The Magicians (Lev Grossman)

The Magicians is the novel that introduced me to fantasy for adults. I was 21 and in the process of dropping out of college and pretty heartbroken about it, and then I found this (somehow very hopeful) trilogy about a depressive who learns that magic doesn’t really fix anything. It’s painfully nostalgic and deeply flawed and really enthralling, and I have such clear memories of sitting on my dorm bed, procrastinating packing up my room, just completely immersed in this book. It reminded me of reading when I was a kid, just completely wrapped up in another world and unable to put it down, which is kind of meta-appropriate for this book in particular. (And I think a really important thing to remember, and why I always encourage people to read genre fiction when they’re having trouble reading. Books are entertainment as well as art; it’s okay to read for fun.) A lot of attention is paid to the magic school element bc of a certain very famous/very evil writer, but the Chronicles of Narnia stuff is what’s most powerful for me. The show is really great too; it kind of fixes a lot of the book’s problems, but it’s also A LOT (multiple musical episodes), so your mileage may vary.