Tonka > Recent Status Updates

Is Mr Segundus underestimated? Seems Segundus wants to look at magic while Childermass already knows how to live with it

This is the real practicing of magic, it's studied, debated, footnoted... and respected! I love this world. There's something so fascinating and deeply satisfying about magic being treated with this kind of seriousness and weight. At this point I'd read anything Susanna Clarke writes!

I love this World with all Regency manners and footnoted history, but with something Wild pressing at the edges. The gentleman in the green coat is working behind the scenes while Norrell tries to have magic regulated and respectable and is unaware of the full scale of a force that treats rules as a game. Here I Start seeing the real Cost of bargains and how Norrell can lose control of the consequences ..

I'm officially convinced Susanna Clarke is a genius!!!! (had that suspicion when I read Piranesi) I honestly don't understand how Clarke can write like this!

I love All The fantastic descriptions, all the
Different gentlemen and their characters, the endless details and atmosphere, the history with footnotes of invented magic ✨ 🤯

perfect little scene of polite rejection: Mr Norrell tries to present magic as something useful, regulated and respectable and the government’s response is essentially “absolutely not” with the implication that magic is frivolous, improper, ridiculous and embarrassing.

Enjoying this! The writing is beautiful; landscapes, the terrace, the studio.. all of it breathing like a lived in, real place. I keep melting into delicious details and atmosphere: the food, turpentine, paints, brushes, sketches.. The grumpy-artist feels oddly familiar and Ettie has more depth than she lets on .. and I’m nervous for what’s coming as I am suspicious about what’s really going on beneath the surface

first-time Backman reader just drawn in by how widely loved his books are on Goodreads! But about 25% in, I’m surprised to find myself mostly irritated by the writing style. It feels so performative like always aiming for a Clever line. Characters keep saying they are laughing but none of the humor has landed for me. The wit feels forced, I really hope this picks up, because I want to understand the hype!

You don't wish for happiness when you have lost the love of your life, because you can't even imagine ever feeling happy again. All you wish for is peace, calm, a long night's sleep.