My First Professional Book Review: The Magician King

That’s right, folks. I’ve graduated. I’m now officially an Elitist Book Reviewer. How do I know this? Because my first review was published over at Elitist Book Reviews. I’ve always wanted to start doing official book reviews, and this marks my first foray into the fray. No, I didn’t receive any money to do this. I got something even better: Free books. As in, I got to read this book before everyone else, and I didn’t have to pay for it. This feels like stealing, but I’ve been assured it’s legal. (It also helps that the publisher gave the book to me.) In any case, I love getting the ARCs. It makes me feel very elitist.

Here’s the start of my review. Head over to the site to read the whole thing in all its glory. It’s much longer and more detailed than my normal reviews. And check out The Magician King sometime. It’s a great read.

Many people have strong feelings about Lev Grossman’s 2009 book THE MAGICIANS. It’s inspired no small amount of passion—both for and against. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the book, it tells the tale of Quentin Coldwater, a young man who’s about as diehard of a Narnia fan as you can get. (Except of course Narnia isn’t actually Narnia. It’s called Fillory—but the parallels are too strong for there to be any doubt in the reader’s mind.) He’s a genius, extremely gifted, and kind of a major self-obsessed jerk. You know—like a lot of teenagers you know, except Quentin really is a genius. But he hates his life, and he wishes more than anything that Fillory were real, and that he lived there, instead.

Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t read THE MAGICIANS already: Fillory is real, and Quentin ends up living there, instead.

Of course, it isn’t that simple. THE MAGICIANS is best described as a realistic Harry Potter. Quentin goes to a school for wizards, he befriends a group of like-minded self-obsessed teens, and they end up kind of saving the world. (continue reading . . .)