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    The Magic Circle: A Novel
    The Magic Circle: A Novel
    The Magic Circle: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Magic Circle: A Novel

    Written by Jenny Davidson

    Narrated by Emily Beresford

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Three smart young women—the scholarly Ruth, her poet roommate Lucy, and their exotic, provocative neighbor Anna—are obsessed with games of all kinds. They’ve devoted themselves to both the academic study of play and the design of games based on the secret history of the neighborhood around Columbia University, from Grant’s Tomb to the former insane asylum that once stood where the campus is now.

    When Anna’s mysterious brother Anders gets involved and introduces live-action role-playing based on classic Greek tragedy, theory goes into practice and the stakes are raised. Told in a variety of formats—including Gchat and blog posts—that bring the fraught drama of Euripides screaming into the 21st century, The Magic Circle is an intellectual thriller like no other.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 26, 2013
    ISBN9781469283616
    The Magic Circle: A Novel
    Author

    Jenny Davidson

    Jenny Davidson is a professor of comparative literature at Columbia University. She has written an adult novel, several books of nonfiction, and The Explosionist, a novel for teens. She lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for The Magic Circle

    3/5

    12 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The Magic Circle It's difficult for me to pinpoint exactly how I feel about The Magic Circle, but I can absolutely tell you that this is a very different kind of read. Meshing together history and gaming with the concept of human nature, I was definitely not expecting what I found between these pages. This might sound like your normal mystery or thriller book. I can assure you, however, that it is not.

      The Magic Circle starts out very deliberately by explaining to readers, through dialogue mostly, what it means to "game" and how this will affect the characters in the writing to come. It was a little tough for me to push through the first fifty pages or so. Jenny Davidson does a nice job of introducing the main players in this story, but it is almost buried under the amount on information that is offered up at the same time. I didn't really feel that I was able to meet Ruth, Lucy and Anna until much later.

      Which brings me to my biggest issue with these women, actually. I understood that they were graduate students. I understood that they were intellectuals. However the dialogue and the way that they interact all seemed so stilted to me. I'm a well read person. I enjoy deep and thought provoking reads. Yet I had no idea that there would be such a dense amount of vocabulary in their conversations. It was almost as if their copious drinking was thrown in just to show they were college students.

      Once the book does take off, essentially once Anders enters the scene, it becomes much easier to follow along with Davidson's characters. The mystery aspect is there, mixed in with the concept of showing dark desires we all possess. By the time I was at the end, I was much more invested in the book. I raged when I realized that the book was nearing its end, and I likely wouldn't have all of my questions answered.

      The Magic Circle was a bit of a roller coaster ride for this reader. There were parts I pushed through, others I devoured, and at the end I couldn't quite decide how I felt. I honestly still can't. What I can say is that this is a different read, and worth a read if for no other reason than that. Go into this with an open mind and you might just find a new read to love.
    • 3/5
      If you're looking for a quick and easy read with decently intriguing plot, this might be for you. However, in my opinion its brevity is its downfall.This story is about the contentious relationship between three graduate students as they live together and create live-action games together. These games are supposed to blend fiction, fantasy and history and be somewhat immersive for the players. There's a dark edge to their games and their relationships with each other, which sets up a great framework for a really juicy novel.Where things fall apart is the follow through. The characters and their interiors aren't explored enough, and because of that, some of their actions and some plot points feel very random. The ending was unsatisfying because it very obviously comes from the huge, sweeping undercurrents of secrets and conflict that are never explained and barely mentioned to the reader. You know that there's so much more going on behind what's written and that those juicy details would amp up everything about the plot and setting. Instead, there are some "secrets" that are easy to unravel and some "secrets" that are hinted at but never explained. With more exploration the complex ties between these characters and their individual psychology, this book would've been the creepy, dynamic novel I wanted it to be.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed about 75% of this book: the loving descriptions of Morningside Heights, the use of unusual means of story telling (oh how I love epistolary style), the authentic high/low conversations between the grad students. The plot involving immersive gaming, a wild bacchanalian version of LARPing, was compelling and intriguing. I found the conclusion unsatisfying and abrupt, which is the only reason The Magic Circle doesn't get 4 or 5 stars from me.
    • 4/5
      This is an odd book -- not necessarily all that enjoyable but definitely interesting, so I can understand why it seems to be garnering mixed, love-it-or-hate-it reviews on Amazon. Its three main characters are young academic women in NYC who share an interest in gaming, whether theoretical or playful, and who (when one's brother visits from Sweden) become drawn into a game based on The Bacchae of Euripides. (By the time the game is over, though, I begin to wonder if one real-life relationship is entirely Bacchaean or, rather, at least partly Aeschylean or Sophoclean, regarding which, however, I say no more to avoid SPOILER.)The book's unpopularity with some reviewers may be a result of its slow start. The first section in particular tends to drag, but patience is required because it does lay a groundwork for later developments, beginning with the arrival of Anna's brother, Anders, from Sweden. (And note their ethnicity -- Swedish but of apparently Greek heritage -- a combination of Penthean and Dionysian?)Even if you don't find the book enjoyable (and I'm not sure that I necessarily did), you should still find it quite interesting for its build to the climax. Do at least a brief Wikipedia check on the Euripidean play of The Bacchae, because you'll particularly want to anticipate (and possibly be surprised at) just which character(s) suffer a Penthean fate and what the ultimate fate of the Dionysian(?) character will prove to be.And also, even if you don't necessarily find the book "enjoyable," you should at least find Davidson's style interesting, based as it is on varying points-of-view (all at least partly unreliable) expressed both textually and in forms like e-mail, memoir, and dramatic dialogue.If you do choose to read this one, be prepared for a slow start, especially in the first section, but it does pick up as it moves along.