Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a very different path to any he'd ever imagined.
The envelope, and the mysterious manuscript it contains, leads to a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power and, for a while, it's a world that seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last - and when it's finally shattered, Quentin is drawn into something darker and far more dangerous than anything he could ever have expected.
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[QUENTIN DID A magic trick]***
(Cornerstone, 8 October 2009, ebook, 410 pages, Around the Year in 52 Books 2019, a book for a suggestion from the ATR 2019 polls that was polarising or a close call, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I love books about magic and secrets so I was really looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately, it didn't quite get there. It reminds me a lot of two of my favourite series, Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in the book's favour as Hogwart's and Narnia are far, far better and The Magicians can't hold a torch to them. There are also echoes of The Secret History but this is a paler version. I started off really enjoying the book but this started to wane about half way through and me enjoyment never recovered. I loved the ending but it didn't redeem the book. The biggest issue is Quentin; I couldn't stand him, whiny, self-indulgent, self-absorbed, petulant and childish. He never redeemed himself. If I don't invest in a character then a book dies for me. It's that simple. There are some bits of the book that are well executed, visual and scary but large chunks just fall flat. It felt like reading two halves of two books, one good, one not-so-good with the same plot and characters. And I really hated Quentin and wanted him to grow a pair and stop being a moody little bitch already!
