A review by rsurban
Shadowland by Peter Straub

5.0

During the extremely unsatisfying experience of reading Lev Grossman's "The Magicians", I kept thinking of how much better Straub's treatment of similar themes was, so literally the minute I finished "The Magicians" I went to my bookshelf and picked out this book to re-read. With it's nods to everything from Grimm's Fairy Tales to Hans Christian Andersen to John Fowles' The Magus, this is both a literate homage to the art of storytelling and a gripping story in its own right. The tale of two boarding school best friends, one of whom is destined to be the greatest magician in the world, and the malevolent wizard who seeks to keep the mantle for himself, this is a mournful story filled with melancholy, violence and tragedy. The journey from innocence through temptation to self-awareness provides the backbone for these characters, and the layered narratives and "realities" are skillfully wrought. A perfectly crafted gem.