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Lev Grossman: The Magicians (2009, Viking) 3 stars

A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the …

Review of 'The magicians' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Not really Harry Potter for Adults. More like Harry Potter for depressed people in their 20s. It takes on a lot that Harry was spared: meaning, happiness, sex, political philosophy, life and death; but gets crushed under the weight of its themes in the end. Still, it deserves credit for attempting it in the first place.

I definitely preferred to Harry Potter, though. The writing was better, the magic was better, the characters were more interesting. It seems that people who like the fantasy genre felt betrayed by this take on their favorite concepts. Maybe they were betrayed. It's about time they were betrayed.

Just because you have contempt for "happily ever after," the solution isn't to replace it with "miserable ever after, but ultimately, not all that miserable because we're limited beings who forget and move on." I could say more, but I don't want to spend more than the 2 star's worth of enjoyment it gave me.