Hi there!
Welcome to our March Finale for Lev Grossman's The Magicians. We finally finished this one and it's time to look back on the second half of this novel and describe how we feel.
Trigger Warning:
Overall
We didn't love this book. The more we read it, over and over we realized we don't like the attitude Quentin takes throughout this first installment in the series. Brieanna didn't like the concept of Fillory, but Ceraya did. At first, he seems cool and genuine, but the moment he realizes that magic is real, he turns into a huge selfish butthole.
We were surprised by all the stuff that happened in the second half of this novel. It's packed full of action for sure. We're a little tired of slow burns - we want a book with a normal-ass rising action. It needs to be entertaining, and sometimes slow-burns are not. This particular book was a boring slow-burn and we lost interest and didn't get to finish it on time.
Everyone Wildn' Out
After graduation everyone seems to wild out and do whatever they want - orgies, drugs, alcohol, etc. The author seemed to equate hedonistic pursuits with a meaningless existence.
They encounter a Christian Magician and that causes beef in the friend group. Because he somehow applies meaning to his existence, it angered the crew (who do not apply meaning to their existence). This leads Quentin to cheat on Alice, as he uses the excuse that life means nothing so why not, and that Alice should join them in bed. That being said this reveals how little Quentin values his relationship with Alice. He doesn't think for even a second that she might not like being cheated on.
We think that Quentin got bored with Alice and lost interest in her - and instead of telling her the truth about how he felt, he just had a threesome in front of her. Ceraya thinks it's interesting that it wasn't explicitly stated. Quentin doesn't want to admit to himself that he has a thing for Elliot but he totally does.
Once they are interested in Fillory, and get there, suddenly there is meaning again and they can finally feel like there is something to do with their lives.
Getting to Fillory
Lev talks about useless shit that doesn't need to be talked about in the first half of the novel, but Fillory expands the second half of the novel into a magical universe we actually give a shit about. This universe is like Narnia, but more chaotic and mature.
Learning that there is an evil side to Fillory was really interesting. This place is unique and feywild (for the DND lovers out there). Very much reminds Ceraya of a bunch of weird stuff that happens to be super cute but could also kill you. It's very creative. We loved that aspect of the universe.
Martin Chatwin: The Beast
Having a former good guy becomes the bad guy is an interesting concept. That being said it would have been more interesting if Martin had been in the story as a character at Brakebills as well. But we don't learn too much about his backstory in the first book. We did not see it coming and it surprised us. When we learned that the ultimate bad guy was one of the Chatwin children, we felt almost betrayed.
Alice sacrificing herself to kill Martin was very sad (but also very heroic) and we didn't see it coming at all. We weren't as broken up about this as we feel we should have been because Alice was written through Quentin's eyes. She wasn't the main character and was also a woman in this story without any decent representation - she was written through the eyes of a straight white man who views women as meat.
Convincing
Seeing that Jane Chatwin was the Paramedic and the Watcherwoman was very cool also. She effectively saved everyone's lives (except Alice's), and that was interesting to see.
Seeing the friends come back and try to get Quentin to come with them into Fillory again was a little sweet - they seem to think that he is an integral part of the group and cannot be left behind if they decide to go on this adventure again.
We appreciate this because he was depressed and down on himself because of what had happened in Fillory. On the other hand they're just coming back because the need another King of Fillory, and Quentin seems to be the only option.
Conclusion
In the end, this book wasn't the greatest one out there, but it is a great adventure and has a well-thought-out universe that you can lose yourself in. Thank you for reading along with us and we'll catch you on the next one!
Ceraya & Brieanna
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