With THE MAGICIANS‘ main plot boiled down to “student goes to exclusive school, learns magic,” comparisons to HARRY POTTER are inevitable. Except that in Lev Grossman’s novel, the boy conjurer gets laid and ingests drugs.
No, it’s not for kids, although its roots spur from classic young-adult fantasy literature, from C.S. Lewis to J.K. Rowling. Grossman takes the wide-eyed wonder that children can find in books, bottles it, shakes it up, and lets the contents loose on an anything-goes landscape. The result is among the year’s finest novels. There’s magic in it, in more ways than one.
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