The Magicians by Lev Grossman

It's been a while since I've been in love.

I think by the time you reach my age (ah, the ripe old age of 25) you have probably been in love at least a time or two. Sometimes after you've been in love, even though the feelings are never quite as intense the second time around, you just keep going back. I've gone back to Harry Potter a time or two, but finally I've found something worth moving on for. Don't get me wrong - I'll always be faithful to HP. He'll always be one of my first loves, but I've found something magical with Grossman's 2nd novel (I couldn't resist the pun, sorry).

My friend Paul lent it to me and I was so happy he did - this is why I ask for recommendations so often. I never would have picked up The Magicians without his recommendation. So please, please, please, if you have favorite books you think I may not have read, please send their titles my way!

I mentioned Potter in part because Grossman mentions Potter multiple times throughout the course of the novel. The Magicians is the story of a boy who is very much like me in that he finds himself always feeling a little bit out of place - daydreaming about other worlds, other places (predominantly magical places) in which he thinks he would probably fit in better. The thing that makes me jealous, though, is that Quentin's daydreaming/fervent wishing eventually leads him to stumble into a magical world - and then through that world into one that is even more magical. Who knows, maybe eventually I will have the same fate (fingers crossed).

I need to make a very specific and important distinction here -I very much love movies and books about magical worlds. But I love them when they start in the normal world. The thing that appeals to me is the idea that someday I could fall into the same circumstances. Those people who start in magical/different worlds don't really appeal to me. I started in a normal world and so far my only way out is books.

You will never, EVER catch me saying a bad world about Harry Potter, but one thing that is GOOD about The Magicians that is in stark contrast to the Harry Potter series is the fact that the characters in The Magicians and its target audience are slightly older than HP, and therefore the storyline is able to be a little bit more mature and a little bit darker and more cynical - which appeals to me. As Paul says, you can't appreciate the sweet without the sour...so I think the dark side in The Magicians intensifies your appreciation of the light. At times it's laugh out loud funny - and at others it really tugs on your heartstrings. Harry Potter has sweet and sour as well, obviously, but I would liken Harry Potter more to Sour Patch Kids (there is nothing wrong with that! Sometimes that's exactly what you want!) and The Magicians to...I don't know, tart lemonade? That metaphor got away from me, but you know what I'm trying to say. Same themes, different levels of...maturity.

You never forget your first love, but often you outgrow that relationship. Sometimes it's just the natural course of things. As you move on in your life, often when you fall in love again, you see some of the same things in them as you did in your first love. Lucky for me, that was what let me know that my relationship with The Magicians was likely to turn out well. And it did. So well. Please do me a favor and read this book so I can do you the favor of having been the one to recommend it to you.

And once you read it, you will know what this means - I desperately want a cozy horse for my birthday.