This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster was such a sweet story about the love of a mother and daughter. Serena is the mom and she's grieving the loss of her wife. Jamie is the daughter and while her mom is heartbroken, she teaches her mom magic and the two bond. This book reminded me of Practical Magic.

This was my first book by Anders, and I was surprised by the clear, simple prose. I do not use simple as an insult. I think it's incredibly difficult to write such a layered, emotional story in an accessible way. This is a story about how people trying their very best will still hurt each other, often unintentionally. It's a story about queerness and forgiveness and capitalism. I really enjoyed it once I got used to the writing style and saw where Anders was taking the themes. Honestly, I enjoyed the 18th century pastiche sections the most, and I hope that Anders considers writing historical fantasy! She has a real knack for mimicking the voice of historical writers.

Thank you so much to Tor and NetGalley for this ARC!

This was such a beautiful, sensitive, yet raw look at a family torn apart by grief, but struggling to meet each other so they can survive.

Jamie is a professor working on her dissertation of a novel from the late 1700s, attempting to navigate life in the wake of Mae's, her mother, death. Serena is a former lawyer who was brought low after a career ending scandal and is also mourning the death of her wife, Mae, a death that eats Serena alive.

In the midst of picking herself back up and putting herself together, Jamie has learned magic. Small, sacrifices and blessings to get her through her life and hope for certain outcomes. In a bid to bring Serena back to the human world, Jamie elects to teach her magic as well, but Jamie doesn't understand just how much Serena wants justice.

It was at turns heartbreaking, humorous, realistic, and haunting. Jamie teaching Serena and Serena's first independent working have disastrous consequences, ones that Serena attempts to make right and ones that Jamie attempt to teach Serena from.

I'm a huge fan of Anders' work, and this and All the Birds in the Sky hit the spot in such a special way.

I absolutely loved Lessons in Magic and Disaster. It has complex, lovable characters that are frustrating, and feel very alive. There are so many interesting and intereconnected layers and create this immersive atmosphere of being a fly on the wall, watching the events transpire, caring about these fictional people and the situations they get themselves into. It's full of love, and grief and imperfect people trying to do the right things and the wrong things with the best of intentions.

I also enjoyed the exploration of 18th century women writers. Oddly enough, delightfully enough, this ultra queer, ultra modern book, has me adding books from Jane Collier & Sarah Fielding to my TBR, even if some of the aspects mentioned in this book are fictionalized. As well as many of the books mentioned in the authour's historical note, so if you're anything like me, you'll end up with more books to read as a result for this one.

There are so many *amazing* lines in Lessons in Magic and Disaster that it made me use the highlights feature on Netgalley for the first time ever.

It really spoke to me, as a queer, as a person, as a parent, and as an academia dabbler. It has some challenging topics in it - as you might expect when characters are dealing with the death of a parent/partner, and the resonant grief around that, reactionary/queerphobic/transphobic activists, and just generally how well written, complicated parent-child relationships can be - but it's also deeply full of love and growth.

I was able to read Lessons in Magic and Disaster courtesy of Netgalley, and the publisher, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"Lessons in Magic and Disaster" is a book that is practically tailor-made for my reading tastes; it was just about perfect in almost every way. I felt privileged to be a part of the ARC team for this beautiful, thoughtful book.

Jamie is a grad student working on her dissertation about 18th-century literature, with a focus on women writers of the time who may or may not have been queer. She's also helping out her mother, with whom she's had a fraught relationship. I was a little thrown at first by referencing her mother by her first name but it worked with their complicated relationship and the structure of the points of view.

Serena is unmoored from losing the love of her life, Mae, the glue that held their loving queer family together. Jamie tries to help her process her grief by teaching her magic. She's a trans witch, a powerful one at that, but she has always worked in secret, finding places in the wilderness between the modern and the primeval to do her workings. But her mother, filled with rage and a need for revenge, soon taps into a malevolent source as Jamie faces a targeted, transphobic harassment campaign over her work as a student teacher.

Along the way Jamie's relationship with her nonbinary partner Ro (named after Ro Laren! squee!) takes a hit as the secrets she's kept from everyone she loves come to roost.

The story is told from Jamie's point of view, then back story from Serena's point of view as she reminisces about the love story between her and Mae, then bounces into nerdy tangents from the POVs of the 18th century women writers. I liked this structure although sometimes Serena/Mae and Jamie/Ro sounded similar and the 18th century lit excerpts could be clunky to read.

This felt like a very personal book for the author and I appreciated that she really put her heart and soul into these characters. If you can only read trans characters in queernormative worlds where the stakes are low for them, this isn't the book for you. There was plenty of discrimination and misgendering, and I liked how it showed both queer folks and witches finding solidarity against the hate. A very relevant and essential book.

I also loved how the characters were complex people, sometimes very unlikable, but I always understood their motivations. This was an incredibly queer book but I loved how it showed queer love and queer family dynamics without being a romance. This is life after the HEA.

This book really spoke to me personally and I saw myself in these characters. It will stay with me for a very long time and was a meaningful, impactful read for me. Reading this was therapeutic in a way, and I laughed, cried and felt touched by the nerdiness of each character.

Heartfelt thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was amazing! First of all, I love Charlie Jane’s work, whether listening to her podcast or reading her fiction or nonfiction work, so I was really looking forward to reading this latest novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Tor, I was able to read this early, and I am so grateful I did!

Jamie and her mother Serena have a difficult relationship (understatement). Jamie realizes her skills as a teacher and magic practitioner may be able to help pull her mother out of the deep depression she’s been in since the death of Jamie’s other mother and Serena’s wife, Mae. But, of course, things don’t always turn out as expected, and both Jamie and Serena have to deal with the consequences of their actions not only for themselves but for the people around them.

Charlie Jane shows a wicked sense of humor plus some noteworthy observations about contemporary culture while dealing big subjects: family issues, LGBTQ+ rights, anti-trans measures, social media doxxing, and much more. The movement between past and present in the plot (as well as the inclusion of a literary mystery!) also kept me engaged.

As someone who earned a Ph.D. and recently retired from a career in English education, I especially connected with her observations about academia and the current state of the humanities in the US. I also loved all the references to 18th century literature, Jamie’s specialty, and I really appreciated the books and articles listed at the end of the novel for anyone who enjoyed this book and wanted to know more.

I wasn't prepared for how just how incredibly kind and moving this book was. This is my book by Charlie Jane Anders and I already know it won't be my last. It talks about grief and the relationship between Jamie and her mom isn't perfect, it's not perfect by the end but it loving, it's magical and this book just works.

"Lessons in Magic and Disaster" is a vibrant and unabashedly queer story about love and how complicated it can be express love to those we care about most. I really enjoyed the complex and multifaceted characters, the look at queer history, and the many kinds of love that are explored throughout the book.

This book is about Jamie, a graduate student in the English department, as she attempts to reconnect with her mother Serena by teaching her magic. In this book, magic takes place in half-wild places, where nature has reclaimed some of what humans have built, and takes the form of intentions and hope on behalf of the witch. The book follows a number of threads and timelines simultaneously: how Jamie deals with her academic research, magic with her mother, and her relationship with her partner all at once; the story of Serena and Mae, Jamie’s parents, tracing their relationship and raising Jamie through time; and a historical story revealed through Jamie’s research about queer women and their relationships through a particular point in history. I found the book to feel deeply personal in a way that made it really shine. The book confronts the trauma experienced by the characters in a way that feels visceral but never loses the threads of hope and humor that leave the book feeling satisfying by the end. The characters feel real and flawed in a way that I found deeply compelling to read about. . These pieces tie together into a quirky, vibrant, and heartwarming magical realism tale that I strongly recommend to readers interested in queer and feminist stories.

The one area I liked a bit less in this book was its historical tale, which is often told through epigraphs, short extracts from letters or stories, and through Jamie’s research. It’s clear that the author is extremely well-versed in this area, and I look forward to reading some of the sources mentioned in the author’s note at the end of the book. However, within the book itself I got a bit lost in some of these passages and found parts of it difficult to follow.

I am rating this book 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 5. I sincerely loved this book and its hopeful, complicated, and ultimately heartwarming voice.

In my latest review book from Net Galley, Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders, Jamie’s mom Serena is hiding from the world. She hasn’t been able to deal with the death of her wife. Jamie is secretly a witch and wants to help her mother. So she decides to teach Serena how to do magic. What follows is a tale about dealing with loss, grief, and figuring out life.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first. I liked the characters, Jamie, Mae, and Serena especially, but I wasn’t sure about the plot. Lessons in Magic and Disaster is a very character focused book. It was a big adjustment going from a more plot based like King Sorrow to a character focused book like Lessons. And yet this is exactly what I needed, a big change of pace.

I love most of the characters in the book and I always find it wonderful reading about characters who are not at all like me. Some people claim that they want to read about characters like them. I think thats so very boring. I want to read about different characters and different worlds (or at least different parts of ours). I love reading about gay and trans characters because these are people and worlds that I don’t know about. And there are so many wonderful people here. The world is full of wonderful people. I like getting glimpses into unique worlds and people.

That all said, I could relate to that sense of loss and grief. I lost someone very important to me in 2021. I feel that loss every single day of my life. There is a giant hole in my life. So the loss and grief portrayed in this book connected with me. I understood that. Later in the book, there was a part that was tough to read. I read it but my heart ached for these characters.

Charlie Jane Anders is such a great writer. Its amazing that she goes from a fantastic trilogy of sci-fi novels to this book about magic and grief and loss and all of it is wonderful. I love how she writes her characters. She has a great ear for dialogue and for description. Without a doubt, she is one of my favorite writers right now.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster was not at all what I thought it would be. I’m really glad I read it. I loved it. And I do recommend it to anyone who is looking for a character drama with magic, grief, and loss. Its a powerful book. It will make you think and feel.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster comes out on August 19th, 2025. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the early digital copy of this book.