Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Hardcover, 320 pages

ISBN:: 9781250867322

(1 review)

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. All 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 …

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. All 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.

2 editions

Alex Keane reviewed Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

Fantastic Book about the Magic of Family

5 stars

I really loved the way Charlie Jane Anders immerses you in the internal lives of the characters to make you care about the tiny and large stakes of their personal lives.

Anders does a great job laying out the day to day struggles of Jamie, a trans grad student wishing for an end to her dissertation, and her mother Serena, who's been wasting away ever since her wife Mae died. Jamie decides to teach her mother about the witchcraft she's done since she was a teenager to empower her mother to move beyond her grief. But is Jamie ready for what giving this much power to the activist lawyer means?

The structure tying parallels of Mae and Serena's relationship with Jamie and her partner Ro's as well as with the literature Jamie studies for her PhD is just done so incredibly well. It's a book that the small stakes feel …

I really loved the way Charlie Jane Anders immerses you in the internal lives of the characters to make you care about the tiny and large stakes of their personal lives.

Anders does a great job laying out the day to day struggles of Jamie, a trans grad student wishing for an end to her dissertation, and her mother Serena, who's been wasting away ever since her wife Mae died. Jamie decides to teach her mother about the witchcraft she's done since she was a teenager to empower her mother to move beyond her grief. But is Jamie ready for what giving this much power to the activist lawyer means?

The structure tying parallels of Mae and Serena's relationship with Jamie and her partner Ro's as well as with the literature Jamie studies for her PhD is just done so incredibly well. It's a book that the small stakes feel like it should feel slow but on the contrary, I got so invested in what came next that I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed this one.

If you like stories about the little bits of magic in the everyday and stories of when children become the teacher to their parents, you'll enjoy this one.