Book 29 - Sadface Teens All Grown Up: A Conclusion

Title: The Magician's Land Author: Lev Grossman Genre: Contemporary fantasy

Hold on to your hats, everybody.

This book marks the conclusion of Grossman's trilogy, The Magicians. At first, I was not impressed. The writing feels tired and somewhat bored of itself, not unlike the protag, Quentin. The adventures of his youth (i.e. the two preceding books, The Magicians, and The Magician King) are over, and now he's trying to 'adult' as best he can - which in his case means forgetting the fantastical land of Fillory and sinking into the mundanity of everyday life. After my misgivings about the previous book around the lack of representation of anyone who wasn't white and thin, this lame beginning absolutely fed into my skepticism about this instalment.

Some of my concerns persisted throughout the book, even as I became so engrossed in it that I could barely put it down. Grossman's strict ideals of beauty, for example, were painfully obvious. "Holly, moon-faced and pretty, except for one ear which was covered in a port-wine birthmark". What, she can't be pretty AND have a birthmark? Psh. PSH, I SAY. Additionally, no main character - at least none that is written to be taken seriously - deviates from thin and white. Yes, again. Oh, there's an Indian guy - a family man who mysteriously disappears in the first quarter of the book, never to be referred to again (and not in a he'll-be-back way, but in an inconsequential-existence kind of way). Oh, here's a black girl - a silly schoolgirl with a minor filler part who uses magic to warp her reflection in the mirror. The Hermione in me is simply dying.

One more major item of disgruntlement needs to be addressed. The new character, Plum. There's no way around it: she. is. BORING. Holy crap. For all Quentin's flaws, he's least is an interesting, believable, often despicable character. Julia is great too; she reps a version of magic so much less sterilized and formulated than Quentin's world - so I know it's not an issue of not being able to write good female characters. For having such a cool name, Plum is remarkably bland. She's supposed to be brilliant, but we never actually see it. I was hoping she'd usher in a new age of magicians, both sucking up knowledge from Quentin and his friends and giving us cool new-gen magicks. Out with the old, in with the new! Nope. She just tags along with Quentin and his buddies; even her 'secret', which is revealed way too early and is a complete let-down, doesn't make her existence worth it. She's a poor plot device that should have been edited into oblivion drafts ago.

At this point, you might be thinking, so...don't read this, I guess? Wrong-o! Despite all the flaws of this goddamn book, I still devoured it in about four days and would highly recommend it. The plot did seem a little all over the place, but I've decided to take that as a deliberate attempt by the author to create a parallel to the deconstruction of Fillory's archetypical heroic adventure plot. The magic in this universe, and all its adjacent universes, is just so, SO cool, and Grossman's writing is effortlessly descriptive, funny, and relatable. These books are the perfect blend of teenage nihilism, Harry-Potter shenaniganness, and magic badassery.

Rating: 💼💼💼💼 / 5