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Magic Circle, The: A Novel (2013)

by Jenny Davidson(Favorite Author)

2.7 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1469283425 (ISBN13: 9781469283425)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Brilliance Audio

review 1: This book was clumsily written in some respects but I still liked it. The author hasn't found a way to integrate exposition into the narrative unobtrusively and parts of the text and character dialogue have this awkward, overly formalized quality to them that doesn't feel authentic. I also thought there were a few pacing issues. The story itself was pretty cool though, and while their integration into the story was hardly seamless I found the info dumps pretty interesting. I am a former role player and a current graduate student so I am pretty familiar with and interested in the dynamics of both worlds. There is real creativity here and the book is a super page turner despite the problems in the execution.
review 2: To begin with, this book is not aimed at ... moreme. I'm an old white guy from Northern California, and the protagonists are New York academic females in their late 20s and early 30s, so my rating is obviously affected by that gap.Still, "The Magic Circle" (New Harvest, $15,95, 196 pages) has flaws that make it hard to recommend even for a grad student at Columbia.First, the three protagonists each have issues: One is close to being an alcoholic, another has eating issues and the third is a cutter. None of the three is particularly compelling, nor were they sympathetic enough to really root for. Second, the plot is both slow-moving and predictable. It's pretty obvious where everything is going early on, and there are few surprises along the way that make the inevitability palatable.Finally, the dialog. Here's a sample (one of many): "There's not much point in expanding the game ... until you've established a suitable array of technological and ludic mechanisms for a smaller footprint. The idea of the asylum nicely focuses the game's interest."Granted, I don't live the rarefied air of author Jenny Davidson, an English professor at Columbia, but do people really talk like that? And if they do, do I want to spend 196 pages with them?My answer is no, but maybe there's an audience out there that will say "yes" -- but I'm guessing it's not very big. less

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