For Friends of English Magic: a review of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Don't let the 846 pages and countless footnotes scare you. This book is worth every moment you dedicate to reading it. Susanna Clarke does it again!

Or, I should really say, Susanna Clarke does it for the first time!

It is no small feat that Susanna Clarke's first novel should not only be 846 pages long, but also phenomenally good. As I am sure you have discovered, I am pretty picky when it comes to (a book's) length. Several times throughout reading I thought, "could this have been shorter?" But I could never think of a single moment from the book that could have been cut for the purpose of length. Every single piece of this wonderful story was perfectly placed, timed, and executed. Truly, it needs all 846 pages; and I never once got bored.

So why should you listen to me and read this book? Let me tell you:

• World-building Susanna Clarke is a master world-builder. You will immediately be immersed into both the English countryside in a historically accurate setting, or Faerie. Every detail is executed to perfection. Additionally, Clarke writes this story as if she is writing history (though it is not dull), full of footnotes that allude to "old-wives tales," folklore, and earlier "history" of the world she has built. Magic functions in the world as something relegated to the dead art of book learning with no practicality, and through footnotes Clarke is able to tell you the full history of how magic got that way, even while you are reading the present story. This book must have taken her ages to write! And her world-building rivals Tolkien himself!
  

• Unique-ness I had never read a book like this before: one that is set in an historically accurate setting but includes magic, magical creatures, and magical worlds. It is a fantastically "new" type of fantasy (at least for me!) that I would love to read more of in the future. But while her style and world-building are phenomenal and unique, she also writes complex and sympathetic characters from diverse backgrounds with arcs that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Her side characters, too, are full of depth, even if they only grace the pages of the book for a chapter or two.
  

• 846 pages later, it will leave you wanting more. This book took me a month to read. For a slow reader like me, that is actually quite fast given the length, which goes to show how gripping this book truly was. The pace never lessened, even while it never felt fast. Besides, there were several very good twists that I did not see coming. I have read two books now since reading this one, and I still find myself thinking about it. This book truly gave me a "book hangover." I had trouble starting the next book on my list because I was still ruminating; I would walk by mirrors and amuse myself by imagining I could walk through them into Faerie. Even when I did finally start the next book on my list, I still caught myself reminiscing.
  

I have heard Clarke has some short stories set in the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, so I will have to snag those sometime soon!

Will every Susanna Clarke novel get five stars from me? It looks that way.