I don't know if I should like this book or roll my eyes. I finished it relatively quickly and I did find myself interested in one of the side characters, Alice, whose character is well developed and interesting. I ultimately kept coming back to the book to find out what happens to her. The main character, however, is the ultimate jerk. It's difficult to like him and, frankly, I never did. This is Book One in a series, although only Book One and Book Two, The Magician King, have been published thus far. The basic premise of the book is that a miserable young man named Quentin Coldwater discovers that magic is real and he is transported to a magical university where he makes a few friends and essentially gets his Bachelor's degree in Magic (think Harry Potter goes to college). The twist is that he fervently wants to escape the magical school and go to a different magical world that he's read about since he was a kid (think Narnia). So one day he finds out that it may actually be possible to go to the other magical world and then the adventure begins. My problem with that is the adventure begins about 75% of the way through the book. So up until that time you have to deal with Quentin whining about how he hates school, he hates his family, he barely tolerates his friends, he only kind of likes his girlfriend. You may want to eat some cheese while you read this book because there is a lot of whine flowing. It's been praised as a darker Harry Potter, but really it's just about a guy who is probably clinically depressed, but happens to know magic and wants to go to Narnia.
SPOILER ALERT: I have more to say, but don't want to give too much of the plot away. If you want to know one more thought of mine, highlight the text starting here --->
I don't often do this, but I kind of wished Quentin was the one who died and not Alice. Her character and her background of coming from a magical family, that we are only vaguely introduced to, would have made stunning material for Book Two. Instead, I've recently learned that Book Two brings back some little girl that Quentin had a crush on while he was still at a non-magical high school and in the end of that book she apparently gets raped. No thank you Mr. Grossman. Why do you have a vendetta against your female characters? I'll be crossing Book Two off my list.<-----end spoiler
