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loochysue's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Dang Quentin, you are so needy and whiny. I watched the show before listening to the book, and I miss the relative diversity of the TV show. I hated how the narrator railed on Josh's size, how much Quentin judged other people's appearances, and how pale everyone was in the book. Despite these, and hoping Quentin and Narrator mature in the following books, I do love the universe of The Magicians.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Death, and Sexual content
laurenleigh's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Ugh I didn’t enjoy this. I love me a magical school trope, but this was missing all the fun. The story zips through 5 whole years of school in just the first of four parts. And yet the pacing felt slow? It seemed like three separate novels that were pared way down and smashed together. The last part finally got magical and interesting, but I was over this novel as a whole by then. I almost never DNF, but I almost did a few times with this one. Mainly because of sooo many sexist, ableist, and fatphobic microaggressions. It often felt like a Harry Potter/Narnia rip off, from the perspective of a whiny, horny, privileged white guy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Blood
Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual content, Sexism, and Medical content
Minor: Ableism and Sexism
lauralintunen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Ableism, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Sexual content
Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Incest, and Animal cruelty
loppylolly's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
0.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
archaicgambit's review
challenging
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
IF YOU LOVE THE SYFY SERIES AND ARE DISAPPOINTED IN HOW IT ENDED, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT read this book.
-Quentin is a huge misogynist in book 1. His character is completely straight. His relationship with Eliot is a friendship that’s kind of homoerotic If u squint, rather than a full blown relationship where they raised a son together. He continually bullies Penny for exhibiting autistic traits. His behavior improves slightly in book 2, where the exploration of his depression is also written better, but the character is still not the kind-but struggling person Show fans loved & mourned.
-Quentin is a huge misogynist in book 1. His character is completely straight. His relationship with Eliot is a friendship that’s kind of homoerotic If u squint, rather than a full blown relationship where they raised a son together. He continually bullies Penny for exhibiting autistic traits. His behavior improves slightly in book 2, where the exploration of his depression is also written better, but the character is still not the kind-but struggling person Show fans loved & mourned.
-everyone is white, whereas the show is racially diverse. Kady, Marina, and other fan-favourite female characters essentially do not exist.
-Janet (Margo) gets maybe 5 seconds of screen time where she seduces Q, and Alice belittles her friendship with Eliot, claiming she must want him sexually for them to be that close.
-Alice is the only decently written female character in book one. But the bar is on the floor. She turns into a dragon during the fight with the beast though, so that's fun.
That said, there IS still some good prose and trolling of JKR. There are a lot of moments where I felt like lev was enjoying how he structured it as a writer even though I didn't enjoy it as a reader, I could like, sort of respect it?
Also the commentary on Narnia that forms the basis for the show is pretty solid. The base elements of what makes the show great are there, they just seriously needed to be fixed (and they were for the most part!)
The new The Magicians comics are being written by a trans woman, so I'm glad it seemed like Lev's learned to respect women since then.
-Alice is the only decently written female character in book one. But the bar is on the floor.
That said, there IS still some good prose and trolling of JKR. There are a lot of moments where I felt like lev was enjoying how he structured it as a writer even though I didn't enjoy it as a reader, I could like, sort of respect it?
Also the commentary on Narnia that forms the basis for the show is pretty solid. The base elements of what makes the show great are there, they just seriously needed to be fixed (and they were for the most part!)
The new The Magicians comics are being written by a trans woman, so I'm glad it seemed like Lev's learned to respect women since then.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Racism and Sexual content
Minor: Gore
deals mainly with themes of mental illness, be careful!cjcrowbro's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This book is trying so hard to have a school of magic without being Harry Potter that it forgot to be an enjoyable book to read. Like I get what Lev is going for with this edgy take on magical fiction, but I just simply didnt enjoy it. It isn't necessarily a bad book, I just rank things by whether I enjoy them.
This book has a zany cast of absolute poopheads. Each incredibly unlikable in their own special way. Except maybe Alice. Alice is fine I guess. Quentin is the worst. He's not the worst because he's flawed or depressive, those things are fine, he's the worst because he's a complete a**hole.
My main issue with this book is that it creates an interesting and and wonderous world, and then proceeds to not explore the world really at all. Instead having us explore the mind of a main character who's basically Holden Caulfield but without any of the charm.
Anyways, I can see why people would enjoy this. It subverts a lot of tropes in magical fiction and is very well written. I just didnt like it.
Last thing: this book has the ABSOLUTE WEIRDEST sex scene I've ever read. Like maybe the books I read just keep it real vanilla, but good gravy this one is a doozy. I was wildly uncomfortable.
This book has a zany cast of absolute poopheads. Each incredibly unlikable in their own special way. Except maybe Alice. Alice is fine I guess. Quentin is the worst. He's not the worst because he's flawed or depressive, those things are fine, he's the worst because he's a complete a**hole.
My main issue with this book is that it creates an interesting and and wonderous world, and then proceeds to not explore the world really at all. Instead having us explore the mind of a main character who's basically Holden Caulfield but without any of the charm.
Anyways, I can see why people would enjoy this. It subverts a lot of tropes in magical fiction and is very well written. I just didnt like it.
Last thing: this book has the ABSOLUTE WEIRDEST sex scene I've ever read. Like maybe the books I read just keep it real vanilla, but good gravy this one is a doozy. I was wildly uncomfortable.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
azebrareads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
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