A review by archaicgambit
The Magician King by Lev Grossman

adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Please read my review of book one! It'll clarify some points I make here.

I would say all the same issues-- some slight improvements due to Quentin having worked on himself a bit. I was really looking forward to reading Julia's POV but the male gaze makes it hard and at times painful to read her.

The back and forth between julia in the past and quentin in the present is pretty cool, so I really enjoyed the structure. Lev Grossman's prose is honestly pretty solid and readable. I thought the challenging of the heroic cycle/heroism was sort of there, and the exploration of mental health was a lot stronger this time.

Julia's ending is intolerable and traumatic. As much as the show is criticized for how they handled julia's reynard/goddess arc... i think they did a pretty solid job fixing what was there in the books.  I would not recommend this book for assault survivors or for people who are uncomfortable with rape scenes.
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