natashak1's Reviews (265)

 

This is a wonderful little collection of stories set in faerie Britain (the setting of Clarke's book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). There are also a couple of other (not so subtle) nods to other stories many people will be familiar with, mostly fairy tales (and Stardust by Neil Gaiman being a surprising one!). 

Susanna Clarke has the rare ability to make any length of story entertaining, somehow using a concept from a 1000+ page novel and using it in short stories without breaking a sweat. 

She also really tapped into the universal love of proper fairy tales with this collection, and I was more or less transported to my childhood bedroom with the beautiful folio collection of fairy tales I'd nicked off my parents' bookshelf. 

Clarke has such an incredible mastery of language, and it shines through here even more so than her full novels. Every story has a unique tone and use of language and yet is clearly using the same voice that was key in Strange & Norrell. 

Not a lot else to say about this collection, other than it is definitely worth reading straight after Strange & Norrell, as I suspect there were even more subtle hints to that story than I picked up. I do also want to take a small moment to point out that these stories are partly so enjoyable BECAUSE of the previous novel, but that is a small part of what makes them so engaging. 

Brilliantly fun without sacrificing an ounce of artistry. 

Overall an interesting collection. 

There are a lot of strong sections in here, and the Q&A job application format works really wonderfully. Fenald has a recognisable voice, and the rhythm and cadance of her work is varied but consistent enough to feel cohesive. 
The poems on nationality and foreign-ness are particularly good and fitted well with the story-telling style used in many of the poems. 

There is also very clearly a lot of experimentation going into these poems. There is a huge range in the style and the poems that really stood out were the ones which didn't quite blend in with the rest of the collection. 
The couple of poems that leant into the absurdism/tried to approach the topic from an unexpected place really broke up the literalism that most of the collection stayed close to. 

It's also worth mentioning that the author clearly had a message to put across, and although the focus wasn't exclusively on one topic, the central ideas were portrayed clearly and without spoon-feeding the reader. 


It isn't a perfect collection, however. 
The core frustration and bitterness of unemployment is not particularly a subtle theme, and at times the "show don't tell" rule may have been ignored a little. There are sections where the message of frustration becomes frustrating in itself - the collection feels cathartic in places but such a barrage of hopelessness does become a little hard to get through in places. 

The poems also felt very tonally American, and while this isn't a problem in and of itself, paired with the current-affairs heavy content started to feel a little like it was designed for social media. 
The more heavily structured poems also fed into this too, OK Google, Define Job and Résumé Poem are two that felt very much intended to be seen outside of the collection, although this could also just be my personal taste coming through. 

The collection does pick up by the end, though, and I think a lot of my frustrations are with the earlier poems which seem to be trying to set a tone, but do so in such a blatant way it can feel as though you are just being told what to think and feel about the topic, rather than being allowed to feel what the authour does through her writing. 

Room to improve, and I certainly wouldn't rule out reading more of Fernald's work!


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Oh wow, just absolutely masterful. Murray has such an eye for detail and you really have to take in every last line to understand every connection in the whole tangle of things. Every character is horribly painful and fascinating in their own way and you can't help but wait for things to turn out differently, even when the ultimate end point has been signalled to you from the very beginning. 

I don't know if it's maybe because I've not read one of these in a while, but this installment felt very much like a return to form. Exactly what you want from a rivers of London book.

Oh Claire, I do love you. Another brilliant one from Keegan and I was very impressed indeed. Not what I would call subtle messaging but so perfectly done and woven into every single sentence that even when you know exactly what's going to happen you are still fully engaged.

Lovely prose style and moments of real beauty in there. Overall not massively coherent though, and I felt like the slightly vague story didn't do the book too many favours despite that style usually working well for me. A little disappointed as I had high hopes for this, but maybe that's part of why I felt so underwhelmed. Not bad at all, just not enough to get my teeth into.

Seems like a good start to the Witcher but I'm not quite convinced it's for me yet. I'll definitely keep going but I'm hoping that the short story format is what kept me from feeling invested.

Not my favourite by a long way, though there are some gems in there. 

It definitely comes down to personal preference, because the quality of this is still unbelievable, but I do still prefer the backwater sermons (at the minute anyway). Adored it regardless, and I'm quite obsessed with The Holy Family.

Just more and more incomprehensible as it goes on, and without any humility to persuade the reader to keep going. Clearly written by a man both very impressed by his own intellect and seemingly convinced that all women have a deep set obsession with men and hatred for any woman who is in the slightest different to herself. 
I can't help but feel like the 9 month suspension of the author by his NHS trust was probably a relief to his patients.