The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Originally Posted to GoodReads: September 16, 2018

I find myself almost at a loss for words, to be completely honest. Also, the words I am thinking have very little to do with the book itself... seeing as I came to the book through the TV series. Same basic story only embellished and more fleshed out from the get-go in the TV series... that’s not to say it was better, just that I kept expecting things to go certain ways because I watched the series first.

But anyway... The Magicians is pretty good. Runs through time at a really fast pace until Book II, where it starts to crawl. The main villain isn’t really villainous and just sort of appears out of nowhere. Twice. There isn’t a sense of urgency at all, until the latter sections of Book III. And then everything’s explained really quickly in Book IV and it’s just... odd. The Magicians is odd.

Of course, now I’ve written all that, I’m just gonna say it: the TV show did it better. The pacing was better the story flowed better and the characters were better. Still gonna read the next book when I get my hands on it, but so far I’ve been more affected by the TV version. *shrug*

Addition after writing quotes: Ya know, this book is actually kind of depressing. Everyone is miserable and drunk most of the time. There’s just no joy anywhere and it’s just... ugh. I have a feeling if I hadn’t watched the TV show first, I’d never have finished the book because it’s just so depressing. Ugh. 

Favorite Lines

"Quentin did a magic trick. Nobody noticed." - Narrator

"The dead ones are a lot less trouble."

"Quieter."

"Exactly." - Jane Chatwin and Quentin Coldwater

"It's kind of you to ask. I sacrifice a virgin schoolgirl every other fortnight by the light of a gibbous moon, using a silver scalpel forged by Swiss albinos. Who are also virgins. Clears my lungs right up." Eliot

"Some people need their families to become who they're supposed to be. And there's nothing wrong with that. But there are other ways to do it." - Eliot

"You do realize it's all right to have nice things somethings, right?" - Alice

"The problem with growing up," Quentin said, "is that once you're grown up, people who aren't ground up aren't fun anymore." - Quentin Coldwater

"But somewhere in the heat of magic that boundary between word and thing ruptures. It cracks, and the one flows back into the other, and the two melt together and fuse. Language gets tangled up with the world it describes." - Henry Fogg

"Being brave was easy when you would rather die than give up. Fatigue meant nothing when you actually wanted to suffer." - Narrator