A very interesting book- a character study that was so immersive that the plot almost happened while I wasn’t watching, so engrossed was I in figuring out Annae. A book that understands the fraught, terrifying, and ultimately very vulnerable relationship between grad student advisor. I wish there was more!

When Annae moves to England to complete her PhD, she meets Dr Górski, both of them. Having experienced academic abuse by her former supervisor, Annae is wary, using her ability to read people to feel safe.

Annae was the subject of fascination when she was an undergraduate, using magic to remove fear in rats.

“But with magic like this, it would theoretically be possible to edit our response to trauma, to cure mental illness of all kinds - just a little change in the way we feel and that makes all the difference.”

While the premise fascinated me, the intersection of magic with mental illness and trauma, and the exploration of consent didn’t captivate me like I’d hoped. I somehow managed to hover on the surface of the story, feeling disconnected from the characters.

I wanted Annae’s science themed knitting patterns to endear her to me. I wanted to know more about the two Górski’s and the process of making a homunculus. I’m still not entirely sure why I couldn’t connect with any of them.

It’s become a habit for me to send test emails to any email addresses mentioned in fiction I read. There were two in this story; neither currently exist.

Content warnings include academic abuse, mental health, self harm and suicidal ideation.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor for the opportunity to read this novella.

If you could shed your worst traits, would you? If you were an anxious person, would you create a separate being to carry your worries for you? Or if there were parts of yourself that you found shameful, would you cut them out of your personality? In The Two Doctors Górski, Isaac Fellman creates an alternate version of our world where that is possible, at least if you’re a powerful enough magician and have a detailed enough knowledge of the human brain. After reading this novella, I think that I will keep my flaws and faults. They’re part of what makes me (and us) who we are.

Annae Hofstader is a newly arrived PhD student at a small British university when we meet her. She has been ignominiously dismissed from her studies in the United States after her efforts to remove fear from rats’ brains fails to pan out and her supervisor/lover cuts her loose. That supervisor badmouthed Annae so much that she can only be accepted into Marec Górski’s program; no one else will have her. But Górski is notoriously misanthropic. He’s also famous for being one of the few people to successfully create a homunculus, an idea that intrigues Annae because of her work on rat and human amygdalae, the parts of our brains that warn us of environmental dangers, help create memories, modulate emotions, and other things that we don’t quite understand. In Annae’s world, homunculi are created out of the traits that magicians want to get rid of. The first homunculus we learn of, for example, was created because a Victorian magician was so deeply ashamed of his homosexual attractions that he made an entirely new person to carry those attractions. But what we—and Annae—quickly learn about homunculi end up with a lot more of ourselves than we realize through the tragic and violent example of Marec Górski and his gentle but incomplete homunculus, Ariel Górski.

This slight, but deeply thoughtful, story fascinated me. I am an anxious person. I have my flaws. Friends and family know to limit me when the topics of language and medical history come up because I can be very pedantic. But I’ve learned over the years that my anxiety (when properly managed) keeps me on my toes. It helps my brain run on extra cylinders when I’m working with students who are researching every topic under the sun. My pedantic tendencies help, too, because they make me curious about a lot of different things and help me retain what I glean from what I read. When Annae accidentally removes another person’s anxiety during a high-stress panic attack, she shows us that we need at least a little part of our brain turning in little worried circles. It stops us from being psychopaths.

Even though this book is presented as a story about magicians and homunculi, The Two Doctors Górski turned into an insightful (and gripping!) psychological drama. I inhaled it, readers, and think anyone who likes a dose of fantasy with their drama (or drama to deepen their fantasy) will enjoy this one, too.

This was......incredibly disappointing.
Fellman's writing is really quite lovely, but unfortunately, I never felt like anything was truly being said here. The narrative struggled to take shape, the characters fell flat, and there was a complete lack of tension driving what should have been a powerful plot.
With a little more refinement this could have been a wonderful novella. As it stands now, however, I wouldn't recommend

The Two Doctors Gorski by Isaac Fellman is an interesting little novella. We follow Annae, a graduate student who has been subjected to academic abuse, as she seeks out a magician to study under. Annae is uniquely gifted in that she can read minds and it leaves her with two directions that she can continue on in.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. I feel like even the synopsis doesn’t really give anything away so I’m not going to go into the actual story but I feel like anyone who enjoys dark academia would enjoy this story. The way the author uses magic in this book is really fascinating. This is also a book that I feel like would have great rereadability. I definitely want to read more from the author because this book was so absorbing. I couldn’t put it down!

This a strange and vivid novella about identity and abuse in academia. Annae, a student in psychiatric magic, has fled an abusive relationship that ruined her standing in American academics and is in England trying to finish her degree under the mercurial Dr. Górski. In this world, magic is somewhat of a science and an art both, and Annae wants to learn how to cure mental illness with her magic. The story had fascinating concepts but could have used more fleshing out; I feel like this would have been better as a full-length novel with more room to explore the ideas and characters. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom for a digital review copy.

Thanks to Tor and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly this was such a compelling novella? Annae felt like such a /real/ character in terms of her compulsions and fears and problems, and the way that magic existed as a sort of... strange academic science was so appealing.

I loved it as a meandering work on emotions and academia and the way that abuses of power in academia can twist you up so much. Also the way that mind-reading was done in it made me holler... The idea of it as a compulsion, an itch you can't scratch of just wanting to /know/ what other people think of you or wanting to escape your own mind for a bit really hit home in a really potent way.

This is a fantastic, eerie upcoming novella, due out at the end of the month at the time that I'm writing this review. Postdoctorates in magic would've already been interesting enough, but add the idea of excising the parts of yourself that you don't like and feel hold your back into a homonculus, and that our POV is that of a young doctoral candidate coming off of an emotionally and academically abusive relationship, and that she uses her own psychic abilities to protect herself and socially mask and mirror, and we have something that is essentially catnip to me. The setting also amps up questions of identity and toxic relationships that already exist in the academic sphere, and it's absolutely fascinating to see how all of this ends up playing against everyone involved. There's a bit of a gothic feel to the whole thing too. The prose is fantastic, and like a lot of things that I've been reading lately, it can feel like a bit more of an experience than something that has a defined resolution at times, but I like that. It also turns out that Fellman has another novel out, so I'm about to go borrow that from the library. Definitely go and pick this up when it comes out.

After reading "Dead Collections" earlier this year, I was delighted to get my hands on another work by Isaac Fellman, and "The Two Doctors Gorski" didn't disappoint. It was weird and thought-provoking. Though quite short, this novella is not an easy read, and packs quite a punch. This book questions self and identity, and adds more baggage than it unpacks. This one is going to keep me up at night for sure.

This was such an intriguing premise and had so much potential. While I enjoyed the deeply introspective nature of this book, I think it fell into the pitfall that can happen with novellas and that its short length was working against it.

And don't get me wrong. What was executed in just shy of 150 pages was an excellent study on trauma, consent, and agency, and that was incredibly impressive. I just think the characters themselves weren't as fleshed out as they could have been due to the length. And, as a result, the characters couldn't completely carry those more focused aspects of the story in a realistic way.

Tonally, I really enjoyed what I read and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a full length book from Isaac Fellman in the future. This one, unfortunately, just didn't work for me on all levels.

Thank you NetGalley and Tordotcom for the ARC!

Of course I would have read this novella one way or another. Fellman is perhaps one of my favourite authors. The Breath of the Sun and Dead Collections are both some of my all-time favourites. I’d read anything he writes. The Two Doctors Górski was not quite as enjoyable – it’s a high bar! – but it was still a great, if heavy read in Fellman’s usual understated style.

Escaping academic abuse by an influential professor, Annae’s last chance to complete her PhD in psychology-related magic seems to be studying in England under the infamously rude but brilliant Dr. Marec Górski, who is famous for having made a homunculus called Ariel. She also cannot stop herself from reading minds.

As you can imagine, while it may be short, it’s not in any way a light read. Annae in many ways jumps out of the frying pan into the fire – her former professor Jonathon has abused her through their romantic relationship, but Marec…isn’t great either, just awful in a different way. He ignores her, belittles her, and as with the other female students he had before, tries to do anything to break her and make her quit. It doesn’t help that he caught her trying to read his mind.

Like in Dead Collections which treats vampirism as a chronic illness, the magic aspect is also treated as something entirely commonplace, something you learn as a child and can later study at university. Very downplayed, though I wonder how much of that is because of Annae’s trauma. But both mundane made magical and magical made mundane have always interested me.

I can see why someone might find it boring or underdeveloped or without enough sense of wonder, but for me it worked.

An interesting blend of magic and science, exploring the topics of academic abuse and mental illness. A quick but very thought provoking read. I did enjoy this, however, i was left a bit confused at some parts as it felt like we were jumping around a lot. I did really enjoy the characters, especially Ariel.

Taut, vibrant, haunting; every word hums, every moment sears. A gorgeously crafted indictment of academia, with an intriguing fantastical element that skillfully heightens the tension and the themes of abuse and ambition and knowledge and intimacy and trauma and escape. I found the brevity of the novella worked perfectly for me; while the magic-as-a-science world is certainly one I'd like to know more about, I don't think this specific story would be well served by giving too much, too straightforwardly. I read The Two Doctors Górski a month ago, at this point, and I've thought about it every day since. Brilliant and compelling, and one I highly recommend.

Thank you Tordotcom for the advance review copy!

Good story telling overall. A very good story concept that is executed in a pretty good but not great way. Still, worth a read. I'll probably remember it for a while.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review.

This novella from Fellman (Dead Collections) defies easy characterization. Annae is a brilliant graduate student who suffered abuse by her former mentor and his institution. She is now on her last chance in academia, studying with Górski, a famous “has been” professor notorious for tearing all his students to psychological ribbons. Fellman resists the familiar story trope of mixing destructive magic with deadly academic rivalry, and instead this story shifts to another common trope, the age-old paradox about attempting to perfect oneself by splitting off what is perceived as being one’s worst impulses—only to discover that they were the best after all. Dr. Marec Górski’s alter-ego, Dr. Ariel Górski, was intended to contain his worst self, but instead it is his best, and the only parts that survive a final, destructive act of self-immolation.VERDICT Either the magic-academy plot or the splitting-the-self plot, both classics in their own right, would have made an excellent story. Together, they coexist uneasily and are a bit unfulfilled side by side, much like the Doctors Górski themselves. Readers will wish that both stories had come to more satisfying conclusions.

This novella was a brilliant concept that was somewhat lacking in execution. It falls into the trap I sometimes have with novellas - this being fleshed out more could have made it brilliant. But besides length, there were other problems. The main thing being that the main character's primary movement throughout the story is to sit in a room alone and listen to people's thoughts. It made for very boring reading. Then all of a sudden, a bunch of ridiculous shit happens at the end that feels unearned and poorly elaborated on, and then its over. I also don't think the concept of the two doctors was fleshed out in a believable way. Which is a shame because the central idea - that someone could remove all the unwanted parts of themselves and put them into a clone - is awesome.

Thank you, Tordotcom, for allowing me to read The Two Doctors Gorski early.

I’m sorry, I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to. I just couldn’t get into the story, and it took me ages to finish it, even though it’s such a short book. Probably an it’s me, not you thing.

3.5 stars! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review! This did not affect my opinions in any way.

As someone who has been in Academia most of my life, there was a lot of structural aspects of this book I really related to, especially the prevailing feeling of Annae feeling crushed, lost, and semi-hopeful about academia as an institution. This book delivered all of those complex feelings well, but packaged in an urban fantasy world where this brand of academia is based around magic.

Spoilers included below:
I think the first half of this book is much stronger than the second. It is more fleshed out, and a bit more coherent. However, I think the second section is *meant* to be a dive into more of a stream of consciousness narration based on Annae's ability to read other people's minds and her effort to grapple with taking away Torquil's anxiety (in a physical sense, which was a very interesting move!)

Things really clicked for me with the title of the book and the feel of the magic system when Ariel was introduced on the page. I think this was my favorite plot point of the book -- the idea that we can create a second person from ourselves, but infused with the best qualities. This, of course, begs us to ask, what then becomes of ourselves after this split?

This dark academia magic book was a thought provoking tale that I will likely re-read when it is published. If you're looking for a short, academic read with moments of lovely prose, check this one out.

The main strength of this novella is the writing, and after that the characters. I really wish it had been longer, which could have helped with the world-building and made the conflicts more interesting. I still liked it and would love to read more from this author, as this was pretty ambitious and intriguing.

2.5 stars

A short and fascinating book exploring topics such as academic abuse, mental illness and the morality of psychiatric magic, The Two Doctors Górski tells an unsettling story of graduate student Annae, whose life ends up intertwined with the infamous magician Marec Górski once she starts studying under him.

The main positive I have about this book is the writing style - gorgeous and evocative, which is sadly one of the only aspects of this book that made me yearn for more. Yet I did somewhat feel that it wasn’t descriptive enough for me during a few specific scenes, where I was left feeling slightly confused as to what had just happened. I had a very hard time actually picturing the bigger events that took place, they very much felt glossed over to instead focus more on the characters’ inner experiences even though in those certain moments I was hoping for the opposite.

I did really enjoy the conversations surrounding mental illness and Annae’s field of study exploring the idea of removing fear/anxiety from people’s minds, including the repercussions and after effects of going through with it. Annae’s reasoning for wanting to work on this experiment makes for a very interesting discussion.

As far as characters go, I can appreciate the concepts of Annae, Marec and Ariel, but they again left me wanting for so much more. Especially when it came to Marec and Ariel - the concept of making a separate person from the undesired traits and aspects of yourself is so intriguing. It didn’t feel as if the characters themselves were in any way connecting.

While the blend of science and magic is intriguing, I got absolutely no sense of it whatsoever. I don’t expect or need it to be completely spelled out for me, especially since this is a shorter novella, but I could not tell you any type of explanation or description as to how this magic functions at its core. How do people become magicians? Is it inherited or learned? What are the limits of this magic? Can magicians bend it to do whatever they desire? It seemed as if the magic can do basically anything and everything for the convenience of the plot, no boundaries.

Alongside everything I just mentioned, I simply can’t quite pinpoint what about this book didn’t do it for me, but it’s as if an integral piece is missing. The pace and flow of the story felt very strange because there was no sense of anticipation or build up to anything, which in conclusion didn’t make for an impactful read.

I am however interested in picking up more of Isaac Fellman’s works in the future, hopefully they will be more to my taste.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for providing me with an e-ARC of this book!