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A review by shandyt
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
2.0
DNF after 8 months of letting it sit at 75% completion.
It's time for me to be honest with myself and admit that I will likely never finish this book. I gave it a shot, but I think it's just not for me. I finally got to the point where they. I have nothing against flawed characters; it's just that these characters' flaws make them a slog to read about. Quentin's depression is too much. Alice is infuriating. And I've already encountered so many versions of Eliot's "sad queer hedonist cynic" that I was preemptively bored coming into the book. I don't think the audiobook narrator helped much. I kept picturing George Carlin, but with less energy. Like, maybe Lorenzo Music as Garfield. Now I've really aged myself, hah.
I think my favorite pastiche of Brideshead Revisited (because I feel like that work, more than Narnia, colors my interpretation of The Magicians' themes) is still a fanfiction, of all things. Alas.
It's time for me to be honest with myself and admit that I will likely never finish this book. I gave it a shot, but I think it's just not for me. I finally got to the point where they
Spoiler
reach Fillory, and ironically, that's where the reality sank in—the setting and the stakes may change, but we'll still be talking about the same damn characters, and I just don't have it in me to feel interested in them.I think my favorite pastiche of Brideshead Revisited (because I feel like that work, more than Narnia, colors my interpretation of The Magicians' themes) is still a fanfiction, of all things. Alas.