Lev Grossman’s The Magicians Trilogy is one of my favourite book series of all time (I also understand why it might not be everyone’s cup of tea). I also loved his take on the King Arthur mythos, The Bright Sword, which came out last year. I’ve had one of his earlier novels, Warp, sitting on my shelf for a while now, and it fits my current method of choosing books to quickly reduce my physical TBR pile (i.e., read the shortest ones first), so I figured I’d give it a try.
The book is set in the early 90s and follows Hollis Kessler, a twenty-something who does… not much. He sleeps too much, doesn’t work, and basically disassociates from the world around him by imagining various scenes (usually but not always inspired by particular pop culture references and stories). The whole book takes place over a few days and is relatively low stakes — the main plot of the book is essentially Hollis and his friend attempting to steal a house key from an acquaintance so that they can party there while the owners go on vacation.
I liked the characterization in this book – Hollis isn’t particularly likeable, but as someone who oftentimes has trouble living in the moment and tends to be in their own head too much, he is very relatable. However, the plot was so meandering and lackluster that I was quickly bored. It wasn’t an awful book, but it definitely doesn’t live up to the standards of Grossman’s other works. If nothing else, it was interesting to see how his writing has evolved over time.