Monday, April 6, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey




When We Were Magic is the latest novel by SF/F author Sarah Gailey (Magic for Liars, American Hippo, Upright Women Wanted) and as far as I can tell, their first YA work.  As I said in my recent review of Upright Women Wanted (see HERE), I haven't always liked Gailey's work, but it has always been at the worst interesting and different.  Moreover, all of Gailey's work focuses on or centers around characters who don't fit into the classic cis white archetype - with multiple LGBTQ and non-white characters at the heart of each story.

Gailey isn't interested in telling the same stories about the same people, and that continues with When We Were Magic, which is the young adult story a group of queer teens at the end of their high school life, dealing with their own insecurities about who they are, who they will be, and the loves and friendships they'll take forward from there.  The story's weakest part is oddly enough its premise, which should seemingly be more serious than the book is interested in dealing with, with the book instead being a lighter toned story about the characters' growing up and realizing their feelings.  Still, for what it is, it is done well, and it's another solid YA outing, especially for those who don't fit the classic white cis male paradigm.


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Prom Night.  It was supposed to be a night when Alexis ("Alex") and her friends - Iris, Maryam, Roya, Paulie, and Marcelina - were all supposed to go on their own, without dates, and enjoy one of the last night's of their high school life.  Except Roya came with Tall Matt instead of going alone, and Alexis for some reason decided to lose her virginity to Josh Harper, before she accidentally murdered him with her magic.

Oh right, did I mention the murder?  And the fact that the six of them all have magic?

Now, the six desperately try to make things right with their magic, as the rest of their school year plays out and a search is called for the missing Josh.  And more importantly, Alex tries to figure out exactly what she wants and and fights for her own self-worth.  And then of course there's Roya, Alex's best friend, whom Alex has always had a crush on but been too scared to actually ask out.

With her whole world crashing down, and the magic that the group used to try and make things right having unexpected side effects, Alex will try and find a way to move forward and to find some worth in her life to come....
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As the summary above makes clear this is not a book really about a protagonist murdering an innocent kid with magic.  Which, let's be clear, totally happens (by accident but still) to start the plot of this novel, but whereas other books would use that to tell a cynical dark plot - see Gailey's own "Magic for Liars", for example - that's not what this book is.  And that's kind of weird because well - an innocent kid dying should be a freaking big deal, but it's totally glossed over here outside of it serving as the skeleton for this plot's conflicts.  But instead this is a coming of age story for Alexis, and to a slightly lesser extent for her friends, all told through Alex's point of view.

And for what that is, it's a really good coming of age story, with some really solid moments all between the characters.  The book does a great job showcasing the different personalities of each of the six friends, although with so many of them, it's still possible to confuse a few of them when one or two spends a few chapters off screen.  But this is mainly Alex's story as she attempts to get through her negative views on her own self-worth, as she deals with the friends she doesn't feel she deserves, and spends her last few days in high school wondering if something can happen between her and the girl she loves.  Gailey does an excellent job really showing Alex and her friends trying to figure their shit out, with some really touching moments throughout.

And well, normally I'd have more to say here, but there really isn't much more to it.  This is a queer teen coming of age story, although I must make it clear that this is a queer coming of age story that is NOT about a teen struggling to come out - all of the queer members of this cast seems comfortable with their own sexuality in public, and the parents and friends we meet are totally supportive of same, if they're not queer themselves - Alex, for example, has two dads, and at one point one of them mistakenly thinks she's worried about coming out to them and Alex is like "no of course I'm queer, I'm not ashamed of that".  Despite this story taking place in our modern world, it's one in which queer teens are not in fear for their sexuality, which is a nice thing to see.  This is a story of friends who love each other and whose fears are that of growing up, not that of what society may feel about them for who they are.

So yeah, this is a fun queer coming of age story of friends and loved ones and is nice to read, with the story ending on a nice note and the prose being very hard to put down at times.  You could do a lot worse, even if it doesn't quite hit any levels of greatness.

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