The Magicians had been described to me as “Harry Potter with college age kids” but a slightly better description might be Diane Duane's Young Wizards series mixed with Narnia. The set up is very familiar: a teen boy with powers is offered a place at a mysterious magician's boarding school. But Grossman pushes the magic school genre into new and darker places. Drugs, post-college ennui, hookups, poor choices and heartless gods all destroy the illusion of magic as a path to happiness. I really enjoyed them but don't start them expecting the well-loved stairways of Hogwarts.