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Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Charlie Jane Anders

Ages 14–18

Readers rate it 4.0 (18 on Hardcover)

307 pages · Released Aug 19, 2025

Content report card

Lessons in Magic and Disaster parent’s guide: what’s inside

Medium confidence

Violence

Substance use

What it offers

Educational value

A note for parents

This is a literary fantasy novel centered on a queer mother-daughter relationship, grief, and magical discovery, with mature emotional and psychological themes. While not graphically violent, it deals with serious subjects including trauma, loss, family secrets, and destructive behavior. The LGBTQ+ representation is central and prominent (queer relationships, transgender themes), making it most suitable for older teens who can engage with complex family dynamics and emotional weight.

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From the publisher

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 the average New E... 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 the average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, generational trauma, and an esoteric dissertation proposal. 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. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Shelved under

  • Fiction
  • Diverse Characters
  • Character driven
  • Weak Character Development
  • Unloveable Characters
  • Transgender
  • queer
  • witches
  • Liminal
  • Family & Relationships
  • Grief
  • emotional

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ISBN 9781250867346 · Tor Books

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