Lessons in magic and disaster

Charlie Jane Anders

Book - 2025

"In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic. A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic--with very unexpected results--in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love. Jamie is basically your average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch. Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. Al...l she has left are memories. Jamie's busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path. Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives"--

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1 copy ordered
Subjects
Genres
Fantasy fiction
Witch fiction
Novels
Romans
Published
New York : Tor, Tor Publishing Group 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Charlie Jane Anders (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
pages cm
ISBN
9781250867322
Contents unavailable.
Review by Library Journal Review

Jamie is a PhD candidate teaching and researching for a dissertation on 18th-century literature. She is also navigating the grief of losing her mother, Mae, to cancer as her other mom, Serena, hides from the world. In hopes of getting Serena to come out of her seclusion, Jamie reveals that she is a witch and begins to teach her mother how to cast the spells Jamie has used since she was young. However, the pains of the past, both from the death of Mae and the implosion of her career, set Serena on a path of disastrous magic. Now Jamie must somehow divert Serena's vengeful spells and try to save her own career and relationship before she loses everyone she loves. The story of Mae and Serena's relationship is told from the perspective of the past, while excerpts from Jamie's reading as she conducts research give context to the magic and disasters of everyone's stories. VERDICT Anders's (The City in the Middle of the Night) latest is a breathtaking work of magic, grief, and love. The vulnerable depiction of relationships and challenges within queer and trans communities is heart-wrenching but still reflects hope and optimism throughout.--Kristi Chadwick

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