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A review by sydtalksbooks
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
1.0
I don't like being a hater and I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I found it insufferable. It took me three weeks to finish, mostly because every time Quentin described a woman I had to put the book down and scream into a pillow. And then it was impossible to pick back up again. If I have to read another man describing how heavy women's breasts are I may simply never read another male author ever again!
My biggest problem with this novel is that it was character driven with no plot until we were already three quarters of the way through the book. I understand this was a trilogy and a fantasy trilogy at that, so this would have been fine if there was at least significant and entertaining world building going on in the first three quarters, but there was none of that either! The whole book was a mix of Harry Potter and Narnia so the world building was unoriginal and lacked detail. I also could have let it slide if I liked any of the characters, but they were all terrible people, and not even in the fun and sexy way that some characters are terrible, you know?
Quentin was an insufferable, pretentious, misogynist asshole and for what? This man needs a therapist desperately and doesn't seem to realize this until he watches his girlfriend burn alive in front of him. And then apparently he still didn't learn anything because the book ends with him going back to Fillory. The only character I liked even a little bit was Alice, but then it was revealed that she was in love with Quentin and I began to question that! And then the author of course killed her off for the sake of a man's character development so! I really could not have a single win this whole book!
Anyway, I'm exhausted and never want to hear the names Quentin Coldwater, Fillory, or Brakebills ever again.
My biggest problem with this novel is that it was character driven with no plot until we were already three quarters of the way through the book. I understand this was a trilogy and a fantasy trilogy at that, so this would have been fine if there was at least significant and entertaining world building going on in the first three quarters, but there was none of that either! The whole book was a mix of Harry Potter and Narnia so the world building was unoriginal and lacked detail. I also could have let it slide if I liked any of the characters, but they were all terrible people, and not even in the fun and sexy way that some characters are terrible, you know?
Quentin was an insufferable, pretentious, misogynist asshole and for what? This man needs a therapist desperately and doesn't seem to realize this until he watches his girlfriend burn alive in front of him. And then apparently he still didn't learn anything because the book ends with him going back to Fillory. The only character I liked even a little bit was Alice, but then it was revealed that she was in love with Quentin and I began to question that! And then the author of course killed her off for the sake of a man's character development so! I really could not have a single win this whole book!
Anyway, I'm exhausted and never want to hear the names Quentin Coldwater, Fillory, or Brakebills ever again.