Lessons in Magic and Disaster is exactly the kind of book that makes you grateful Charlie Jane Anders exists. She writes people — their interiority, their relationships, their messy love for each other — better than almost anyone, and this novel is full of characters you root for and recognize yourself in.
The story follows Jamie, a trans woman navigating grad school, grief, a complicated relationship with her mother, and her secret life as a witch. Anders layers these threads beautifully: the parent-child dynamic, the push and pull of romantic partnership, and Jamie's academic research into 18th-century British women writers all speak to each other in ways that feel earned rather than clever. One of the book's real delights is the fictional novel-within-a-novel Anders constructs as the subject of Jamie's research — it's a fully realized piece of invented literature that illuminates Jamie's own struggles in ways that feel quietly devastating.
This is a warm, generous, deeply felt book. Highly recommended.
REVIEW: Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders
RATING: 5-stars
