jessthanthree's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Gore, Sexism, War, and Body horror
Moderate: Murder, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Death, Violence, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Transphobia, Slavery, and Death of parent
lycheeteareads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, and War
Moderate: Mental illness, Gun violence, and Slavery
Minor: Sexism
blacksphinx's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
If you are someone who is any level of dedicated to the occult arts, particularly those you learn extensively out of books like ancient astrology, grimoire magic, traditional witchcraft, or a reconstructionist polytheism, this book is for us. The society of magicians in York is so true to many groups and individuals I have met that I felt compelled to read the first page and a half out loud to the occultists and close friends of occultists I met up with while reading this book, who could not stop smiling and shaking their head at it. If you feel the same way about those opening paragraphs, it is worth your time to continue on with the entire tome.
What ultimately robbed it from being 5 Stars in my eyes is that it was too long! This book is fantastic but it didn't need to be over 800 pages. It is maddening how many times characters not sharing information with each other prevents the right action from occurring until hundreds of pages later. There was a point where I thought I was never going to finish this damn thing and I felt about it akin to a textbook I was reading for class. And then we finally get a large jolt of plot progression in the last ~150 so pages that was so satisfying it kept me from from going down to a flat 4 Stars.
Sidenote: this book contains period-typical racism, in both remarks made about Jewish people and one of our main PoV characters being a Black man in London in the early 1800's.
What ultimately robbed it from being 5 Stars in my eyes is that it was too long! This book is fantastic but it didn't need to be over 800 pages. It is maddening how many times characters not sharing information with each other prevents the right action from occurring until hundreds of pages later. There was a point where I thought I was never going to finish this damn thing and I felt about it akin to a textbook I was reading for class. And then we finally get a large jolt of plot progression in the last ~150 so pages that was so satisfying it kept me from from going down to a flat 4 Stars.
Sidenote: this book contains period-typical racism, in both remarks made about Jewish people and one of our main PoV characters being a Black man in London in the early 1800's.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Mental illness, Grief, Classism, Murder, Animal death, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Racism, and War
Moderate: Slavery, Alcohol, and Sexism
Minor: Antisemitism, Transphobia, and Fatphobia
zephyrscape's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I didn't zip through this story and didn't generally have trouble putting it down for an evening (except for the last quarter of the book, which really picked up), but I did enjoy reading it, especially towards the end. I think Clarke does really well with presenting characters' flaws in a way that's both empathetic and witty, and also does one of the better jobs I've seen of poking fun at the whole project and motivation of British colonialism in that era.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation and Racism
Minor: Xenophobia
robin_reads's review against another edition
Everyone keeps saying to wait for the plot to unfold but I can’t wait anymore. I like slow and intricate books but this is not it for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, War, and Racism
leasaurusrex's review against another edition
C’est donc un DNF (abandon) pour ce roman.
Il me semble (en tout cas je l’espère très très fort) que l’autrice tentait de dénoncer le sexisme et le racisme du dix-neuvième siècle. Manque de pot pour nous, elle décide de le faire en écrivant quand même des descriptions racistes et en utilisant beaucoup trop le n-word (une fois c’est déjà trop, alors quand on finit par perdre le compte vu le nombre d’occurrences…). Ah et en oubliant d’avoir des persos féminins aussi.
À côté de ça, même si la plume est accessible et que l’histoire se suit sans trop de souci, il y a quand même un sacré manque d’enjeu. J’ai lu la première moitié du roman et je n’en retire que les choses suivantes :
— on a un vieux chieur qui fait du <i>gatekeeping</i> sur la magie mais qui veut aussi être celui qui la rétablit aux yeux du peuple ;
— on a un jeune aux dents qui raient le parquet et qui va forcément faire des bêtises ;
— ces deux-là et tous les messieurs qui les entourent brassent de l’air et se touchent et l’intrigue n’avance pas.
Du coup j’ai réalisé que je m’en fichais de connaître l’avenir de tout ce petit monde. Et ça c’est quand même mauvais signe.
Sans compter les petites <i>private jokes</i> sur l’Histoire et la rivalité franco-anglaise qui avaient plus tendance à me lasser qu’autre chose…
C’est dommage parce qu’il y avait du potentiel. Mais quitte à écrire un roman de fantasy sur une Angleterre où la magie existe, autant dénoncer <i>correctement</i> les oppressions ou carrément… idée audacieuse… les supprimer………..
Il me semble (en tout cas je l’espère très très fort) que l’autrice tentait de dénoncer le sexisme et le racisme du dix-neuvième siècle. Manque de pot pour nous, elle décide de le faire en écrivant quand même des descriptions racistes et en utilisant beaucoup trop le n-word (une fois c’est déjà trop, alors quand on finit par perdre le compte vu le nombre d’occurrences…). Ah et en oubliant d’avoir des persos féminins aussi.
À côté de ça, même si la plume est accessible et que l’histoire se suit sans trop de souci, il y a quand même un sacré manque d’enjeu. J’ai lu la première moitié du roman et je n’en retire que les choses suivantes :
— on a un vieux chieur qui fait du <i>gatekeeping</i> sur la magie mais qui veut aussi être celui qui la rétablit aux yeux du peuple ;
— on a un jeune aux dents qui raient le parquet et qui va forcément faire des bêtises ;
— ces deux-là et tous les messieurs qui les entourent brassent de l’air et se touchent et l’intrigue n’avance pas.
Du coup j’ai réalisé que je m’en fichais de connaître l’avenir de tout ce petit monde. Et ça c’est quand même mauvais signe.
Sans compter les petites <i>private jokes</i> sur l’Histoire et la rivalité franco-anglaise qui avaient plus tendance à me lasser qu’autre chose…
C’est dommage parce qu’il y avait du potentiel. Mais quitte à écrire un roman de fantasy sur une Angleterre où la magie existe, autant dénoncer <i>correctement</i> les oppressions ou carrément… idée audacieuse… les supprimer………..
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
clara_mai's review against another edition
3.5
- impressively intricate world building (the history of magic in England)
- historical aspect well executed with lots of fun references (the Shelleys appear!)
- rich, gothic atmosphere
- lush descriptions of the faerie world and the magic
- writing style embodies historical period
- beautiful illustrations accompany the story
- narrative style keeps the characters at a distance
- little emotional impact
- would have liked to see critique of/commentary on British Imperialism as magic was constantly used in favour of the government
- although I think this needed to be a long book, it could have been a *little* shorter
- ending not really satisfying, feels like it doesn't do the rest of the story justice
now very interested in reading Piranesi, a significantly shorter and much more recent work by Susanna Clarke that I've had my eye on for a while
- historical aspect well executed with lots of fun references (the Shelleys appear!)
- rich, gothic atmosphere
- lush descriptions of the faerie world and the magic
- writing style embodies historical period
- beautiful illustrations accompany the story
- narrative style keeps the characters at a distance
- little emotional impact
- would have liked to see critique of/commentary on British Imperialism as magic was constantly used in favour of the government
- although I think this needed to be a long book, it could have been a *little* shorter
- ending not really satisfying, feels like it doesn't do the rest of the story justice
now very interested in reading Piranesi, a significantly shorter and much more recent work by Susanna Clarke that I've had my eye on for a while
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Animal death, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, War, and Sexism
anniup's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexism, War, Death, Racism, Murder, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Slavery and Mental illness
athryn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Put off reading this for a long time after buying it, the hazards of having so many books in ones TBR pile.
Glad I finally did, it's fantastic. Umberto Eco had an essay in the edition of The Name of the Rose I read that talked about creating a complete world when he wrote his books, and this book does the same thing. It feels like history, a fully realized world, not just what we know of England and the Napoleonic/Regency era, but all of the fantasy elements were well grounded. I love some of the digressions and whole stories going on in the footnotes (I think I sadly missed a couple before I realized that the Kindle was cutting them off,) which really added to the whole world.
Strange and Norrell are really just in the end a couple of nerds, aren't they?
Glad I finally did, it's fantastic. Umberto Eco had an essay in the edition of The Name of the Rose I read that talked about creating a complete world when he wrote his books, and this book does the same thing. It feels like history, a fully realized world, not just what we know of England and the Napoleonic/Regency era, but all of the fantasy elements were well grounded. I love some of the digressions and whole stories going on in the footnotes (I think I sadly missed a couple before I realized that the Kindle was cutting them off,) which really added to the whole world.
Strange and Norrell are really just in the end a couple of nerds, aren't they?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism and Kidnapping
Moderate: Death and Racism
pvbobrien's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Racism, and Murder
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Mental illness, and Kidnapping
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Sexism, and Slavery