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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
It was like Harry Potter and Narnia fan fiction but without the sex. There was sex, but not fan fiction sex. Boring novel sex.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 stars. I loved parts of this book but others were such a slog. All the characters were like the worst parts of the Great Gatsby characters - self indulgent, self involved, self destroying - with no real backstory to support their ~dark and twisty~ ways. There was too much detail of some minutiae and far too little world building and description of the physics of the magic in the world. I really wanted to love it, but I was disappointed.
Slightly choppy and bouncy in its timeline. Could be more in-depth in places.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the sort of book that had it been about a character I was already in love with, say Cardan, I would’ve eaten right up. Literally tell me
Everything about him. Let me go through the minutia of his days and thoughts. As it was, I’d just met Quentin and wasn’t sure if I liked him enough to be really into this. Essentially nothing happens and everything happens. It is the day to day of Quentin’s life after having discovered that magic is real and testing into a special college for magicians. He falls in love with everybody. He is attracted to basically every woman he sees. When he stumbles on Elliot and some dude, even though he isn’t gay he’s like, “he didn’t even ask me! 😔” He is petty and self absorbed, but doubts himself constantly, and kinda always sad or unhappy. I love him. 🤷🏾♀️ I don’t know people, I don’t make the rules.
Anyway, there is no real plot for like 80% of the book and if you really think about it, the last 20% isn’t really a plot either mostly just stuff that happened on a grander scale.
Part of me wants to read the next book just to see if like, a story starts to emerge that is something besides Quentin’s life and everything he has thought and done. Yet, another part of me is just fine with leaving Quentin where we left him.
Just finished re-reading this, and I have to say that although I really enjoyed reading this book the first time around, I kind of loved it this time. This may or may not have to do with the fact that for some reason, I had erased from my memory an extensive portion of the 3rd and 4th bits of the book. There were parts that I was reading that felt completely new to me....there may have been some skimming the first time around because of how much I disliked Quentin.
Overall, this book is such a good exploration of what depression can do to a person, mixed in with a whole lot of crazy magic stuff that just makes it all the more awesome.
Overall, this book is such a good exploration of what depression can do to a person, mixed in with a whole lot of crazy magic stuff that just makes it all the more awesome.
There's a lot of 'coming of age' stories out there and there's a lot of fantasies. There's even a lot of fantasies about coming of age in a fantasy world. This is such an interesting hybrid of both. The setting and characters are thoroughly modern and 'real.' The author presents it as what would *really* happen if a young boy found out he was drafted to a wizarding school. (Yes, there are even a few Harry Potter snubs, but it's not distracting.) I was hooked from the beginning.
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gigantically disappointing after The Bright Sword. Not a single redeemable thing about any of the main characters. Just Narnia-core navel-gazing cynicism.
Ummmm, I dont know about all those quotes, but... this WAS good. I kind of wish it included more of their classes and lessons... more about the magic. This book encompasses his entire school career and then some with a lot of their personal depressed, unhappy drama playing out throughout. When there WAS action, it was good action, though. The story was like an attempt at combining Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia for adults instead of children.
There WERE a lot of funny moments, but they were a bunch of depressed alcoholics, so bear that in mind.
I'm definitely interested enough to continue the series, but they all were getting in my nerves a little with their constant "woe is me".
There WERE a lot of funny moments, but they were a bunch of depressed alcoholics, so bear that in mind.
I'm definitely interested enough to continue the series, but they all were getting in my nerves a little with their constant "woe is me".