The Magus

I read The Collector a few years ago, and that was the impression I had of John Fowles. It's a claustrophobic, captive horror story with an antagonist with a twisty, turny psychology. When I started reading The Magus and it opened up on this beautiful Greek island, a setting that's bright and open from sea to sea, I figured if it was going to be a completely different beast.

It's was and it wasn't. It plays out over a much grander stage and time scale, and very gradually walks you from Mediterranean wish fulfilment to a psychological horror that totally unseats your sense of reality.

I love a horror story where the characters make perfectly reasonable and smart moves but still cannot get out of dodge. I can't fault Nicholas, I'm sure I'd end up in just the same bind. His torturer plays on his sense of good manners, his vanity, his desires, and his curiosity. The layers just keep coming and coming.