Lessons in Magic and Disaster
by Charlie Jane Anders
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted August 30, 2025
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It is remarkable how good this book is considering the "M" word is in the title, which had the potential to jinx it. At least that is what Jamie Sandthorn would say if she knew someone else was writing her story. Jamie had been performing spells, or what she called workings, from an early age, but she didn't like to say the word magic, or call herself a witch, because she thought that would negate the spell, or it would backfire on her. She thought it best to do the working then forget about it, never mention it to anyone else. While the workings propel much of the plot, they are actually a very small percentage of it. It is mostly about personal growth and identity, personal integrity, love of family, friendship, and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.
Jamie had two moms, Serena and Mae. Both of them had been in the thick of activism before their relationship began, before they became a couple and decided to have a child. Mae had died of cancer about six years prior to the start of the book's action, and Serena had become a recluse, she and Jamie seldom communicating. Jamie decided it was time to teach Serena about the workings, in an attempt to get her life back on track. She would later think that might have been the worst decision she had ever made in her life. Her idea was that workings should be personal, and positive. Serena became a bit obsessed, wanting her workings to be more like curses, to strike back against those who tormented her in the past. She was aware that Jamie wanted things to be low-key, kept secret, that she had yet to reveal the secret to her spouse, Ro. Without revealing her plan, Serena cast a spell that almost obliterated Ro from existence. If it wasn't for the fact Jamie was attempting to teach Ro about the workings at the same time it might have worked. Ro vanished for a while, but Jamie was able to bring them back. Jamie loved Serena, her birth mom, but that didn't mean it would be easy to forgive her. Serena had come out of her shell, wanted to leave her exile near the woods, come back to town and get a job, which she did, but things were not easy since she felt she needed to continue her workings. Ro now knew the secret, which made their life with Jamie difficult.
Jamie and Ro were both graduate students, Ro in economics, Jamie in English Literature. Jamie had become obsessed with an anonymously published novel of the 18th Century, Emily: A Tale of Paragons and Deliverance, by a Lady. Most of her recent workings had been to help her find information about the identity of the author. They lead her to another book that might have been an inspiration for whoever wrote Emily, along with letters written between two women of the period. Most of the people Jamie studies, along with other books, are historical, although Emily is fictitious, a fabrication by Charlie Jane. Through that text, Jamie starts to believe that Jane Collier and Sarah Fielding (sister of Henry, author of The History of Tom Jones) may have been lovers, or Sarah may have been the lover of Charlotte Charke, an actress, later writer, who acted in men's roles, and wore traditional men's clothing in her personal life too. She also thinks that Jane or Sarah, or whoever wrote the book, was a witch, since descriptions of certain places and concepts were similar to where and how Jamie performed her workings. Jamie's faculty adviser constantly reminds her that her dissertation is overdue, but that is not her only concern. It is possible the college itself is on the brink of closing, or at least most of its liberal arts departments.
Chapters alternate between Jamie's study for her dissertation, plus her struggles to maintain her relationship with Ro, along with flashbacks to her childhood, as well as Serena and Mae's life. Almost everything ties into our current concerns of government overreach into personal identity and sexual orientation, as well as the loss of privacy and prevalent social media campaigns against marginalized groups. Serena had previously gained a law degree and worked toward civil rights justice, but was the victim of a smear campaign due to her sexuality. She convinced Jamie to help her with a working which would target the individual responsible, but instead of harming him, he came back to harass them again. He wasn't the only, maybe not the main one, who also launched a campaign against Jamie for being a 'groomer' and promoter of sexual deviance. Another way this relates to our real world is that both Jamie and Charlie Jane are transwomen, and both of their partners are non-binary. The forces that harmed Serena in the past, and those that threaten Jamie in the present, are stronger than ever in the world today.
This is a very good book, highly recommended. It is a very important book, one that should bring hope and strength, but unfortunately it might be the victim of a backlash as if it was a magic spell gone wrong. If only I knew how to perform workings that would defeat the dark forces I would be doing nothing but.
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