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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
This review describes The Magicians as The Secret History with a touch of magic and I can't get over how good that is as a description of this novel. And therefore I can't understand all the hate that this novel got here in GR, which put me off reading this for the longest time.
We follow Quentin, an intellectually-gifted, upper middle-class teenager about to enter an Ivy League University when he is recruited by Brakebills, a magical college, where he discovers that a) magic is real, b) he is really talented at it, c) he is depressive and can't really find satisfaction in anything he ever does. He and his friends are all quite pretentious and a bit dickish, but I've been there and done that. Magic is cool and all, but it's a lot of work and effort to master, and once you're done with learning, what are you supposed to do? What is your special purpose in life? Quentin is one of those people who have always been promised they are special but actually aren't, although in his case, he is special, but being special feels a lot like being normal. This novel is not so much about a magical world as it is about millennial burnout and Quentin's slow realisation that looking for perfection and external validation isn't going to hack it. In the meantime, he is purposeless and tries to fill the void with alcohol, drugs, and meaningless sex.
The novel is very aware of the magic school literary tradition and so is Quentin, who idealises everything and everyone he encounters. Grossman subverts every single trope associated to the genre, and so Quentin is devastated when everything magical is difficult, or complex, or hard work, and not just a source of fun and joy, and when everyone magical have their own set of problems that they're also bringing to the table. This is more apparent once they all go to Fillory (or Narnia, as we have always known it), and suddenly the sentient animals are fighting a war, and attacking and manipulating them, and everything is really gruesome, with blood and guts and people really dying and not coming back to life. I'm not very happy that one of those subversions actually ended up being a fridging of a sort, but this is only the first book of the trilogy and I'll wait until I see what it's done with what happens before passing judgement.
It is a meandering but really engrossing tale of magic and depression that is also full of humour and quite meta regarding its own literary tradition. I loved it.
We follow Quentin, an intellectually-gifted, upper middle-class teenager about to enter an Ivy League University when he is recruited by Brakebills, a magical college, where he discovers that a) magic is real, b) he is really talented at it, c) he is depressive and can't really find satisfaction in anything he ever does. He and his friends are all quite pretentious and a bit dickish, but I've been there and done that. Magic is cool and all, but it's a lot of work and effort to master, and once you're done with learning, what are you supposed to do? What is your special purpose in life? Quentin is one of those people who have always been promised they are special but actually aren't, although in his case, he is special, but being special feels a lot like being normal. This novel is not so much about a magical world as it is about millennial burnout and Quentin's slow realisation that looking for perfection and external validation isn't going to hack it. In the meantime, he is purposeless and tries to fill the void with alcohol, drugs, and meaningless sex.
The novel is very aware of the magic school literary tradition and so is Quentin, who idealises everything and everyone he encounters. Grossman subverts every single trope associated to the genre, and so Quentin is devastated when everything magical is difficult, or complex, or hard work, and not just a source of fun and joy, and when everyone magical have their own set of problems that they're also bringing to the table. This is more apparent once they all go to Fillory (or Narnia, as we have always known it), and suddenly the sentient animals are fighting a war, and attacking and manipulating them, and everything is really gruesome, with blood and guts and people really dying and not coming back to life. I'm not very happy that one of those subversions actually ended up being a fridging of a sort, but this is only the first book of the trilogy and I'll wait until I see what it's done with what happens before passing judgement.
It is a meandering but really engrossing tale of magic and depression that is also full of humour and quite meta regarding its own literary tradition. I loved it.
I just finished this and I have THOUGHTS.
Preface: I read this book because I watched seasons 1 and 2 of The Magicians and adored the show. It’s fun and sexy and feminist and it’s a compelling fantasy with excellent characters.
I am now upset after having read the book because it has somehow SOILED this beautiful television show for me.
Let’s talk Quentin.
Book Quentin is INSUFFERABLE. He’s a misogynistic asshole. He calls a water naiad “slutty” because... he’s mad? and she was naked when he found her? He privately thinks that Dint and Fen’s names are [the r-word] because... he’s upset? He repeatedly slut-shames Alice??? GET FUCKED, QUENTIN.
TV Quentin is not great either - he fucks things up all the time and absolutely still slut-shames Alice - but there’s more of a depressed, self-loathing thread there and the misogyny that is present seems more like an angry fluke, not a persistent personality trait.
And Eliot! He’s so... *ignorable* in the book. All the entertaining parts of his character shown in the TV show (the affectations, the fashion, the drinking, the hookups) are all there but it’s like the book didn’t use him to his full potential. He’s such a presence in the show - it’s a shame he didn’t come across like that in the book. He seemed like a more minor character in the book.
I liked Alice and Janet/Margo - they seemed to be the most similar from book to TV (in a good way).
How is it possible Julia is essentially an afterthought in the book?! She’s BARELY mentioned except to further a point about Quentin. And Kady doesn’t even make an appearance at all!
I also have thoughts about Penny - he’s pretty brusque and unfriendly in the show, but the book also makes him out to be this unhinged, physically unattractive weirdo. I am so impressed that the show took book!Penny and then cast the smokin’ hot Arjun Gupta and made him a compelling, sympathetic character.
Seasons one and two of the show are pretty much encompassed in this first book, if that gives you a feel for how much ground the book covers. I found this particularly irritating because it felt like wasted potential. There’s so much cool stuff in Fillory! Take a minute to describe it! Part of the fun of books is that they can take time to embellish what TV cannot, and in this case it was completely the other way around. The show fleshed out so many things the book simply glossed over.
This is one of the few cases in which I feel the show is infinitely better than the book, and I haven’t yet decided if I’ll continue reading this series.
*steps off soapbox, hopes and prays the author never, ever sees this review*
Preface: I read this book because I watched seasons 1 and 2 of The Magicians and adored the show. It’s fun and sexy and feminist and it’s a compelling fantasy with excellent characters.
I am now upset after having read the book because it has somehow SOILED this beautiful television show for me.
Let’s talk Quentin.
Book Quentin is INSUFFERABLE. He’s a misogynistic asshole. He calls a water naiad “slutty” because... he’s mad? and she was naked when he found her? He privately thinks that Dint and Fen’s names are [the r-word] because... he’s upset? He repeatedly slut-shames Alice??? GET FUCKED, QUENTIN.
TV Quentin is not great either - he fucks things up all the time and absolutely still slut-shames Alice - but there’s more of a depressed, self-loathing thread there and the misogyny that is present seems more like an angry fluke, not a persistent personality trait.
And Eliot! He’s so... *ignorable* in the book. All the entertaining parts of his character shown in the TV show (the affectations, the fashion, the drinking, the hookups) are all there but it’s like the book didn’t use him to his full potential. He’s such a presence in the show - it’s a shame he didn’t come across like that in the book. He seemed like a more minor character in the book.
I liked Alice and Janet/Margo - they seemed to be the most similar from book to TV (in a good way).
How is it possible Julia is essentially an afterthought in the book?! She’s BARELY mentioned except to further a point about Quentin. And Kady doesn’t even make an appearance at all!
I also have thoughts about Penny - he’s pretty brusque and unfriendly in the show, but the book also makes him out to be this unhinged, physically unattractive weirdo. I am so impressed that the show took book!Penny and then cast the smokin’ hot Arjun Gupta and made him a compelling, sympathetic character.
Seasons one and two of the show are pretty much encompassed in this first book, if that gives you a feel for how much ground the book covers. I found this particularly irritating because it felt like wasted potential. There’s so much cool stuff in Fillory! Take a minute to describe it! Part of the fun of books is that they can take time to embellish what TV cannot, and in this case it was completely the other way around. The show fleshed out so many things the book simply glossed over.
This is one of the few cases in which I feel the show is infinitely better than the book, and I haven’t yet decided if I’ll continue reading this series.
*steps off soapbox, hopes and prays the author never, ever sees this review*
It seems like people either love this book or hate it, and I didn't really fall into either camp. I like it - it's a solid tale that borrows heavily from Hogwarts and Narnia while still being original enough. Quentin, to me, is actually a fairly relatable character. I'm not depressed and have always been content with my life, but the message that getting everything you ever wanted doesn't make things magically better is more realistic than many fantasy stories. I wasn't planning to continue the series, but the ending piqued my interest just enough that I think I will.
In this book, the kids from The Secret History go to Hogwarts College and then try to find Narnia.
yep.
yep.
Requiem for a Dream had a threesome with J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, with "The Magicians" as their resulting love-child. "The Magicians" takes everything that is wondrous about magic and adventures and turns it into the most depressing story ever. The Message: "Oh, you got accepted into a school of magic? Here, realize that life is sh*t no matter what powers you have."
I would like my star rating to say, "I didn't LIKE it, but it was good". Yes, this book is good. It's well written, it has strong characters, and an interesting plot. All these characters will never be happy and neither was I the entire time I read this book. I'll stick to my wondrous magic and fantasy books, thankyouverymuch.
I would like my star rating to say, "I didn't LIKE it, but it was good". Yes, this book is good. It's well written, it has strong characters, and an interesting plot. All these characters will never be happy and neither was I the entire time I read this book. I'll stick to my wondrous magic and fantasy books, thankyouverymuch.
It took me 7 months to finish this awful book. Why are all these entitled characters so miserable and so far up their own asses? Something like seven years passes in this book but nothing really happens. God, what a clusterfuck. And the most competent character, Alice, is in love with a chunk of toe-scum like Quentin?? GOD. I only stuck with it to see how it compares to the TV series, which I will now watch and pray that it's better than this mess.
I've not had this much fun reading a book in quite some time. I've enjoyed, been enthralled by, and loved a lot of recent books I've read, but this one was FUN on top of everything else.
From beginning to end, the narrative of Quentin Coldwater is a snarky, sardonic, sometimes morose, but always engaging story. It is as American as Harry Potter is English. The world is complicated, full of grit and dirt, with heaping portions of teenage angst and rebellion on top of a very contemporary sense of dissatisfaction and disillusionment. This is NOT the fantasy worlds of other novels. It deals with the very real world of depression and loneliness that come from being a certain kind of kid, lying to your parents and everyone you love, and does not flinch or shy away from the cruelties of life.
And yet, I found myself laughing repeatedly the whole time I powered through this book. It took me less than three days to read it, on top of being incredibly busy while doing so, because I wanted to know what happened next. Had to know.
Structurally, this novel successfully did a number of things I normally hate. It used parenthetical asides, m-dash asides, cliches, and a second person address, all of which in other novels has been enough to make me rage with fury. But Grossman delivers these devices early on in the novel, which alerted me to the style of writing which I would be immersing myself in, and maintained a consistency throughout the narrative where he constantly used the devices to keep them present in the reader's mind. Whereas I normally feel that parenthetical asides are unnecessary, here they felt like a sly wink to the reader from a master storyteller, instead of a stage-whispered plot point that I had already figured out without the blatant informative statement. And the second person address again made this feel like it could have been read aloud. It wasn't a slip-up or an inconsistency on the writer's part, each time "you" appeared in a sentence it was a reminder that I as the reader was supposed to be enjoying the book.
The characters were so easy to relate to as well, coming from what is probably the ideal target audience of a grown-up who never wanted to stop believing in magic. I definitely identified with the main character on multiple levels, and felt that as the narrative evolved to reflect his changing perspective on life and his place in the world, it was right. I felt so strongly for him that when bad fortune befell him, I empathized all the more. The emotional gut punches were poignant and solidly delivered, and at no point did I feel kicked out of the novel by some plot move feeling disingenuous.
The grit of the real world also presented itself in the way characters interacted with each other. There's love, sex, violence, swearing, drinking and drug use, all things that keep this fantasy novel strongly rooted in reality. The intertextuality of the novel also made it feel like it was placed in contemporary American society as well. References to everything from Renaissance Faires and cosplaying to mobile phones to Star Trek, it was not a fantasy world of some other Earth where none of our pop-culture references ever happened. Unlike so many other stories, this one does not pretend that the others never existed. It embraces the cliche and holds it up to the light, using it to fuel the characters' reactions to the things they encounter.
The hugely notable exception to this is that the main conceit of the book, the book-within-a-book of "Fillory and Further," is too on the nose as a retelling of "The Chronicles of Narnia." Different in some ways, but alike in others, so much so that I felt it was more than just an homage. And once the narrative really begins to focus on the Fillory books, it slows and meanders its way for a little while in what I think is the only really slow part of the book. There are so many monologues and speeches in the narrative that when the narrative itself starts to monologue I felt like I could hear the machinery of the story working just a bit too hard. But it doesn't last long, and things pick back up quickly.
In short, it was entertaining, enlightening, and a very well crafted, well written journey from start to finish.
From beginning to end, the narrative of Quentin Coldwater is a snarky, sardonic, sometimes morose, but always engaging story. It is as American as Harry Potter is English. The world is complicated, full of grit and dirt, with heaping portions of teenage angst and rebellion on top of a very contemporary sense of dissatisfaction and disillusionment. This is NOT the fantasy worlds of other novels. It deals with the very real world of depression and loneliness that come from being a certain kind of kid, lying to your parents and everyone you love, and does not flinch or shy away from the cruelties of life.
And yet, I found myself laughing repeatedly the whole time I powered through this book. It took me less than three days to read it, on top of being incredibly busy while doing so, because I wanted to know what happened next. Had to know.
Structurally, this novel successfully did a number of things I normally hate. It used parenthetical asides, m-dash asides, cliches, and a second person address, all of which in other novels has been enough to make me rage with fury. But Grossman delivers these devices early on in the novel, which alerted me to the style of writing which I would be immersing myself in, and maintained a consistency throughout the narrative where he constantly used the devices to keep them present in the reader's mind. Whereas I normally feel that parenthetical asides are unnecessary, here they felt like a sly wink to the reader from a master storyteller, instead of a stage-whispered plot point that I had already figured out without the blatant informative statement. And the second person address again made this feel like it could have been read aloud. It wasn't a slip-up or an inconsistency on the writer's part, each time "you" appeared in a sentence it was a reminder that I as the reader was supposed to be enjoying the book.
The characters were so easy to relate to as well, coming from what is probably the ideal target audience of a grown-up who never wanted to stop believing in magic. I definitely identified with the main character on multiple levels, and felt that as the narrative evolved to reflect his changing perspective on life and his place in the world, it was right. I felt so strongly for him that when bad fortune befell him, I empathized all the more. The emotional gut punches were poignant and solidly delivered, and at no point did I feel kicked out of the novel by some plot move feeling disingenuous.
The grit of the real world also presented itself in the way characters interacted with each other. There's love, sex, violence, swearing, drinking and drug use, all things that keep this fantasy novel strongly rooted in reality. The intertextuality of the novel also made it feel like it was placed in contemporary American society as well. References to everything from Renaissance Faires and cosplaying to mobile phones to Star Trek, it was not a fantasy world of some other Earth where none of our pop-culture references ever happened. Unlike so many other stories, this one does not pretend that the others never existed. It embraces the cliche and holds it up to the light, using it to fuel the characters' reactions to the things they encounter.
The hugely notable exception to this is that the main conceit of the book, the book-within-a-book of "Fillory and Further," is too on the nose as a retelling of "The Chronicles of Narnia." Different in some ways, but alike in others, so much so that I felt it was more than just an homage. And once the narrative really begins to focus on the Fillory books, it slows and meanders its way for a little while in what I think is the only really slow part of the book. There are so many monologues and speeches in the narrative that when the narrative itself starts to monologue I felt like I could hear the machinery of the story working just a bit too hard. But it doesn't last long, and things pick back up quickly.
In short, it was entertaining, enlightening, and a very well crafted, well written journey from start to finish.
Finally, this is done! And I'm not saying this because it was a drag reading this. Far from it.
In a way, the book was pulling me to read it even when I had started on other books from my BBW pile. Much like a magical world pulling haha. Ok, enough lame jokes. But this was definitely not to my expectations when it comes to coming-of-age or magical world discovery cum magical education genre.
In short, this could be Harry Potter but grown up. It's interesting that the author chooses to bring this world into being by showing the grittier side of things. That even fantasy is not really magical. It's depressing. It's hard. It's reality. Maybe that's why he sped through all five years of education at Brakebills instead of having a year featured in a book. Because the reality is that magical education is no walk in the park and has severe consequences and frankly, it's just spent studying.
Sure, there are some adventures interspersed in between. And lots of booze and sex and F-bombs. But that doesn't justify an entire year to special. And what's waiting when you graduate from magical education? Nothing. There are no jobs provided for from the Ministry of Magic. You are left to figure it out on your own and you can choose to blend in with the rest of the non-magical folk but acknowledge that five years of magical education has not prepared you for the real world so here's some money.
I don't know if this book was making fun of some fantasy genre or what other nods it gave to others of its kind as I simply haven't read enough (thanks Goodreads, for reminding me I'm behind my reading challenge). It was nevertheless a very entertaining and thrilling read and it doesn't even try to be intelligent. The problem with this is, I haven't found the second book yet and I can't imagine what to expect from the second and third.
In a way, the book was pulling me to read it even when I had started on other books from my BBW pile. Much like a magical world pulling haha. Ok, enough lame jokes. But this was definitely not to my expectations when it comes to coming-of-age or magical world discovery cum magical education genre.
In short, this could be Harry Potter but grown up. It's interesting that the author chooses to bring this world into being by showing the grittier side of things. That even fantasy is not really magical. It's depressing. It's hard. It's reality. Maybe that's why he sped through all five years of education at Brakebills instead of having a year featured in a book. Because the reality is that magical education is no walk in the park and has severe consequences and frankly, it's just spent studying.
Sure, there are some adventures interspersed in between. And lots of booze and sex and F-bombs. But that doesn't justify an entire year to special. And what's waiting when you graduate from magical education? Nothing. There are no jobs provided for from the Ministry of Magic. You are left to figure it out on your own and you can choose to blend in with the rest of the non-magical folk but acknowledge that five years of magical education has not prepared you for the real world so here's some money.
I don't know if this book was making fun of some fantasy genre or what other nods it gave to others of its kind as I simply haven't read enough (thanks Goodreads, for reminding me I'm behind my reading challenge). It was nevertheless a very entertaining and thrilling read and it doesn't even try to be intelligent. The problem with this is, I haven't found the second book yet and I can't imagine what to expect from the second and third.
Okay so I don’t normally write reviews. But I need to rant.
I HATED Quentin. If you thought Holden Caulfeild was annoying, Quentin is about 10 times worse. He never accepted blame for his mistakes, was arrogant, and basically the epitome of the “nice guy” who’s actually a jerk. The book definitely didn’t pass the Bechdel test seeing as there was a riff between the two female characters about a boy (of course).
It was a really interesting concept. NOTHING like adult Harry Potter, as all the reviews say. I loved the idea of finally entering a magical world after spending a childhood pining for it. I normally hate critiquing books because this is an authors baby but.... it just felt so sexist and I wanted to punch the main character. And it deeply disturbs me that this is a popular book because the characters are so unlikeable and it’s such a messy and confusing plot. Yikes.
Mmkay. Rant over! Thanks
I HATED Quentin. If you thought Holden Caulfeild was annoying, Quentin is about 10 times worse. He never accepted blame for his mistakes, was arrogant, and basically the epitome of the “nice guy” who’s actually a jerk. The book definitely didn’t pass the Bechdel test seeing as there was a riff between the two female characters about a boy (of course).
It was a really interesting concept. NOTHING like adult Harry Potter, as all the reviews say. I loved the idea of finally entering a magical world after spending a childhood pining for it. I normally hate critiquing books because this is an authors baby but.... it just felt so sexist and I wanted to punch the main character. And it deeply disturbs me that this is a popular book because the characters are so unlikeable and it’s such a messy and confusing plot. Yikes.
Mmkay. Rant over! Thanks
I had heard a lot of mixed reviews of Lev Grossman's 'The Magicians' and now I know why. It's just kind of a weird book. There's no plot so much as a serious of events happen that aren't connected and no one cares.
Imagine someone took all of the Harry Potter series, all the Narnia books, mixed them together with some sex, binge-drinking and existential dread then compressed the whole whole mess into one book and then you've pretty much got 'The Magicians'.
The book falls at the first hurdle by having an incredible unlikeable main character. Quentin is whiny, self-centred, entitled and boring. From the first page to the last he is a miserable little sap who a cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone liked.
The story has a few good moments, mostly supplied by the supporting characters and there are some nice bits of descriptive language. But there are these vast deserts of exposition to struggle through between any of that.
Ultimately it's about wealthy, educated, white (dare-I-say privileged) people who have quite literally been given the key everything in life who then proceed to spend 400 pages drinking themselves to death and complaining constantly. Events come in two modes; dull and ridiculous. The book opens with Quentin finding a dead body, its never mentioned again and never becomes part of a plot which pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the book.
The story spans 8 years but very little actually happens until the last quarter. There is no overarching plot, no narrative development. The only thing tying it all together at all is this continuous theme of being betrayed by fantasy and the bitterness of that.
This a sort of related to and it's probably what kept me reading. One of the hardest things about growing up, especially for those kids obsessed with fantasy adventure stories, is letting that go a little and trying to find magic in the real world. I cheated of course, I became a writer.
Dean Fogg touches on this in the story but there's no resolution of the theme, no greater exploration, it just stays the same through the whole book just like Quentin.
Even at the end, Quentin's idea of "growing up" or entering the "real world" is to be handed a job that mean nothing, entails no work but pays well and to do nothing with his life. This isn't only bleak it's pathetic and it's bad writing. There is no growth, he learns nothing and we care about him just as little as at the start.
Not only that but it's SO DERIVATIVE. Fillory is as obviously Narnia and Brakebills is obviously Hogwarts. Watcherwoman - White Witch, Ember and Umber - Aslan, Chatwins - Pensieves, Disciplines - Houses, welters - quidditch, they even make the quidditch joke in the book. And I get that they're references, or supposed to be commentary or something but 'The Magicians' doesn't SAY ANYTHING so all just comes off really unoriginal.
Imagine someone took all of the Harry Potter series, all the Narnia books, mixed them together with some sex, binge-drinking and existential dread then compressed the whole whole mess into one book and then you've pretty much got 'The Magicians'.
The book falls at the first hurdle by having an incredible unlikeable main character. Quentin is whiny, self-centred, entitled and boring. From the first page to the last he is a miserable little sap who a cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone liked.
The story has a few good moments, mostly supplied by the supporting characters and there are some nice bits of descriptive language. But there are these vast deserts of exposition to struggle through between any of that.
Ultimately it's about wealthy, educated, white (dare-I-say privileged) people who have quite literally been given the key everything in life who then proceed to spend 400 pages drinking themselves to death and complaining constantly. Events come in two modes; dull and ridiculous. The book opens with Quentin finding a dead body, its never mentioned again and never becomes part of a plot which pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the book.
The story spans 8 years but very little actually happens until the last quarter. There is no overarching plot, no narrative development. The only thing tying it all together at all is this continuous theme of being betrayed by fantasy and the bitterness of that.
This a sort of related to and it's probably what kept me reading. One of the hardest things about growing up, especially for those kids obsessed with fantasy adventure stories, is letting that go a little and trying to find magic in the real world. I cheated of course, I became a writer.
Dean Fogg touches on this in the story but there's no resolution of the theme, no greater exploration, it just stays the same through the whole book just like Quentin.
Even at the end, Quentin's idea of "growing up" or entering the "real world" is to be handed a job that mean nothing, entails no work but pays well and to do nothing with his life. This isn't only bleak it's pathetic and it's bad writing. There is no growth, he learns nothing and we care about him just as little as at the start.
Not only that but it's SO DERIVATIVE. Fillory is as obviously Narnia and Brakebills is obviously Hogwarts. Watcherwoman - White Witch, Ember and Umber - Aslan, Chatwins - Pensieves, Disciplines - Houses, welters - quidditch, they even make the quidditch joke in the book. And I get that they're references, or supposed to be commentary or something but 'The Magicians' doesn't SAY ANYTHING so all just comes off really unoriginal.