The Incorruptibles by Lauren Magaziner is an upper middle-grade fantasy novel set in a future where powerful sorcerers rule over ordinary humans. The story follows Fiora Barrowling, a tailor’s apprentice who unexpectedly finds herself at Inc Academy, a secret school training resistance fighters to stand against sorcerer tyranny.
Fiora’s world is one of oppression, where sorcerers wield unchecked power, and ordinary people live under their rule. After a dangerous encounter with The Radiance, the most feared group of sorcerers, Fiora is whisked away to Inc Academy. However, her arrival is met with skepticism—many students believe she hasn’t earned her place there. As she struggles to prove herself, tensions rise when suspicions emerge about a possible spy within the academy. Fiora must navigate friendships, rivalries, and intense training while uncovering secrets that could change everything.
The novel blends fast-paced action, immersive world-building, and diverse characters, making it an exciting start to a new series. Fiora’s journey is one of self-discovery, resilience, and learning to trust herself and others in the face of adversity. The book also explores themes of resistance, identity, and the fight for justice in a world where power is dangerously imbalanced.

This perfect tween summer read tells the thrilling tale of a girl who must decide between a quiet life and joining a resistance movement to free the world of evil sorcerers. Fiora is an apprentice tailor in her uncle's shop after losing her parents to a sorcerer attack when she meets an Incorruptible, a member of the underground tech force working to protect humans from bad magic. In standing up to sorcerers, Fiora uses an Incorruptible weapon against them and becomes one of their targets. Now she has to decide: retreat into a safe town with her uncle or join the fight by becoming an Incorruptible herself. Thrilling action, found family, lots of friendship drama follow as the students must overcome trust and interpersonal issues to form a true team that can defeat the big bad. Kids are going to absolutely adore this wild ride, picking which squad they would join, and deciding on their favorite tech. I can't wait for the next book!!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

The Incorruptibles by Lauren Magaziner is a third person-POV Middle Grade fantasy. Fiora’s world is run by sorcerer’s who abuse their power. When two of them harass her uncle over a cloak, Fiora fights back and ends up on the radar of the academy for Incorruptibles, students training to take the sorcerer’s down. But there’s a spy at the academy and several signs seem to point to Fiora herself.

The worldbuilding subverts the common trope of witches/sorcerers/mages being the oppressed and regular humans being the oppressors. This is not actually a secondary world fantasy—it’s set in our world in a future where humans figured out how to gain access to magic and the technology we have seems to have mostly fallen by the wayside. There are also modern topics being discussed, such as all fiction being labelled ‘Smut’ and the general populace is not allowed access to it. A lot of kids are a lot more plugged in these days to politics than we think they are, so some young readers might be very familiar with these topics due to what is happening in their own districts or in conversations around them.

Fiora has a budding potential Sapphic romance with Mel, a young girl who is determined to be the very best of the best of the Incorruptibles and take all the sorcerers down. Mel isn’t willing to wait and is a bit arrogant, but given what we learn of how corrupt the sorcerers are, it makes sense that she wants to get going right now. Fiora is more earnest in at least being on good terms with Mel and is more agreeable, though the tension is certainly there at times. This is more in the rivals-to-lovers camp if it does eventually evolve into a romance, though that isn’t one hundred percent clear quite yet. Given the normalization of Queer relationships in the text, the focus on the growth of their relationship, and how they do start out as rivals, I am inclined to believe it is highly possible.

I think a lot of readers of any age who are interested in topics of justice and wealth disparity will find a lot of parallels in this books and educators will be able to open up discussions about these topics in the classroom. The sorcerers having magic and then taking more and more, including displacing people from their homes, is a very clear allegory for what we’ve seen with the wealthy buying up so much property in some areas only to put them up on AirBnB that locals can no longer afford to live there.

I would recommend this to readers who love fantasy with strong social justice themes and readers of magic school books who want a twist on classic tropes