A review by jpfriday
The Magic Circle by Jenny Davidson

3.0

“Life seemed to fall more often into the patterns of melodrama than ideally mandated by the aesthetic properties of tasteful storytelling.” I wanted to love this campus thriller set in my very own Morningside Heights, but I settled for liking it. Inspired by Euripides’s Bacchae, it follows three grad students active in live-action, site-specific games as the line between reality and play starts to blur. I love this premise, but the prose felt like a chore: the book talks like it went to Columbia and wants to make sure you know it. There’s only so many academic ten-dollar words I can stomach! Yet, I admire Davidson’s formal explorations – she incorporates blogs and chat-style dialogue – and she sticks the landing with a terse, unsettling ending.