A review by wordsandnocturnes
The Magicians: Alice's Story by Pius Bak, Lev Grossman, Lilah Sturges

3.0

“For just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there’s nothing else. It’s here, and you’d better decide to enjoy it or you’re going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.”

[b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians #1)|Lev Grossman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977] tells the story of a smart but cynical Brooklyn high school graduate, Quentin Coldwater, who expects the worst in life and is also a fan of the Fillory and Further books (a series of fantasy books not entirely unlike [b:The Chronicles of Narnia|11127|The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia, #1-7)|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1449868701s/11127.jpg|781271]). He finds out that magic is real and attends a college for magic called Brakebills. Later on, he also finds out that the fantasy world Fillory is real, and that what he thought Fillory was is not how Fillory truly is.

Generally, Quentin Coldwater and his friends are not really a likeable group, but I liked them, because they are very human (sometimes a little too human). Quentin is a nerd underneath all his moody, at times boring and annoying attitude. Although all of Quentin’s friends are super smart and snarky (some), they are also united by the fact that all of them are complicated and have something tragic or miserable that happened to them in the past or even the present. However, there were a few characters that I didn’t particularly like (Penny, Alice…) Penny is the arse out of all arses and Alice is perfect (I know she’s troubled and all deep down, but alright, I just wasn’t fond of her).

“If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so.”

The plot is a gritty one. Magic isn’t sparkles and rainbows or waving a wand for the magicians in this book. Magic is precise (on the surface anyway), hands have to suffer through the pain of being twisted and knead around. What looks like a perfectly normal fantasy world is actually as messy as can be, not so different from our own world, but prettier on the surface and wilder deep below. No “for sure” happy endings can be expected to happen. Admittedly, some parts of Brakebills life had my attention wandering away, but besides that, Fillory is truly enchanting.

I neither liked nor disliked the writing. Some dark jokes, not-exactly-hidden references and a lot of descriptions. At least it was that way for me. Long descriptions of rooms and buildings. Great for picturing the buildings (or rooms) in my mind, but it can be a bore sometimes. Unless you’re a fan of that kind of thing. Now and then, there are also really awesome quotes.

“It’s time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.”

I liked how the darker themes were brought in, and I appreciate the “how terrible life actually is” thing, but maybe a happier theme intersecting with the darker ones could have made the whole story more interesting. Paying attention to the details in this book makes the fantasy in it so much more wilder and dangerous.

Overall, I liked this book well enough. Despite what it says on the book or online, this is not Harry Potter for grown-ups. It’s something completely different from Harry Potter. There’s a Narnia-ish feeling in some of the Fillory scenes, but that’s probably how discovering a new magical world reads like.