Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I wrote a Volume-by-Volume review of this book, with the first two reviews here and here. This would have been a review of Volume 3, had I not realized something.

Picture me sitting at the window, with rain pouring outside, a cup of hot coffee in my hand and my nose buried in the pages of this fabulous book. I read more than a couple of hundred pages in less than an hour and I wished there were a couple of hundred more pages, when I finally finished the book. I know this goes against the whole point of being a book reviewer, but I really have NO words to describe, how amazing I found the book. Clarke has managed to create in one book, what others would need seven books for. My library copy is due tomorrow, but I’m sure I’m not going to be able to resist just buying the book and reading it all over again. Fantasy couldn’t get any better than this, magic couldn’t get any more original.

Coming back to what I realized… I am not going to write a review for this book, because nothing I say will do justice to it. And, I’m definitely not going to recommend it to anyone I know; because I do not want to go through the whole “I tried it because you told me to, but I gave up after Page 4.” or “It’s not as great as you thought it was.” experience again. Not with this book.