Scan barcode
kikala's review against another edition
4.0
So angsty in that oh so addictive way. I bought the second before I was even done with the first.
klparmley's review
1.0
This is just all over the place. Grossman couldn't decide what story he want to tell so he told everything that came to mind as it occurred to him.
carladay83's review
2.0
I can appreciate what this book is trying to say. Even if magic were real, it wouldn't necessarily happy. Especially if you struggle with depression. Still, the book as a whole is boring. I could have forgiven it a lame, self-centered and nihilistic main character if something interesting was happening around him. The story doesn't really pick up until the very end and it drags getting there. More realistic it may be but who reads fantasy for that kind of realism. I think I'm going to stick with the TV show.
peterkeep's review
4.0
This book is a lot of things, but one thing that it isn't is subtle.
The comparisons to Harry Potter and Narnia are pretty obvious, and it's clear that Grossman is playing with those ideas and twisting them all about. While reading, there were parts where the comparison of Fillory or Brakebills to Narnia or Hogwarts were almost too heavy-handed and I wondered, "Can this guy write anything original?"
And then he does this great thing, where he twists everything up. Hogwarts (Brakebills) is a magical school, but it's not removed from the same problems as any college. The characters are magicians, but that doesn't make them perfect people. The stories about Narnia (Fillory) end up being a lot more interesting than just small children's stories.
I really liked everything Grossman did. He took a kind of status quo and turned it upside down, injecting some realism into an unrealistic (magical) setting.
It's a really well-done book, and captured my attention pretty easily.
The comparisons to Harry Potter and Narnia are pretty obvious, and it's clear that Grossman is playing with those ideas and twisting them all about. While reading, there were parts where the comparison of Fillory or Brakebills to Narnia or Hogwarts were almost too heavy-handed and I wondered, "Can this guy write anything original?"
And then he does this great thing, where he twists everything up. Hogwarts (Brakebills) is a magical school, but it's not removed from the same problems as any college. The characters are magicians, but that doesn't make them perfect people. The stories about Narnia (Fillory) end up being a lot more interesting than just small children's stories.
I really liked everything Grossman did. He took a kind of status quo and turned it upside down, injecting some realism into an unrealistic (magical) setting.
It's a really well-done book, and captured my attention pretty easily.
harleyrae's review
DNF’d at 41%
I really wanted to enjoy this book. This was a book that had been in my shelves for years that I had always planned on getting to at some point. Well I finally got to it and I couldn’t stand it! Never has a book given me as much anxiety as this book! As far as I got in this book I was expecting some sort of plot to arise, but honestly I have no idea what the point of this book is. It was written in a weird way that made time not important. But the time I stopped reading we had already lived through 5 years. Nothing made sense. I was at the point where it felt like a chore to read this book, so unfortunately I decided that I couldn’t continue on. I have no plans to ever pick this book up again. Was not a fan.
I really wanted to enjoy this book. This was a book that had been in my shelves for years that I had always planned on getting to at some point. Well I finally got to it and I couldn’t stand it! Never has a book given me as much anxiety as this book! As far as I got in this book I was expecting some sort of plot to arise, but honestly I have no idea what the point of this book is. It was written in a weird way that made time not important. But the time I stopped reading we had already lived through 5 years. Nothing made sense. I was at the point where it felt like a chore to read this book, so unfortunately I decided that I couldn’t continue on. I have no plans to ever pick this book up again. Was not a fan.
mjdavis81's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The story is great but there is the sexiest overtone that is distracting
the_one_krissy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sarahrheawerner's review
5.0
It's so RARE that a book consistently surprises me. This book did just that.
I'm not going to advise you to read it, because readers either tend to love or hate this book -- and I'm not sure I loved it, but I certainly enjoyed reading it, to the point where the mind-momentum had built up to a point where I couldn't stop reading it. And I valued (so lame a word) the constant surprise.
This is not so much a cohesive novel as it is a collection of connected vignettes centered around two conceits -- first, that the Harry Potter world is real, and real teenagers react realistically (and more raucously) to the situations such a world presents them with; and second, that the Narnia world is real, and the Harry Potter-world young adults have access to it.
The result is this oddly wonderful mish-mash of the naive and the profane, the cheerful and the dirty, the wondrous and the cynical. I thought it was an excellent portrayal of the post-college-graduation dump into the "real world" of 8-5 jobs and the magical possibilities that seem just out of reach.
I'll be giving a more in-depth review of this book in Episode 011 of the "Write Now" podcast, so stay tuned. :)
I'm not going to advise you to read it, because readers either tend to love or hate this book -- and I'm not sure I loved it, but I certainly enjoyed reading it, to the point where the mind-momentum had built up to a point where I couldn't stop reading it. And I valued (so lame a word) the constant surprise.
This is not so much a cohesive novel as it is a collection of connected vignettes centered around two conceits -- first, that the Harry Potter world is real, and real teenagers react realistically (and more raucously) to the situations such a world presents them with; and second, that the Narnia world is real, and the Harry Potter-world young adults have access to it.
The result is this oddly wonderful mish-mash of the naive and the profane, the cheerful and the dirty, the wondrous and the cynical. I thought it was an excellent portrayal of the post-college-graduation dump into the "real world" of 8-5 jobs and the magical possibilities that seem just out of reach.
I'll be giving a more in-depth review of this book in Episode 011 of the "Write Now" podcast, so stay tuned. :)
mywitfailsme's review
2.0
I enjoyed it at first but got seriously annoyed with the characters about 3/4 of the way through.