Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The book came highly recommended, and so I slogged through it, believing that it might just redeem itself. Well, it never did. I will not review the plot of this book. Other excellent reviews have done so, but my basic criticisms are as follows: 1. This is not fantasy. It is not "Harry Potter for grownups." It is a grim, existentialist, self-indulgent, navel gazer of a book that continually smacks the reader in the face with the hopelessness of life, friendship, accomplishment, love, knowledge, and joy. 2. It is much too long. Again, the great existentialist writers were able to point out the futility of life in much shorter works. 3. Lev Grossman slyly uses magic to snooker us into believing that this is a work of fantasy, however, the magic is completely extraneous to the book. The book could have been about a group of gifted plumbers or hand surgeons and still made its point (i.e. that there is no hope). Great fantasy, like Harry Potter, Tolkein, and the Narnia series have in common a recognition that we yearn for something more than this world. Great works point to that "something else," and we experience that otherness on a meta level. This book smugly mocks such hope and sneers at us for having it.