I love both historical fiction and fantasy so a hard combination of the two was brilliant.
For all intense purposes this should be a five star read, excellent character work, immersive prose and descriptions that take you on a journey through England. A book that truly makes you believe magic existed in this world and is much more rooted in telling a historical fiction with magic in it than a grandiose epic high fantasy which is refreshing to see (though I do adore the epics). However I felt it hard work to drive through, times where I didn't want to pick it up, it made me feel sometimes like I were wading through water. Sometimes the scenes felt too long though every piece of information was needed. So as much as I enjoy the book in all that is important, I still have to factor in my enjoyment of the experience and also my likelihood of rereading. Sadly I am not giving it the five stars my brain thinks it deserves because my heart and soul are fighting for what reading is really about.