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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
 (1/26/2005)
JS just doesn’t make the grade. The characters had the potential to be interesting, the plot had all the right elements of suspense, and the concepts were good, but it simply missed the mark. The style was dry and slow, more like an out-dated textbook than a fiction novel.

About 3/4 of the way through the book the style changed – this section of the book was very well written and showed me how the rest of the book could have been. Sadly the author lost the thread, and the ending was a true disappointment (no details here... if you want to find out what happens read it yourself!).

The bottom line is that this book had the potential to be truly incredible but the writing was dry and uninspired and highly mediocre.
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