I am a bit OCD about things in my life, particularly my
reading life. I buy books at an
alarming rate. In fact, there is
simply no way I will read all the books I have in my lifetime, but I get some
sense of relief from just owning a book I want to read. I also NEVER give up on a book. I read
to the end every time. Admittedly, I do know of one that I haven’t finished, but
I also know exactly where it is and where I left off, so I am destined to pick
it up again simply so I don’t have to think about not thinking about it any
more. I have a system of stacks
that is silly, and many lists to make it all seemingly more manageable. If I start a series I finish a series,
even if I didn’t really like the first, and I have to read any book I borrow
from the library cover to cover and within the check out time. I never renew, it just seems so rude to
the others waiting.
So it is because of my reading OCD that I subjected myself
to The Magician King, both second in a series, AND a library loaner. I didn’t
love The Magicians but one thing that was left hanging, and that I wanted to
know, was what happened to Julia.
She is there for just moments on the book but it is clear that something
was happening to her that we weren’t privy to, and we get her story here. It is all sorts of fucked up. I think my friend Carol said it best,
“He doesn’t really like women.”
In The Magicians, Alice was such an underdeveloped character that it was
annoying, and all the other females were just sexual conquests and bitchy, but
Julia was out there and undiscovered.
Turns out she is just another sexual conquest in the most horrible of
ways and she loses her soul, literally.
So, I got the story of Julia like I wanted but it just wasn’t a story
that I wanted to read. Oddly, in
this book, Grossman introduces Poppy, another possibly interesting female character,
but again does nothing with her.
Let me guess – book three?
The main plot of this book follows our cast of characters as
they try to rescue the magical land of Fillory, and thus, magic itself. And this was a big issue for me. The
characters love Fillory because they read about it in a series of books as
kids. It was their escape and
sanctuary from the real world and while us readers are familiar with that
experience we aren’t given any insight into what makes Fillory so special to
the characters and so it remains un-special to us. So this book’s plot is all
about saving Fillory but I don't care about Fillory, and I still don’t care
about the whinny characters. Plus, like in the first book, every plot
development is just hinted at instead of really being hashed out. Big things
are supposedly happening but it feels to the reader like nothing happens at
all.
So
please, for my OCD sake, don’t write a third book that I will force myself to
be subjected to.
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