Lev Grossman is the kind of fantasist who refuses to give readers what they want, which probably explains why his brilliant new fantasy novel The Magicians is so polarizing. Some readers hate Grossman’s sobering take on the whole Harry Potter genre: they expect a charming Hogwarts-like school with earnestly heroic young wizards fighting high-stakes battles against evil monsters. But Grossman gives readers no such foundation in easy morality. Instead, his wizarding school is a place where human beings (especially teenagers) are all too human.

Grossman knows that no amount of magical power can help us transcend our angst, our boredom, or our self-destructive misery. In the world of The Magicians, depressed and alienated teenagers will remain depressed and alienated, despite being accepted into the world’s most elite magic school, despite knowing they have been Chosen to uncover mysteries hidden from all of humanity, despite discovering a portal to another world.

Visions beyond description will materialize before their eyes, but Grossman’s young wizards will still be staring bleakly into space, waiting for their lives to begin.