March Intermission: The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Hi there!

Welcome to our March Intermission for Lev Grossman's The Magicians - a moment in time when we pause halfway through our books and take stock of our experiences with characters, themes, and the story itself - making plot predictions along the way! We are picking our books based on whether we have read them or not, and go back and forth. We alternate between each other's choices, and then, every other choice is something we have read or have not read. So this month is Ceraya's pick that she has read before.

Trigger Warning: Sex, Depression, Suicide, Murder, Demons, Death

Overall

~We both agreed that this book, so far, is a weird one. We can't tell if we like it or not. It has a lot of unique character choices and world-building descriptions that we didn't expect. This book is very slowly paced. The first half seemed incredibly boring compared to what Ceraya knows will happen. It was a waiting game for Ceraya to get thru the first half this time. Brieanna thought that this series was going to be like Harry Potter in the sense that the entire series would focus on the students in school. After learning that they Graduate halfway through the book - Brieanna is interested to see what will happen next, but so far this one has been boring to her. Nothing about Quentin is interesting to Brieanna. That being said, the beginning of this novel was a little tedious and a slow-burn for sure.

Quentin & Alice

~Quentin was boring to us, as there wasn't anything interesting about him, honestly. He just seemed like a generic teenage boy. Alice wasn't interesting either, other than apparently she had boobs and was kind of shy. We liked Alice's light magic, and liked her playing with shadows and color, and wanted to see more of that, but so far the actual use of magic has been practical and not really exciting.

~Brieanna is interested to know what Quentin's discipline will end up being, or if he will tap into a new or forgotten ancient magic. She hopes it is something dynamic and unexpected - and she hopes he is not just another physical magician. Ceraya knows exactly the answer to this and will not say anything.

~Quentin and Alice begin their relationship - they are weird and awkward so their relationship is weird too - they've been starting their relationship for the whole time but didn't act on their feelings until they were almost in 5th year when they finally had sex as humans. This relationship is the most interesting this to happen in the book so far to both Brieanna and Ceraya.

Brakebills: We Have The Beast

~This school is cool, but we think they did not explain enough to the students, and just expected them to go along with it and take the entrance exams without knowing they were getting into. We guess it's the romance of the world. When they enter the school they romanticize it, but the world sucks and everything sucks around it? It's a very negative outlook on the rest of the world. Is there something wrong with it that is part of the plot?

~The Beast was quite scary, and is symbolic of the fear at Brakebills to dive into the darker side of magic, and the fact that the one student dies, makes Brieanna think that she was dabbling somehow. Or something like that?

~All of the Physical Kids are huuuuge assholes and it really annoyed us. They are the privileged ones who can manipulate the world around them. They are all sent to Brakebills South, where they practice in Silent Isolation. Brieanna thought this was cool, and an interesting section of the book. The characters turning into animals was interesting too - especially when animal sex was introduced. Brieanna didn't see it coming, and is still a little confused as to why it was there.

The Rules of Magic

~Being super sad makes you magical? Or in pain? Or tortured somehow? Interesting - we want more info on this and how magical abilities are determined and cultivated.

~Welter's Game- they didn't explain this game very much, and it still hasn't been explained - we wanted to learn more.

Julia

~Everyone in her life probably thinks she is crazy - Quentin is correct in being upset that Fog didn't wipe her memory correctly. Will we hear more about her in this book? Maybe? We don't like that this whole book is all about Quentin or that he is the narrator. Brieanna is interested to learn more about what she has been through.

Where We Are Now

~Everyone has just graduated and they are going into the world to do...what exactly? Find a job? Not sure.

~Dragons exist - wild! Can't wait to see more. Hopefully there will be a dragon in this book? Magical creatures have not been mentioned much.

Where We Go From Here

~Fillory and Further will come back, as the sixth book is mentioned in the beginning of the book and then not much after, in fact it is lost. Hopefully it will come back.

~The Beast will come back too, probably, and is likely the baddie.

Conclusion

~The beginning of this book definitely could have been better - especially because this was written by a man and from the point of view of a boy. We don't like Quentin, who seems to not like himself and who is selfish at the same time. Magic saved him, and we don't quite believe he will do the right thing when called to action. Hopefully the second half of this novel will tie up these loose ends.

Another note that we want to make is that this author makes certain word choices that seem to shame LGBTQ+ Characters and objectify female characters often. We don't know what the author's stance is on these things, but it is evident that at the time this book was written, these characters were not represented well.

With love, see you soon!

Ceraya & Brieanna