***100 Days of Summer 2023***
Reading prompt: Book narrated by a child or teen but meant for an adult audience
Virtual 12 sided dice roll: 11
This novel is an homage to the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis. Grossman calls his fantasy land Fillory, but the numerous similarities to Narnia are obvious. And the magic school that the main characters attend, Brakebills, is like a more realistic version of Hogwarts. Grossman references the two best known fictions for children, but then populates it with unhappy, unfocused teenagers.
I guess it's a study in disappointment. What if the magic of life is real and yet utterly fails to enchant you? If your magic practice becomes a grind and your graduation leaves you drifting, with no purpose or goals? Then you are transported to the land that engaged your childhood imagination and find that it's violent and uncomfortable and, unlike book characters, you have no idea what you're doing. As Quentin says, “There's no getting away from yourself, not even in Fillory.”
I guess I couldn't relate to the general unhappiness of Quentin and his classmates. I may not be scintillatingly happy every day, but I'm largely content. If nothing else, this book has given me a new appreciation for that.
Book number 494 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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