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chibisparx's review against another edition
I didn’t finish because I got tired of reading about the main character thinking about groping the blonde, blue-eyed women he encounters in the book. I understand he’s a late teen/early 20-something, but how many times do I have to read the same thing? It icked me out enough that I’m done.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Body shaming, and Sexism
distractible's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Infidelity, Death, and Violence
Minor: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Fatphobia
tbd24's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I rather like this series, this is the second time i’ve read it and there are just really great turns of phrase in the prose. I love world building and this book embraces that times three, the magic system is cool and complicated and the characters are never just good people. Quentin is shitty and obnoxious but like what 17 yr old “gifted kid” isn’t? There’s a few questionable moments, the author loves to make women suffer viscerally a little too much in my opinion, but at least he still remembers to make them people. Overall, it’s a good read and an interesting series
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Death, Addiction, and Alcohol
Minor: Racism, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Homophobia, Excrement, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pedophilia, Child death, Ableism, Suicide, Misogyny, Cursing, and Violence
springybreak's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Torture, and Mental illness
ed_rafael's review against another edition
I wasn't able to finish this novel, not because it wasn't good or entertaining, but because the main character has depression, a mental illness I also suffer from, and being in his head was simply too much for me.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the story so far (I read about 1 third of the book) and I'm a major fan of the tv series, but I would find myself in a depressive spiral every time I finished a chapter.
I will try to read this book again in the future, hopefully when I feel better mentally as I don't wish to relapse once again, but I would advise people with depression not to pick up this book without being 100% sure they can handle being face to face with their demons.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the story so far (I read about 1 third of the book) and I'm a major fan of the tv series, but I would find myself in a depressive spiral every time I finished a chapter.
I will try to read this book again in the future, hopefully when I feel better mentally as I don't wish to relapse once again, but I would advise people with depression not to pick up this book without being 100% sure they can handle being face to face with their demons.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
pbeeandj's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Addiction, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
Moderate: Fatphobia and Grief
Minor: Ableism
meg_thebrave's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Parts of this book are strange, parts are not fun, but overall? I had a great time listening to this first installment. The audiobook is really good; the narrator is sarcastic and doesn’t take much too seriously, which fits the tone. Quentin is kind of insufferable, but I ended up rooting for him and especially his friends. I’m excited to read the next one; I think it’ll be stronger. I really enjoyed the pacing of the book, and the different places the story went. I also appreciated the way the author didn’t shy away from gory descriptions and intense emotions when necessary. Overall, it’s a lot of fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Ableism, Death, and Fatphobia
Minor: Sexism, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Pedophilia
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
_lilyeliza_'s review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
goddamn this book was frustrating. at first it was fun, then by about 200, i was sick of it. i think that’s kind of the point, you progress with the mindset of quentin as you go. but it makes it so hard to finish this book. the pacing is very hard to read. it goes so so fast, but it feels like they’ve done nothing. it’s supposed to be the same frustrations as quentin, but once again, it’s a struggle to finish this book. the worldbuilding is also frustrating, as it feels like there is no worldbuilding until quentin himself is experiencing it. there’s no worldbuilding outside the plot, even simple things like the entire backstory of the library (something quentin wouldn’t know) aren’t explained until he walks into the library for an arbitrary reason. the best example of this is right before he goes to brakebills south, he goes “i’ve always wondered about the mystery of the fourth years”, but he hasn’t wondered! we’ve never heard about this until right now! also quentin is just an asshole!! his struggles are relatable and sympathetic and it’s easy to empathize with him, but gosh it’s frustrating. he feels entitled in his own story, we see it play out over and over again. he believes that he deserves to be the main character, and the fact that he hasn’t stumbled into a quest means that he gives up on it all. i understand what we’re looking at, but to ONLY see the world through his eyes is just frustrating. he becomes so apathetic and insensitive. he spends the entire book being incredibly self centered, but it feels like he never learns. alice dying for him so that he can go to become king is the most frustrating shit. they fixed all their problems right at the end and now she’s a martyr so he can go save the day!! no bitch, you’re still a dick and you don’t deserve this. but yeah, it’s a technically good book and makes very good critiques of its own characters. but at the end of the day, i think books should be enjoyable to read and this one was not. also, the fox thing was weird and lowkey creepy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Alcoholism
Moderate: Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Toxic relationship
haleyrayreads's review against another edition
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