The Magicians by Lev Grossman

 In honor of the season I will be posting reviews previously posted on Goodreads. Happy October everyone!

 Title: The Magicians
Author: Lev Grossman
Type: Adult Fiction
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Tea: Teavana's Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearl, something one is familiar with, but has a sophisticated and new twist.
Rating: 5 out of 5.

 Previously posted on Goodreads June 1, 2011.

I just recently read The Magicians for the second time. I loved it the first time, but loved it even more the second. I think I got more out of it the second time around.

Some people say The Magicians is like Harry Potter for grown ups, but it is so much more. Sure it has aspects of other fantasy novels, but what fantasy novel doesn't? Lev Grossman made this novel and this world his own. He gets down to the nitty gritty side of magic that is not shown in most novels. It is like seeing aspects of those other novels set in our day in age. While I love Harry Potter (which, for the record, does get darker as it goes) and The Chronicles of Narnia; The Magicians takes us through what it would more than likely actually be like being a magician in our world.

These characters suffer what many of us suffer, even if we do not want to admit it. Some people have a hard time reading a novel where the character suffers, but it makes the novel even more human. Quentin goes through what I think most of us did when we went away to college and started our own lives, albeit in a magical setting. And who hasn't wished they could climb through the back of their wardrobe and get to Narnia, in Quentin's case, Fillory? Grossman shows us that not everything is as we think it is and what we have already is, in fact, probably much better than we give it credit for.

This book brings excitement, laughs, sadness and a hunger for more the second it ends. I would say that The Magicians is more than a book to me, it's a friend. I would highly recommend it to anyone. This is not your typical magic novel, but is not one you would soon forget.