The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Ugh! What to say about a book that is touted as "an edgier Harry Potter" - when it in no way has any of the good qualities, characters, imagination and magic of Harry Potter. (In my mind it stole plenty from Harry Potter!) I think they just meant "like Harry Potter - except with none of the good parts or people, and lots of drinking, smoking, delinquency and bad language". It is true, it is a book about magical youth that get plucked out of society and given the opportunity to attend a magical school to hone their craft. The characters were creepy, the magic had a completely different feel to it, the moral of the whole story was not the "good vs. evil" that pervade Harry Potter - actually it was just plain difficult to find. In fact, it was a fantasy book that was kind of about facing reality. The only moral I got out of it is that life sucks sometimes but we should learn to appreciate what we have and stop looking for something different. BUT - that was near the last page and possibly a last ditch effort to throw some value bone to the reader! Not a fan - and reading this book felt like a chore!