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an_library_stan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
It's a testament to the world building and plot that I overall enjoyed this book despite major issues with the language.
The magic is mysterious, even to the characters. I think it was nice they never really defined it. There were times when this annoyed me. Why didn't they just use magic to do X? I also was confused that sometimes really basic spells took meticulous study, understanding of the magicians' environment and specific ingredients to perform, and other times they just whipped out powerful spells seemingly without needing any of that.
The premise of the magical school and fantasy land and exceptional kids appealed to the part of me that felt like I never found my place in high school. I disliked the boy genius element of this, where it was mostly individual magicians doing genius magic after hard solo study. Kind of the same vibe as Iron Man building a super suit by himself.
My biggest issue with the book was some of the language the author used. It feels dated and cringe even for 2009. The book lives up to the stereotype of male authors writing excessively about women's breasts, including describing some as "gropable." Other sexism like this zinger "She hit like a girl, without any weight behind it, but he hadn't seen it coming to roll with it." Broadly sexualizes most female characters and few of the male characters. Multiple uses of the R word, descriptions of people "rocking autistically", racism towards indigenous people - descriptions of someone as "going native", this line seemingly painting Maori as other than human - "Human, or close to it anyway. Maybe Maori." There's a lot of normalized alcoholism in a friend group and no one really supports each other. Also intimate partner violence with a woman physically and verbally assaulting a man.
The magic is mysterious, even to the characters. I think it was nice they never really defined it. There were times when this annoyed me. Why didn't they just use magic to do X? I also was confused that sometimes really basic spells took meticulous study, understanding of the magicians' environment and specific ingredients to perform, and other times they just whipped out powerful spells seemingly without needing any of that.
The premise of the magical school and fantasy land and exceptional kids appealed to the part of me that felt like I never found my place in high school. I disliked the boy genius element of this, where it was mostly individual magicians doing genius magic after hard solo study. Kind of the same vibe as Iron Man building a super suit by himself.
My biggest issue with the book was some of the language the author used. It feels dated and cringe even for 2009. The book lives up to the stereotype of male authors writing excessively about women's breasts, including describing some as "gropable." Other sexism like this zinger "She hit like a girl, without any weight behind it, but he hadn't seen it coming to roll with it." Broadly sexualizes most female characters and few of the male characters. Multiple uses of the R word, descriptions of people "rocking autistically", racism towards indigenous people - descriptions of someone as "going native", this line seemingly painting Maori as other than human - "Human, or close to it anyway. Maybe Maori." There's a lot of normalized alcoholism in a friend group and no one really supports each other. Also intimate partner violence with a woman physically and verbally assaulting a man.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Ableism, Physical abuse, and Gore
blusocket's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Alice being amazing at every turn almost makes up for Quentin being an insufferable self-pitying misogynist through the middle of the book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Pedophilia and Ableism
haleyrayreads's review
dark
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The concept of this book is great, the characters are okay, but the plot drags a bit. I appreciate not being dragged through separate books for each year of school but the transition between years could be abrupt and unclear at times.
The story is mainly driven by character who are pretty one note and their motivations are questionable at best. Their main quest is motivated by ‘well we aren’t doing anything else right now.’ and it takes forever to get to that point. This first 2/3 if this book was so slow. However, once they’re off on their quest the story moves at a more brisk pace that’s refreshing until the main antagonist is taken care of. After that it goes on several chapters too long. It felt like every time a chapter ended I thought that was the end, then there was even more story that served no purpose than to allow readers to wallow in our narrator’s sorrow. This could have been cut in half or more and gotten the same point across.
The concept is great and it’s a fun story with some adjustments, but the pacing, character development, and casual use of ableist and fatphobic language would make me hesitate to read this particular book again.
The story is mainly driven by character who are pretty one note and their motivations are questionable at best. Their main quest is motivated by ‘well we aren’t doing anything else right now.’ and it takes forever to get to that point. This first 2/3 if this book was so slow. However, once they’re off on their quest the story moves at a more brisk pace that’s refreshing until the main antagonist is taken care of. After that it goes on several chapters too long. It felt like every time a chapter ended I thought that was the end, then there was even more story that served no purpose than to allow readers to wallow in our narrator’s sorrow. This could have been cut in half or more and gotten the same point across.
The concept is great and it’s a fun story with some adjustments, but the pacing, character development, and casual use of ableist and fatphobic language would make me hesitate to read this particular book again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, and Cursing
Moderate: Ableism, Gore, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Minor: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Infidelity, Body shaming, and Sexual content
rxh05d's review against another edition
2.0
If you can make it to the end of this book, you can start to see what Grossman is trying to do with it. The theme of the book is a good one and you can see that Quentin is an unreliable narrator, being self-absorbed and emotionally immature. The problems with the book are 1) it took way too long to get there with a lot of unnecessary stuff in the middle. 2) Plot holes, thin characters, and unnecessary trauma make it appear that Grossman was too enamoured by the *idea* of his book ("what if I took Narnia but satirized everything problematic about it and made it gritty and grimdark?") to actually think through and tighten up his plot. 3) It has copious examples of sexism, homophobia, and ableism (racism too but only by virtue of everyone being white) and it at least appears that these are not caused by unreliable narrator Quentin but are actually how Grossman thinks and believes humans think.
I read this because we're sheltering in place, my roommate had these from the library, and I want to design a d&d campaign set in this world so I wanted to understand the magic system better. But honestly... just watch the show. It's got everything the book doesn't and does a way better job with Quentin.
I read this because we're sheltering in place, my roommate had these from the library, and I want to design a d&d campaign set in this world so I wanted to understand the magic system better. But honestly... just watch the show. It's got everything the book doesn't and does a way better job with Quentin.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, and Ableism
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
ambient's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
enjoyable for the most part but definitely slow, the first part reads “slice of life but depressed” with the way nothing happens and just follows studying in Brakebills and discovering magic and such, the action starts off very late in the book, the character development was probably the best part imo in the way sometimes Quentin felt like he was getting worse ? and then he got better and then worse again, not a linear bad-to-good, wished we got more from other characters and not just Q though
the writing’s straightforward and blunt with prose here n there, n there was more than one reference to harry pot which made it feel kinda too try-hard to be “the adult harry potter” (the marketing term itself makes me cringe a little) but it stopped before it became way too much
my worst critique was at times the writing felt stereotypically “man writing women”, had some pretty questionable at best remarks sometimes, but ultimately nice read that moved at a turtle’s pace, the end’s kind of a cliffhanger but will i be picking up the sequel ? ehh
the writing’s straightforward and blunt with prose here n there, n there was more than one reference to harry pot which made it feel kinda too try-hard to be “the adult harry potter” (
my worst critique was at times the writing felt stereotypically “man writing women”, had some pretty questionable at best remarks sometimes, but ultimately nice read that moved at a turtle’s pace, the end’s kind of a cliffhanger but will i be picking up the sequel ? ehh
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Sexism
Minor: Cannibalism, Racism, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Ableism
jmeier's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I would give this book a five if it weren't for the mild to moderate ableism, racism, and overall attitude of white privileged. The characters are all white. The setting is all white. The narrator and protagonist us multiple disability slurs and is deeply judgemental of neurodiverse coded characters. I love the story, but it reads like something from the 80s at points, not 2009.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, and Classism
Moderate: Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Biphobia, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry
warlockdorian's review against another edition
The writing is bad and reminds me of a fan fiction with metaphors that are far too forced. Grossman wins the crown for men-writing-women with his unnecessary sexist and even racist descriptions of the character. The gay character is made fun of for his sexuality and slut-shamed (there are rape jokes made on their behalf). The story drags because of the POV. Quentin is a whiny nice-guy protagonist who feels like an author self-insert. None of the characters are likeable, which wouldn't be a problem if their flaws were a focus of the story. All in all this book is a big cringe fest and I would not recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Blood, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Sexism, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts
glowbruise's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
books for people who check the back of old wardrobes for Narnia
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Body shaming
multiple uses of the r word, fatphovia directed at a specific character, women often described by their attractiveness/ particular mention of their chestlaurenleigh's review against another edition
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