Book Review

In keeping with yesterday's post, I recently read Lev Grossman's The Magicians, a novel often described as "Harry Potter for adults." For me, it comes short of that title, but was an engrossing (not intending to pun on the author's name) book. Although it presents a fantasy world with teenagers who attend a secret school of magic, it is much darker and more pessimistic. The characters who thought they would find complete satisfaction in a world of wizardry encounter only disappointment and unmet expectations. The book follows the course of the main characters as they finish school and enter the "real" world, so to speak. Although I loved the discovery of magic and the school itself, I lost interest in the subsequent plot. The characters were quite realistic but I did not connect deeply with any of them. I did, however, love the writing. The diction, syntax, and tone of the text was witty, brilliant, sarcastic, intellectual, and sublime. The book is worth a try for those looking for an elegantly-written dark urban fantasy.

Image shown under fair use, from Wikipedia.