I read the Magicians years ago and finally decided to try my hands at its sequel. Maybe the flaws are more pronounced in this book or I've grown enough as a person since reading the first book that I'm more aware or the flaws but either way I could not like this book even if I tried. 

The characters are all pretentious, self-righteous, judgmental people who don't grow out of those qualities. Rather they seem to prefer and seem to be giving the message that that's how one achieves greatness. 

And even when they have the chance for the chance for any marker of true friendship (compassion, trust, respect, etc), it's only acted on when all other options are exhausted and only as a means to an end. 

Also incredibly sensitive subjects like SA are handled so indelicately and with the obvious faults that derive from men writing women without input from women. The author even went so far as to say the victim enjoyed the violence against her and that without said violence she would have never achieved the level of greatness she did.  

When it came to the actual plot, everything came too easily or resolved itself without any real character work. A lot of the real challenges seem to have occurred off-page and we the readers are just vaguely told about what happened. No one earned the keys or the saving of magic. There wasn't even a real representation of the magic being lost. Just a general idea that it could happen. We aren't even really given an example of why humans should even have magic since all of it is used for selfish reasons. I can't think of any moment in the book where magic was used for a purpose that was even a small benefit for the rest of the world. 

I enjoyed this book slightly more than the first one. The plot definitely moved at a more steady pace than its predecessor and the focus was more on the plot than being forced to live in our main character’s head. I appreciate the swifter pace and the more plot driven aspect of the story rather than it being character driven. 

I still really don’t like the characters as a whole. They still tend to be on the selfish side and it makes it hard to care about their fates as a whole. The only characters I really felt anything for are Eliot and Julia, who, while being important, aren’t our main character. 

I’m surprised there was no trigger warning for sexual violence and I would have been very upset reading

Julia’s rape at the hands of the trickster god and the graphic depiction of violence in the scene

if I hadn’t had prior knowledge from my husband. 

All in all this is an entertaining read and I’m glad I didn’t let my feelings about the first book keep me from reading this one, even though this will likely not be high on the ‘reread’ list. 

I really, really enjoyed this (as expected). It got its hooks into me because I finished this over a week ago and I am *still* angry about the ending. It's a great ending in a writing sense - I was so wrapped up in everything else the possibility didn't occur to me. But it's strong and dramatic and sets up *so many* questions for the next book and in that way, it's brilliant. I haven't seen much of the show, so the content is still new and exciting for me!

My biggest qualm is the way Julia's story was handled. There's an aspect to the general journey that I understand, but her critical moment was absolutely unnecessary and could have been handled without sexual violence.

Otherwise, this book had a great sense of urgency, a lot of appropriately frustrating moments that kept me engrossed as a ready, and the right balance of magic and not to be compelling without feeling impossible (in its setting).

Third Read, 2022.

I'm too attached to the show to give up on this series. I liked this book a lot better divorced from the first one. It still has some misogyny (and other harmful -isms) but significantly less than the first. The addition of Julia's perspective was a nice upgrade from only Quentin's.

I still have a lot of issues with the use of

rape as character development

in Julia's plot. I detest the message that comes along with that choice and

especially the choice to both remove Julia's shade and start her transformation into a goddess with it, which felt like a type of commentary on the outcome of sexual assault in terms of personal growth (as if to say, sure, it breaks you, but it also makes you into a better form of yourself?) which just wasn't Grossman's to make in the first place.

 

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Second Read, 2021.
Made it fifty percent through before tiring of having my filter for blatant misogyny constantly on. There are better books to put my energy into. DNF.
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First Read, 2015.
Ugh. Why did I finish this.