/lit/ - Literature

>What are the worst books that you actually finished?

The magicians by lev grossman

>Describe the awfulness and why others should avoid said books

I really dont think I can communicate how cringey and cucked these books are. I know reddit is a meme word but Grossman is actually fucking reddit. The main character is an emasculated cuck who at first I didnt mind because he had the whole dude i go to wizard school but im still not fulfilled and dont have any purpose in life thing wasnt too bad, then the next 2 books are set in the dudes cringey narnia rip off world and it becomes clear that the main character is and always was a spineless pussy to the point that he can't accomplish anything. The author also hamfistedly made all the female characters smarter, stronger, and less averse to violence than the main character, which just highlighted how much I hated him. Even the childhood crush girl who failed the epic magic exam of course ends up being more powerful and interesting than the main character.

Also the author seems says some truly pathetic (coming from a middle aged man) things about nerds and how smart and cool they are. Also dude depression lmao.

Theyre just fucking awful, neither the mature take on harry potter nor the wish fulfilment for adults that it was trying to be. In a better world Grossman would be stoned to death for writng something like this. The books also get steadily worse the more you read. By the end of the series i was reading just because the intensity of the hatred I felt for this series and its writer was so intense.

I just finished the 3rd book in The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman and it managed to be both almost really good and really fucking awful at the same time.


The main character is one of the most cucked protags I've ever seen. Hes a magician of course, but he barely ever uses magic (multiple times every book he has to deal with almost dying of cold or having wet clothes or travelling all of which are problems that can canonically be solved by magic but he just doesn't). He's also pathetically awful at fighting and refuses to kill anyone even when his life is in danger because the author thinks that would make him less sympathetic or some shit. At the beginning of the series he has this creepy beta respect women but also be really attracted to all of them thing going on and he never really loses it. I think the author is one of those feminist nice guy types.


Speaking of the author, he was the main thing that made this series shit. If I had to describe it in a buzzword, I would say he embodies the reddittor stereotype. Every major female character must be shown to be better than the main character at fighting, smarter than the main character, of course better than him at magic, etc. Women are strong, its 2018, thats a good thing.

The author also used internet slang for no fucking reason (when he used ftw and lulz unironically within 2 pages I actually had to dig out my camera and make a quick addition to my cringe comp) and had some character regain the will to live because bacon is just so hella epic.


I also cant count how many fucking times he talked about how great nerds were and how smart all the characters were and how the understood lots of physics and math. 1/2