Aaron J

Would you be happy if you suddenly had everything you ever wanted? That question lies at the core of “The Magicians,” which is, if nothing else, a serious page-turner. It reads like Harry Potter, if Harry was an angsty teenager and these pages were his LiveJournal (Quentin is feeling: Dissatisfied). I felt that all of the rip-offs (sorry, “references”) were not exactly well-earned, despite the story's attempt to position itself for a more adult, post-YA reader base. The book's strongest points are curiously at odds, with Grossman's wonderfully inventive imagination constantly being desaturated by his dismayingly-realistic portrayal of a young adult in the throes of depression. The book's final chapters follow a fantastic plot twist with a extra-large heaping of indifference, and by the final pages I was left wondering why I should care about where the plot was going, when certainly no one else was.

Well-researched, compelling, concise. Elegantly answers the why — somewhat less so the how.

Essential. Not simply the voice of a black man in America but a man at odds with himself, his family, and the world presented to him; an artist who never wanted to be. I may never understand how it felt to write this, but I'll never forget how it felt to read it.

Fantastic world-building. Likeable but almost universally flat characters. Plot meanders but reaches a satisfying conclusion, leaving me very curious about events to come. Looking forward to reading more, although I'm not yet sold on the Sanderson hype.

Was okay. Heavily twist-dependent, but if that's what you're looking for, it's worth the read.