Magic For Liars - Sarah Gailey
I didn't realise until I finished this book and looked up the author that I've previously read another of her words, the novella Upright Women Wanted. I enjoyed that book but didn't love it. Magic For Liars, on the other hand, I loved.
Most magic school books that I've read place us in the position of the students or, less frequently, the faculty. I can't think of many that place us in the position of a non-magical outsider who's suddenly thrust into that world and forced to try and keep up. That's what Magic For Liars does, and it work brilliantly.
The tone here is perfect. It's a magic school book, yes, but that's not the focus. At its heart it's very much a noir detective novel, and it knows exactly what it's doing. Gailey's writing is funny and smart, acknowledging the tropes of both genres she's playing with while slyly subverting them with a knowing wink. Of all the modern magic school books I've read this is also the one that owes the least to Harry Potter - a series that's acknowledged on page one with a joke about house elves and pumpkin juice that we're assured we'll never hear again, a promise that the book keeps.
The way Gailey presents her magic is really clever. None of the magical characters think it's particularly special or impressive, and they treat it as the everyday occurrence that it is for them. And because Ivy is trying to conceal the fact that she isn't magical, she also forces herself - and through her, us - to simply fake it and act like none of this is unusual. That grounding of the magic into the mundanity of day to day life means that it works really well when combined with the down-to-earth realism of the procedural detective novel.
Part of me wishes that I could spend more time in this world, but I'm also happy to see that this is a standalone novel. I suspect that some of the magic of the world Gailey presents here would be lost if we kept going back to it. As it stands this is a solid, thoroughly enjoyable piece of gin-soaked scholastic fantasy with a twist that I really loved.