Utterly Depressing...

My general liking of Lev Grossman's The Magicians has turned into a neutral, take-it-or-leave-it kind of attitude. The overall depression of the characters coaxes me into a sad, dramatic mood every time I pick up the book. Just by listening to all of Quentin's unhappiness and complaints I start to wonder if I'm happy myself, or if I'm still looking for something else. I'm a little past page 300 out of about 400 pages total and I can't wait to get to the end so I can finally see if there's some purpose to this book. To me, it seems like nothing has happened the entire book. Quentin mopes around in the beginning, he gets into Brakebills and he's still not happy, he goes home and he's not happy, he gets in with the Physical kids and starts sleeping with Alice and he's happy for a short while, but then he graduates and is miserable again, now he's in Fillory (as far as we know) and he's still unhappy. Quentin has gotten everything he's ever wanted. All of his dreams have come true and he's still moping around looking for something more in his life. If this isn't settled by the end of the novel, I'm going to be very confused about the purpose of this book. I'm hoping that some sort of journey or war will come about in Fillory so that Quentin and all of his magician friends will feel purposeful and stop hating each other and complaining all the time.

As for the allusions to Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, I'm not sure what that's all about. There have been a ton of allusions and outright mentionings of other literature dealing with magic, but I never got into Harry Potter and I read Chronicles of Narnia in elementary school so I don't remember it that well. Nevertheless, hopefully all of these things will come to light once the kids find their purpose and the novel ends. I'll keep my fingers crossed.