A solid 4-star novel until the last fifteen/twenty pages, where it gets knocked right out of the park. A quest novel, yes - and a terrific quest it is, with many detours to places various and sundry along the way - but it's also (like "The Magicians" wasn't just a novel about a fantasy school) more than that. It's a novel about depression, about my generation's need to constantly be pushing further and our inability to relax, and it's about the very foundations of the world that Grossman has created. Not many authors would be ballsy enough to show you the dark and messy insides of both characters and universe in only the second book of the series. Thoughts more rambly than review-y, but still certainly the latter over at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-iR
