Title: The MagiciansAuthor: Lev Grossman
Pages: 402
Genre: Fantasy (urban/high crossover)
Audience: Adult (very gritty read for a teen)
Rating: Five Stars:I'd marry this book and fight off the hoards of haters who wanted to tear it down.
Adapted goodreads Summary: Quentin Coldwater is brillant but miserable... he's still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory...
Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, exclusive college of magic in upstate New York... He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought it would.
My Thoughts: This is not a book that every reader will enjoy. The unhurried and meandering plot was right up my alley, but not a whole lot really "happened" until roughly 250 pages in. The first half is all about character development and setting the stage.
The characters, too, will not appeal to everyone. They are painfully realistic in that they are insecure, unsatisfied and petty. I didn't really "like" anyone, but I liked that I didn't like them. I do wish we could have gotten more of Alice's personality, however. We only see her from Quentin's skewed perspective.
The frame was my favorite part. Set in upstate New York, Brakebells is the Hogwarts of America. Grossman has purposeful superficial similarities to Harry Potter, Narnia, LOTR, and even a few hints of star wars. He admires and mocks them simultaneously, and I loved the references.
Overall, a very strange book that will likely only appeal to those who like depressing stories in gritty settings (That's me!!). See below for read-alikes!
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I loved this book too and can't wait to read the sequel! Great review!
ReplyDeletePlus, I love most of the read alikes below. The only ones I don't love are ones I haven't read but would love to. Jonathan Strange has been waiting on my bookshelf for too long.
I'm glad someone else loves this book because the goodreads reviews were so discouraging! I started Jonathan Strange but didn't have the patience at the time to finish it. i have a feeling I'll love it this time around though. Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteI want to read this so bad!! And especially since you included John Connelly's The Book of Lost Things as a read-alike, which is one of my ALL TIME favorite books.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, I actually own the second book but not the first book. I don't know why I do that sometimes. But I need to grab this one or check it out from the library and get to reading these, because I think I'm one of the ones that would like it.
Even weirdlier, you are the second person to tell me they have book 2 and not book 1! I bet it's because the cover is cooler on book two, lol.
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