Crossing Over: Unique Fantasies with Unlikable Protagonists

Hey all. This month's Crossing Over is a little later than usual because I had a lot of other posts I was working on. I think. Or I was busy. I don't know. On top of that fact, like last month, I don't have a theme this month to focus me. But I've restored my idea stockpile for these and I have one that I'm really excited to share this one.

If you're not familiar with Crossing Over it's a feature that stemmed from my desire to recommend an adult book with crossover appeal based on a YA or sometimes Middle Grade book that are similar. I hate that we pigeonhole books into a specific age range and so I try to combat that. Plus it's basically an if you liked, then try but for crossover books. It runs once a month here and I pick the books based on the theme of what I'm reading. But like I said, no theme this month so here is a completely arbitrary choice.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Read My Review / Add to Goodreads

I love this series so much. It's one that I think is really polarizing within the fantasy community because of the way it treats magic and the characters but those are things that I love about it. For me, this is one of the most unique fantasies because of the way it plays with the classic tropes. This is a book with a magical system where magic doesn't solve problems it creates them, it's a magic that comes from darkness. There is also this really interesting world within a world that is not at all what you expect when you learn about it. Not to mention this is a book with a main character that is not easy to like. He's a selfish and whiny little jerk who never seems to be satisfied even when he gets exactly what he wants in life. But he also has some really great development throughout the book and surprisingly I empathized with him. This book is not for everyone but if you like unlikable characters and if you're looking for a unique fantasy absolutely check this out.

Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar
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I loved this book a lot when I read it last month. I think honestly one of the reasons I liked it so much is that it reminded me a lot of The Magicians when I was reading it.  For me, this is one of the most unique fantasies because of the way it plays with the classic tropes. This is a book with a magical system that is unlike many magical systems and I loved that. I don't want to give it away but it's similar to The Magicians in a very particular way that I enjoyed.  There is also this really interesting magical realism type world that is not at all what you expect when you learn about it.Not to mention this is a book with a main character that is not easy to like. He's a selfish little jerk who never seems to be satisfied even when he gets exactly what he wants. But he also has some really great development throughout the book and surprisingly I empathized with him. This book is not for everyone but if you like unlikable characters and if you're looking for a unique fantasy absolutely check this out.

These are both good examples of books I think of really weird and unique fantasies. They have these really great atmospheric tones and a unique settings with some of the most interesting magical systems I have come across. It plays with the tropes in a interesting way and I like that about it. The Magicians has been described as adult Harry Potter and so the obvious choice for a similar book would be Carry On, but not to me. There are similarities but if you really want a book that has a similar tone and themes I think this is the book for you.

Have you read The Magicians and/or Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies? What did you think? What unique fantasies with crossover appeal do you like? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

Discussion Post: On Unlikable Characters

About a week ago I was taking part in a live chat on Book Riot with Rainbow Rowell, where she was talking about Landline. Someone asked about unlikable characters and I was shocked that they would think that about her characters. I LOVE her characters, I had never considered that they could be "unlikable." But that got me thinking. That same day I had posted my review of The Magician's Land where I said that even though the characters are not very likable, I like that about them. More than once I have told someone who my favorite character in a series is and people are shocked by my answer. I then feel the need to defend not only the character but also myself. So allow me to do just that and explain why I like "unlikable" characters.

To me there is a big difference between unlikable characters and unsympathetic characters. A lot of the time I find it hard to like people who do terrible things but if I understand why they are doing these things then I'm going to enjoy them and their story. When I was reading Side Effects May Vary I felt like the main character Alice was treating people with absolutely no respect and it made me not like her very much. But I did understand why she was acting this way, and despite the fact I hated her behavior it made her a sympathetic and compelling character. If I can understand a character's motivation then I will easily empathize with them and like them no matter how outrageous and inappropriate their actions may be.

Source

And honestly I don't even really need to agree with their motivation to sympathize with a character that is difficult to like. I mean one of my favorite books is the tortured Gothic love story, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. This is not your typical Austenian romance about misunderstandings and love developing over time. No, this is a book about two spiteful and vindictive people ruining the lives of everyone around them because they're in love and they can't be together. They even ruin each other's lives despite the fact that they are hopelessly in love. They are not easy to like but they are incredibly compelling because I am able to get inside their heads and know why they are doing these terrible things.

Another big thing for me with unlikable characters is, are they realistic? We all know those people who whine all the time, are conceited, and act like they're better than everyone else. I once heard that as readers we like characters who have traits we like about ourselves and dislike characters who have traits we don't like about ourselves. For me this is not entirely true. If I can relate to a fictional character to someone I know in real life (even better if I can relate them to myself) then for me that is a realistic and enjoyable character to read about, even if they are difficult to like. The best example for this one I can give is Quentin Coldwater in The Magicians trilogy. Quentin is annoyingly whiny and never satisfied despite getting everything he ever wanted. But that's part if his charm. Quentin has spent his whole life wanting to escape into something he thought was better. It's his main character flaw. He's the eternal pessimist and I can completely relate. Sure, it's frustrating at times to be on his side but these attitudes of being perpetually unhappy makes him seem realistic and unique. If I can relate at all to the character then I will like them.

 Finally, I will like an unlikable character if they are complex. Similar to the two previous reasons, but if a character does terrible or annoying things but they aren't just a caricature and have something under the surface then I'm going to enjoy them. My example for this one is my favorite unlikable character who I love and will defend until I am out of breathe and friends, Sansa Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire. So yes, when I first met the Starks I found Sansa vapid and annoying. But then I realized something, she's a teenage girl and I'm hating her for being just that. Then I understood her motivation, she's been brought up on stories of love and gallantry and she still believes that the world is good and romantic. She's an idealist. Then when I saw her in that way I realized she has this incredible inner strength that I didn't notice at first because I was fixated on the superficial layer of her personality. Maybe it was a character arc brought about by the hardships she faced or maybe it was always there under the surface and we never noticed it because she wasn't as obviously badass as those around her. But believe me when I say Sansa is one of the toughest characters in that series. A lesser person would not have been able to handle all the hate she received at the hands of the Lannisters! Despite the fact that she is one of the most disliked people within the fandom, Sansa has quickly become my favorite character in the series and it's because of her complexities.

But before I wrap this all up I feel like I would be doing the topic a disservice if I didn't mention some villains. Villains and anti-heroes are pretty much the perfect unlikable characters. You're not supposed to like the evil characters in a book, especially if there is a likable hero in the story. But for me that is so hard sometimes. For awhile my favorite characters in a book or series were the villains because they are so compelling. You know those people. The ones you love to hate! Who are so bad it's good. For all the reasons listed above I will often love a totally unlikable villain if they are sympathetic, realistic, and complex. Like Queen Levana in The Lunar Chronicles, Circe in The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, and The Darkling in the Grisha Trilogy.

How do you feel about "unlikable" characters? Has there ever been a time you felt like you had to defend your love of a character? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

ARC Review: The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

Title: The Magician's Land Series: The Magicians #3 Author: Lev Grossman Published: August 5, 2014 by Viking (Penguin Random House) Amazon Goodreads Synopsis: Contains spoilers for first two books! Read with caution! Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams that he once ruled. Everything he had fought so hard for, not to mention his closest friends, is sealed away in a land Quentin may never again visit. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex—and far more dire—than anyone had envisioned. Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers buried secrets and hidden evils and ultimately the key to a sorcerous masterwork, a spell that could create a magical utopia. But all roads lead back to Fillory, where Quentin must face his fears and put things right or die trying. The Magician’s Land is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.

**** I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and at BEA for an honest review in return. This fact has not affected my opinion of the book ****

You can also check out my BookTube review of the book if you want to hear me ramble about what I loved and watch me make a bunch of emphatic hand gestures! 

This book and I have quite a tumultuous past! One of my most anticipated reads of the year, I drop everything to get it at BEA, then I decide to start it a little early and leave it at an event I was at causing me to spiral into a self-loathing reading slump, only to get it back a few days later. I can barely put into words how happy I was to read this book, and how giddy it made me feel while reading.

The series, which was marketed at Harry Potter for grown-ups, is so much more. It can be a little polarizing within the fantasy community because what Grossman does is take well-known moments and tropes from traditional fantasy novels and pokes fun at them. It's very tongue and cheek and gives the books a feel as if it were a satire or parody. But at the same time you can tell that Grossman is coming from a place of love and affection for these classic stories. This series is a must read for fans of the fantasy genre but you will never look at things the same way again. 

This is the third and finally book in The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman. Check out my review of the first book, The Magicians, and second book, The Magician King, if like me you need a refresher of the series (I should have done a reread). If you haven't read the series, what are you waiting for? Just skip all the way down to the end of this post and enter the fantastic giveaway that the folks at Viking have made possible. (Or enter the rafflecopter here) But tread lightly throughout this review. There are no book 3 spoilers but may (does) contain book 1 or 2 spoilers. 

The great thing about this series is that each book takes on a very different classic Fantasy subgenre. The Magician's Land had an Epic Fantasy feel and was extremely reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings. And because this is the last book in the series things really come full circle for Quentin and his friends. It returns the reader to moments, places, and people from as far back as the beginning of the first book and even resolves some unresolved questions from The Magicians. As a fan of the series I couldn't help but squeal with delight when these characters reentered the picture and had their stories resolved. We also got to learn so much more about the mythology of Fillory and their first Kings and Queens, the Chatwins.

But true to form it turned the idea that magic makes everything better on it's head. In this series magic is the cause of and solution to all life's problems (like beer to Homer Simpson). This, more than anything else is what makes this series feel like a parody. It really makes you think about the use of magic in the fantasy novels we know and love. In The Magicians trilogy the magical system is very cool and unique with a clear set of rules, but it is not very fantastical. It's much more analytical and scientific. And unlike a lot of fantasy there are no easy conclusions and things that you think will go well end up going very poorly. This point is extremely evident in The Magician's Land and the characters even ask themselves, more than once, what the purpose of magic is and whether or not their decisions are going to result in anything positive. I read and enjoy a lot of fantasy, but you all know there are a lot of things I don't like. For me the almost self-deprecating manner of looking at magic in this series is amazing, creative, and without a doubt my favorite thing about the world that Lev Grossman has created.

Much of the criticism of this book, besides that it pokes fun at traditional fantasy series, is the characters. The book is full of unlikable characters who tend to spend a lot of time feeling sorry for themselves and never being fulfilled despite the fact that they have everything they ever wanted. This was absolutely the case for our main character Quentin in the first two books, but in this book he is much more sympathetic and likable. The way the last book ended completely wrecked me and I wanted nothing more than to see Quentin succeed in this book. My annoyance with him was replaced with annoyance at other characters but by the end of the book I found myself invested in the success and happiness of every single character, including new characters that quickly become favorites. Maybe they're not very likable, maybe they are extremely whiny and selfish, but because of this they are realistic, relatable, and easy to empathize with. 

And because I was so invested in seeing them succeed, this book was full of an incredible range of emotions. It's funny, sad, heart-warming, and dramatic. There were moments where I laughed out loud, moments where I cried, and moments full of action and excitement. What Lev Grossman does a fantastic job with throughout this series is establishing an atmosphere where anything can happen. As you're reading you become so engrossed with the plot development that you are on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next. It's an ominous sort of tone where the tension is palpable. It's like when you watch horror movies and the dramatic music comes on. You know something big is about to happen and you're extremely anxious until it does finally happen. 

The book not only took me on a roller coaster of emotion, but it also took me on a roller coaster of pacing. Things were very up and down throughout the story. One moment it would be building up to dramatic incident then things would slow down, only to go back up twenty-five pages later. Normally that frustrates me but in this series it works. In The Magicians Land we once again alternated perspectives between Quentin and his continued quest for self-discovery and satisfaction, with the rest of the Physical Kids in Fillory dealing with their own kind of adventure and desire to be heroes. At times I was frustrated when things would switch points of view but they were both so compelling that I would quickly dive into the other storyline. 

And despite the fact that the ending felt a little rushed this was an incredibly satisfying final book in a series that is one of my absolute favorites now. Fans of the series will love the direction that this book takes and I hope that like me they will close the page on The Magicians with the same feeling of satisfaction and vindication as I did. 

I give The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman a 9.5 out of 10

Have you read The Magician's Land? Leave me a comment with you thoughts. And if you haven't read it...

If you are a fan of fantasy, parodies, or even coming of age stories I definitely suggest checking out this series. And to encourage you to do just that I have an amazing giveaway. The generous folks at Viking have donated a finished copy of The Magicians Land for me to giveaway and to sweeten the deal, I will be throwing in paperback copies of the first two books of the series so you can marathon the series and learn to love it as much as I did. Enter the rafflecopter below (US only).

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Waiting on Wednesday: The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

A weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine

Title: The Magician's Land Series: The Magician's Book #3 Author: Lev Grossman Published: August 5, 2014 by Viking (Penguin) Amazon  Goodreads Synopsis: Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams that he once ruled. Everything he had fought so hard for, not to mention his closest friends, is sealed away in a land Quentin may never again visit. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex—and far more dire—than anyone had envisioned. Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers buried secrets and hidden evils and ultimately the key to a sorcerous masterwork, a spell that could create a magical utopia. But all roads lead back to Fillory, where Quentin must face his fears and put things right or die trying. The Magician’s Land is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.

Why I'm Waiting:

I read The Magicians a few years ago when I was going through a total magic/witches phase of my reading and was totally blown away by it. It was marketed as Harry Potter for adults but it is so much more.

First imagine someone who is obsessed with The Chronicles of Narnia who gets to attend Hogwarts, that's what happens in this series. But it's view of magic isn't all puppies and rainbows. In fact it's full of debauchery and disappointment. In this series magic doesn't solve problems it creates them. There are so many references to so many different Fantasy series that this is definitely a book for Fantasy fans.

Then last year I read book two in the series, The Magician King. And while it was similar to the first book with it's fantasy references, complex characters that are unlikable but sympathetic, and an interesting magical system, it was even better. This book took on the Hero's Journey storyline that I love so much and when it didn't end happily I was wrecked... WRECKED!

A few weeks ago at BEA I was waiting for a book drop only to see someone with a copy of The Magician's Land so I ran over to Penguin to get a copy only to meet Lev Grossman. I seriously freaked out and made a total fool of myself gushing about how much I love this series and how I want there to be a happy ending.

This is the last book in the trilogy and I NEED to find out what happens. I am so invested in these characters and their successes that I cannot wait to read this book. I have to find out if Quentin gets what he deserves and finally finds happiness. Even the synopsis of the book gives me conflicting feeling of joy and sadness. I'm going to be an emotional wreck while reading it, I just know it, but I can't wait!

What book are you waiting for this Wednesday? Leave me a comment. And if you want to hear more about the books I'm excited about that I got at BEA check out my very first foray into the world of BookTube (I talk more about my encounter with Lev Grossman).

Book Review: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Title: The Magician King (The Magicians Book #2) Author: Lev Grossman Publisher: Penguin, 2011  Amazon Goodreads  Synopsis: Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring. Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they'd hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia's illicitly-learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.

This book as been in my TBR pile for nearly three years, ever since I finished reading The Magicians [My Review]. As soon as I started reading it I realized why I not only hate waiting too long between books in a series, but why I prefer to binge read a series. I started reading and realized that I had forgotten practically every detail about the first book. It took me about fifty pages to get acclimated and remember the many cast of characters.

What I did remember was how whiny Quentin is, and when this book starts out he's no different. It takes quite a lot to satisfy the eternal pessimist in him. Even getting his heart's desire of becoming a king of Fillory, the magical land he was obsessed with, doesn't do the trick. He's still restless and longs for an adventure (yeah, Quentin, because the last adventure worked out so well for you). So he commissions a ship and embarks on a tedious errand that turns into a quest for "The Key That Winds the World," thinking that will give him some pleasure. He very easily finds the key but when he starts to use it, it takes everything away from him and he ends up back in the real world. So he's forced to go on a different adventure, this one to get back to Fillory.

The story takes a very different tone than the first book. It's more of an epic quest kind of story. The characters travel throughout not only Fillory but our world, and the Nietherlands as well. They encounter some old characters and make new friends that help them along the way including (spoiler alert) a dragon. It still pulls from recognizable fantasy classics and turns them on it's head but instead of Harry Potter we get a lot more of the sweeping adventure stories in the fantasy genre like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, A Wrinkle in Time, Wizard of Oz, and even a Dr. Who reference (Quentin's a Time Lord). Of course it also pulls quite a bit from the Chronicles of Narnia.

But in it's heart The Magician's King is a Hero's Journey. Quentin must figure out what it means to be a hero and find the strength within himself. He must go on an epic adventure to save what he holds dear and it will completely change him in the process. He has to give up what he holds most dear. This book is quite a reality check for Quentin.

Quentin is of course not alone on this mission. On his Fillorian adventure he surrounds himself with a cast of characters just as miserable and depressed as he is, including a teenage boy he sees himself in. Also along for the ride is Julia, his oldest friend who failed the Brakebills entrance exam but wouldn't give up on magic. She becomes a hedge witch and when they end up back in the real world Quentin has to rely on Julia and her magic to get them back.

Julia is arguably the shared protagonist in The Magician King, and if she's not she's definitely the most compelling secondary character. The present-day adventure of trying to get back to Fillory is punctuated by flashbacks of how Julia learned magic. The experience of failing the Brakebills exam basically ruined her life. She was supposed to forget everything, but she couldn't forget. Everything didn't come easy to her like it did Quentin, and she was forced to take matters into her own hands. The others look down on her because she wasn't educated in a fancy school, but deep down they're jealous of her connection to Fillory and are kind of scared her powers. She's even kind of scared of herself. She's undergone a pretty serious transformation since we first met her in The Magicians, and I have to say I like this more badass Julia better, but then again I typically like dark and villainous characters. She's on a similar Hero's Journey but for her it's a journey of power. She needs to learn magic and meets people who are taking it to it's limits for their own game. She get's to a point where she fears they've taken things too far but she can't turn back and like they say in Once Upon A Time, magic comes with a price.

The book also explores the idea of belonging. Quentin always escaped into Fillory when he was a child, he clung to it's loving arms far longer than he should have. But then he learns that magic is real and starts studying to do real magic and finds a place where he thinks he belongs. Eventually he gets bored with it, but Fillory is there for him to escape into again and this time it's for real. But even Fillory can't make him happy. He spends a lot of the book desperately trying to get back to a place that he didn't seem to appreciate anymore (absence makes the heart grow fonder, eh Quentin). Julia meanwhile feels the same way. She thought she belonged at Brakebills and turns to learning magic by any means necessary to get there. Then when she gets to Fillory, where she seems to assimilate easier and better than the others, she's even more depressed than Quentin. Throughout their quest to get back to Fillory Julia keeps repeating the phrase "I can't stay here," no matter where they are she doesn't seem to belong. I found myself wanting to ask her why.

The end of the book takes a complete turn and I'm honestly still processing it. When I wasn't looking I ended up sympathizing with Quentin and wanting him to be rewarded for his heroics. I'm not sure if it was him or I who changed and I didn't even realize it had happened until that final twist. 

On the whole this was a great second book in a trilogy. It pulls a lot from the first and makes you want to read the first but it also it's own individual story. The writing was impeccable. I found myself tweeting, marking, and writing down more quotes than I ever have before. The story was interesting and compelling book with larger themes I think everyone can relate to. Definitely read this if you liked the first book. I also recommend this series to anyone who is a big fantasy fan. I give it a 9 out of 10.

If you've read The Magician King, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment and of course... HAPPY READING!

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Magicians by Lev Grossman is the story of Quentin Clearwater, a high school senior in Brooklyn who is bored and depressed with his life. He tries to make his dreary existence a little better by escaping into a series of books about the magical land of Fillory. He becomes so obsessed that he even learns how to do magic tricks. Then one day he gets a mysterious transcript of the unpublished fifth book in the Fillory series which leads him to the real life magical academy of Brakebills. Following a very long and difficult exam he gets accepted into the school and starts learning real magic. Imagine if a person obsessed with the Chronicles of Narnia was accepted to Hogwarts. It completely turns his life around. But Brakebills is not quite the magic he was hoping for. It is a world of arrogance, hedonism, and excess. The characters are constantly unhappy and turning to sex, drugs, and alcohol. And even becoming a real magician can’t make Quentin happy. And just when he thinks he hits rock bottom, that’s when Quentin and his friends find out that not only is Fillory real how to get there. When they arrive they go in search of an adventure that will make it all worthwhile and better, but not even that is what they hoped for.

I’m generally not a fan of books that take a long time to pick up in terms of the action. And while the first 250 pages are devoted to explaining Quentin’s rather mundane magical education, there is no lack of storytelling. There are brief periods of action, like when a terrifying creature from another dimension shows up in the middle of their class, the school wide welters tournament (which is a game sort of like a magical version of chess where they are the pieces), and when Quentin and the fourth years go for a “semester abroad” to Antarctica. And even without little action there was a lot of anticipation. I spent a long time waiting for everything, which I knew was going to go down, to actually happen. And just when I couldn’t take the build-up any longer the action came.

Generally, however, the story is less about the action and more about the characters. The characters are believable in their flawed humanity. Quentin’s main character trait is his perpetual unhappiness, even when he gets his heart’s desire it seems inadequate. Then there is shy and intelligent Alice who prefers to have her nose in a book at all times and excels at magic, the aloof and magically-gifted Eliot whose superiority complex Quentin finds endearing, overly competitive and loud Janet, and Josh the large and not as gifted member of their crew who always feels inadequate next to the rest. Each with their strengths and weaknesses make them fully-formed realistic people that remind me of people I know and traits in my personality that I may or may not like. I became very invested and attached to the characters and their exploits.

While The Magicians references many other well known fantasy series including Harry Potter, the Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, Lord of the Rings, and The Wizard of Oz, it is not the fantasy novel of our childhoods. It is much more adult. It is a darker, rawer, and grittier view of magic. Often times turning the idea that magic can save and make everything better on its head. Learning real magic doesn’t make Quentin’s life better, in fact it may even make it worse. Like all other fantasy books little things mentioned off hand became big things affecting the final outcome. When everything was said and done I was just as depressed as Quentin. When it was over I found myself wanting more because not all the questions were answered and I’m secretly hoping when the next book comes out it will have a happy ending (though I doubt it). All things consider, I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to anyone who is an avid fantasy fan.