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The Magicians by Lev Grossman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Magic can not make the mundane any less mundane" would be the central idea of this book. Or perhaps it's "no matter how magical your environment is, you are still yourself".

I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters felt very real. Most often they weren't very nice but somehow I keep wanting to read to see if they would learn their lessons and become likeable people. An over arching sense of nihilism and ennui seems central to most of the characters and yet every time this got too much, Mr. Grossman would change the scene or change the pace. Grossman was also able to keep me caring enough about his character to see if they would reach an epiphany and improve their lives or at least care about them beyond what the next thrill was. This does happen near the end of the book.

I would say not everyone can read a book about such self-centered and nihilistic characters but if you enjoyed Catcher in the Rye than you will enjoy this book. In fact I would briefly describe it as a Harry Potter told through the J.D. Salingers' lens.

The audio book is well narrated by Mark Bramhall.

I will definitely be picking up the sequel.

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I keep hiting replay on this song....