#magic for beginners

[ofliterarynature]

READING WRAP UP: May 2026

[ loved liked okay nope dnf reread* (bookclub) ]

Game Changer • Emily's Quest • The Lost Future of Pepperharrow • Wolf Speaker* • Fugitive Telemetry* • Magic for Beginners • A Ghastly Catastrophe • The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes • Emperor Mage* • The Sword of Kaigen • The Realms of the Gods* • (The Raven Tower)* • The Haunted Hotel • Clockwork Boys • The Wonder Engine • The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel • Forest Walking

* * * * *

Game Changer - extremely mediocre. The two halves of the couple make very awkward conversation over the food service counter a few times and then oops! They're having amazing sex and are deeply in love. What do they see in each other? No idea really, there's not much personality to either besides "hot" and "nice." The best thing I can say is that this didn't outright annoy me and they were kind of cute. Still, it's not something that Check, Please fanfic hasn't done dozens of times and also better. Hopefully the following books are better?

Emily's Quest - forget the friendships and hijinks, Emily's been left all alone by her friends and unromanced by the boy she likes, so now we get to explore all of her other romances, good and bad! That's it, that's the book. Sigh. At least everyone ends up with the right person in the end.

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow - I made the mistake of buying this on audiobook before I read the first book, which I ended up disliking, and have been avoiding this one ever since. I finally cracked down and ended up not hating this too much? I almost *did* like it once a certain character had been removed from the story. So. I'd say this series is a failure for me (as much as I wanted to like it), but I'd still be willing to try Natasha Pulley again.

Wolf Speaker/Emperor Mage/The Realms of the Gods - very good rereading, though Realms is still my least favorite of the bunch.

Fugitive Telemetry - reread. Firmly of the belief that this should be read between Exit Strategy and Network Effect both for chronological reasons and because it serves as a nice bridge/interstitial murder-mystery piece between the two larger story arcs.

Magic for Beginners - short story collection, much more successful for me than The Book of Love (which I dnf'd pretty early). VERY strange, I can't say I liked all of the stories, but they were at least always weird and interesting. The first story about the Faery Handbag was my favorite, and the second reminded me very fondly of the book Vassa in the Night, which is at least more comprehensibly strange, and I recommend. Definitely willing to try another of the author's short story collections.

A Ghastly Catastrophe - a new Veronica Speedwell! This time riffing (very openly) on Dracula, it was fun as always, but perhaps a bit convoluted. I will absolutely keep reading these as long as she keeps putting them out - I hope we see more of Lady Julia and her husband in the future, they were delightful but very underused in this one.

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes - meh? Irritated by both the fact that my audiobook switched narrators at this point, and that Doyle decided to try more writing in third person - which isn't bad, btw, but its far too late to be changing things around. Also devastated to discover that The Sussex Vampire has nothing to do with K Addison's "The Surrey Vampire.' She really missed an opportunity there :(

The Sword of Kaigen - been nervous for this one after disliking Blood Over Bright Haven, but I'd already bought the audiobook. I liked this one more, for sure, but it felt a lot messier. I found Misaki's character arc very compelling (and Mamoru - that ending did great things for Misaki, but I'm not sure it was a satisfying arc for his story after all of the time we spent with him?), but the worldbuilding to me felt very disjointed and the larger narrative/plots hinted at beyond the immediate focus of the village were intriguing but unsatisfactorily explored. I think there's a spark of something great here, so I'll probably give the author another chance if something sounds interesting.

The Raven Tower - reread #3, first time in print. I think I like this more as an audiobook, but the great thing about reading this in print is that you have the ability to really stop and think and puzzle over all of the little details. Which god are they actually speaking to? How is this statement both the truth and a lie? Which version of the story is real? I admit that even as a third time reader that the worldbuilding is complicated and it is hard to get into the story, but it's so very worth it.

The Haunted Hotel - have been feeling a little too intimidated to jump back into classics with a full novel, so started with this shorter Wilkie Collins work that Hoopla had on audiobook and sounded like a neat mystery. Alas, the description was *very* misleading and this was mostly ominous vibes with a dash of the supernatural and a woman being driven mad by guilt. Would not recommend.

Clockwork Boys/The Wonder Engine - the completionist in my brain wouldn't let me start the Saint of Steel series without doing the entire World of the White Rat set in the proper order, so I finally cracked and spent some credits for these on audio. 1) no idea why these were split into two books, it really is just one, 2) so I'm very glad that I'd taken the plunge and gotten both of them so I could read them back-to-back, 3) fun!!!! Absolutely definitely the most fun of all the non-reread books I read this month. Extremely delighted to find a second character with magic sneezes and an endless supply of handkerchiefs.

The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel - a solid adaptation! I missed the beauty of Maggie's writing and the charm of Will Patton's audiobook narration, but as an adaptation overall I'd call this pretty good - definitely a more than decent way to speed-run through the plot of the first book. I could quibble with a few of the design choices, but overall the art was beautifully done and I loved to look at it. TRC isn't my favorite of Maggie's series, so I'll be interested to see how I feel about the adaptations of the rest of the series.

Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America (DNF @ 9%, audio) - an interesting subject, but from what I listened to this is a series of fun-facts strung together as paragraphs and collected into themed chapters. Nothing inherently wrong, but it makes for poor audiobook listening and I couldn't stay focused. I'll hold onto my print copy for now, but will move it over to the non-fiction section and off of my tbr.

[contracat25]

What to read after watching I Saw the TV Glow.

I haven’t stopped thinking about I Saw the TV Glow, the new A24 film from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun, since seeing it over the weekend.

[cauldronandkettle]

Welcome To The Kitchen 🍄🌿🧹

Welcome, friend, to Cauldron&Kettle, a cozy corner where magic meets intention, and tradition meets the modern world.

My name is James, I'm the witch behind the Cauldron, crafting custom spells and tarot readings, and offering educational resources for all your witchy needs. All my resources are crafted with care, rooted in earth honoring respect, and will meet you where you are at in your craft.

You'll find a little bit of everything here, and all are welcome. This blog is a safe, inclusive place for all who practice, especially those who move through the world with curiosity, respect, and a love for the world around you.

Find me all over the web!

[raffinthebox]

breaking the art block (nearly a year :c) with a short and sketchy comic about lwj and wwx.

it's inspired by a very specific scene from a hogwarts au fanfic: Magic for Beginners, written by my dear friend HollowNightmare.

[cosmicguide]

To draw any thing you want towards you now …..🎁🎊🧲🧲🧲💎💎💎🧲💶🔌🕯🧼🔑🎉

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Magic for Beginners | Author: Kelly Link | Publisher: Random House (2005)

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: General Fiction Round-Up (May-December 2022)

Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood (2013): In the final volume of Atwood's environmental dystopian trilogy (preceded by Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood), the survivors of a manmade eco-fascist plague, along with a population of genetically engineered humanoids, must try to make a life in the ruins. Atwood is one of my favorite authors and, while I generally prefer her non-speculative fiction, I really enjoyed the whole trilogy. She's really engaged with the ideas she explores (mostly related to GMOs and income inequality) and grounds them vividly in everyday life. I especially like the way the genetically engineered humanoids (the Crakers) process the world around them.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (2019): In the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood tells the story of three women in the same universe: a Commander's daughter in Gilead, a daughter of Mayday operatives living in Toronto, and Aunt Lydia, first seen "training" Handmaids in The Handmaid's Tale. I liked The Handmaid's Tale in high school, but I can't say I came away wanting to know more about that world...yet, as it turns out, I totally did want to know more about the pastel horrors of an elite Gilead girlhood. The audiobook is also top-notch, with Ann Dowd, Ann Whitman, and Bryce Dallas Howard doing the three main POVs.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (2005): In nine "short" stories (many of them are quite long), Link writes about absurd things happening in mundane settings. Pretty Monsters, another short story collection of hers with some overlap, was one of my favorite books I read in 2014, but this time I wasn't feeling it. I'd already read the three best entries: "Stone Animals" (about a nebulously haunted house in a suburb of NYC), "Magic for Beginners" (about a mysterious TV show and a teen boy whose father is maybe trying to murder him via writing a novel), and "The Faery Handbag" (about a girl whose grandmother carries around an entire lost country in her purse). The others never really came together. I might have lost my taste for whimsy.

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965): In the very distant future, fifteen-year-old Paul Atreides has to move to a different planet for his father's work, and it only gets worse from there. I resisted reading Dune for the longest time because it sounded as dry as a desert planet where you have to reabsorb your own urine to survive. However, it fucks. I loved the layers of power dynamics and game-playing, especially in the scenes with Lady Jessica. Evil, horny Baron Harkonnen and his weirdly tragic nephew Feyd-Rautha were also great. I didn't like it so much after the time skip, though, and I think I'll give the sequels a pass.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (2021): Paranoid and reclusive after being targeted twice by Christmas-themed killers, Lynette Tarkington's social life consists of a support group for "final girls" (women who have survived grisly massacres that were adapted into horror movies). I never quite got on board with this one, for two major reasons. The first is that I was irrationally annoyed by the idea that horror movies were seemingly all one-to-one true crime stories in this universe. That's on me. The second is that Hendrix never managed to convince me that most of these women had ever had a significantly positive relationship with each other. This novel could've been a Toast article.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (2014): Amy, a cash-strapped and unhappy twenty-something working at an IKEA knockoff, is offered a transfer to a better store if she'll stay after-hours to investigate some strange recent happenings. This isn't my favorite Hendrix novel; however, it is the fucking scariest. The characterization isn't as rich as it is in most of his other novels--I would describe it as efficient--but the pacing is effectively brisk and the nature of the fake-IKEA haunting almost made me shit my pants.

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix (2018): Kris Pulaski, once a guitarist/songwriter for up-and-coming heavy metal group Dürt Würk, now lives a life of resignation as a hotel night manager. Meanwhile, her ex-bandmate Terry Hunt is still a massively successful rock star after going nu-metal...and suddenly Kris has reason to believe that he did something truly sinister to make that happen. After My Best Friend's Exorcism, this is my favorite Hendrix novel. He's unusually moderate in putting his heroine through the mill, both in terms of physical peril and self-flagellation, and balances it with the joy she finds in her creative life. The otherworldly threat she faces is nicely chilling, and I loved the bittersweet ending.

Stranger Things: The Other Side by Jody Houser (2019): In this tie-in comic to Stranger Things, we see the first season from twelve-year-old Will Byers's point-of-view as he struggles to survive in the Upside Down. There's some good characterization of Will and a few cool visuals, but overall it's pretty inessential. The writing is kind of flat and sometimes awkward, and the art style is overall muddy and unappealing.

Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim (1995): Neil and Brian, two kids growing up in the same midsized Kansas town, both have life-altering traumatic experiences in the summer of 1981. Brian doesn't remember what happened, and comes to believe in the following years that he was abducted by aliens; Neil knows exactly what went on between him and his sexually predatory Little League coach, but that doesn't mean he understands it. Several years ago, I saw the 2004 movie version, which is amazing both as an adaptation and on its own terms: nuanced, well-paced, beautifully acted and shot, and faithful to all that's good in the source material. Unfortunately, this did slightly lessen the impact of the (also stellar) novel.

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (2018): In the early 1990s, working-class seventeen-year-old Silvie spends a summer holiday in a Northumberland village, reenacting Iron Age life with her churlish history buff father, her downtrodden mother, a pompous anthropology professor, and three of his students. It's promising to be more miserable than your average family camping trip, between the lack of modern tech/food and Silvie's father's domestic tyrannies, but are we getting into The Wicker Man territory? This is a tense, deliciously creepy, and lyrical little novella that I finished in one evening because it was so exciting.

Normal People by Sally Rooney (2018): Withdrawn rich girl Marianne, despised at home and at school, starts a no-strings-attached relationship with working-class Connell, who's handsome and bright but kind of a follower. Thus begins an on-again, off-again thing that will follow them through college and change them forever. I really liked this romance between two troubled yet essentially sensible and sweet college students, although it's a bit slow at times. I especially enjoyed the first time that Connell and Marianne's power dynamic flips; she's kind of an It Girl at university, while he's out of his depth.

Summerwater by Sarah Moss (2020): Several families "enjoy" a miserable summer holiday by a Scottish lake over the course of a rainy day. We get the perspectives of several vacationers--judgmental moms, crotchety old men, worried newlyweds, teenagers desperate for wifi and privacy, anxious little kids--with several dark hints that someone will meet a terrible fate. Moss's writing is pleasurable to read and often funny, but I needed a damn flow chart for these people.

The Brittanys by Brittany Ackerman (2021): Brittany, a Floridian high school freshman in 2004, navigates life in her gated community and her suburban high school, hanging out with her friends (most of whom are also named Brittany) and wearing low-rise jeans. Maybe I was unduly influenced by the author being named Brittany, but this novel reads like a bunch of fond adolescent memories with the occasional gesture at some larger meaning. It feels like the author couldn't decide between trying to do an emotional mid-oughts coming-of-age story (like Lady Bird) or a slice-of-life portrait of a certain type of high school experience (like Fast Times at Ridgemont High). The stakes aren't high enough for the first (the biggest through-line is that Brittany's BFF Brittany might be a lesbian but neither of them seems to know it) and the scope isn't wide enough for the second. I think the book would've been better off as, like, two short stories.

[musicmakesyousmart]

Murrumur - Magic for Beginners

No Agreements

2021