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A review by jessicaesquire
The Magicians: Alice's Story by Pius Bak, Lev Grossman, Lilah Sturges
4.0
This is my 3rd time (maybe 4th?) reading this book and it remains both joyous and maddening. I didn't love it on my first read, and yet I still got attached to it. There are chapters that are so well-written I want to copy them down, and yet others are all over the place. If it was more consistent, if perhaps the narrative timeline were refined a bit, perhaps it would be a five-star book for me some day instead of always falling between 3 and 4.
The first chapter is so strong. And it's not the only bit that is fall-over good. The ideas and the worldbuilding will sometimes be incredibly brilliant and other times seem half-assed. But the one thing it does consistently and well is to turn your expectations of a fantasy novel on their head. And it dares to have an unlike-able protagonist. These days many of us love unlike-able female protagonists, but we still struggle with unlike-able men. I kind of love all unlike-able protagonists, and so I kind of love Quentin even though he is the worst and I would never want to be friends with him.
Re-reading the entire series and looking forward in particular to the other books, which I don't know nearly as well.
The first chapter is so strong. And it's not the only bit that is fall-over good. The ideas and the worldbuilding will sometimes be incredibly brilliant and other times seem half-assed. But the one thing it does consistently and well is to turn your expectations of a fantasy novel on their head. And it dares to have an unlike-able protagonist. These days many of us love unlike-able female protagonists, but we still struggle with unlike-able men. I kind of love all unlike-able protagonists, and so I kind of love Quentin even though he is the worst and I would never want to be friends with him.
Re-reading the entire series and looking forward in particular to the other books, which I don't know nearly as well.