who has that opaqueness that makes me think she might be some kind of version of a girl the male author was in love with IRL

Honestly, my entire experience of reading this series was haunted by whatever the opposite of "death of the author" is. Aggressive presence of the author, working some stuff out.

I did like - although I guess like isn't the right word - the part where Quentin's dad died and he's convinced that maybe his dad was a secret magician because that couldn't be it, his dad couldn't have been just some emotionally distant, boring, normal guy, and it turns out... it is. There's no mystery there, no secret panel behind his filing cabinet. It was one of the more emotionally genuine scenes in the series.

I also liked the other Chatwin brother's memoir. It made me sad for the Chatwin brother who became the villain of the first book. :(