Book Review
Mar. 20th, 2022 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariMagic for Liars
by Sarah Gailey
Magic for Liars is a very effective mash-up of detective noir and Hogwarts, if it had the look and feel of a more typical American prep school. Ivy Gamble, a hard-drinking hot mess of a private investigator, is called to Osthorne, a school for mages, to look into the horrific death of a faculty member. To complicate things for Ivy, this is the school at which her powerful mage twin sister Tabitha teaches. Ivy is not the least bit magical, and this divergence has led to a decade-plus estrangement. However, when she arrives, because she is Tabitha's twin, everyone assumes she is magical, too. Ivy, unable to resist the temptation of trying on the magical life, does not correct anyone and even leans into their assumptions.
I very much enjoyed Magic for Liars. Gailey creates a magic school that is much closer to a typical American prep school than Hogwarts - the only thing that distinguishes it from a normal high school is that the students study and use magic in addition to math, English, physics, etc. Ivy is not always a likable person - while she is quite good at being a detective, she is does not have her shit together and makes some pretty bad choices. Yet, I still really liked reading about her. I loved the complexity of her relationship with Tabitha, and how that relationship shifted and improved over the course of the book. I loved that she was good at her job even while being a mess. The secondary characters were also really good and had real depth, from the mean girl queen bee right down to the school secretary. The mystery was very compelling, too, but I won't say more so as not to spoil anything.
by Sarah Gailey
Magic for Liars is a very effective mash-up of detective noir and Hogwarts, if it had the look and feel of a more typical American prep school. Ivy Gamble, a hard-drinking hot mess of a private investigator, is called to Osthorne, a school for mages, to look into the horrific death of a faculty member. To complicate things for Ivy, this is the school at which her powerful mage twin sister Tabitha teaches. Ivy is not the least bit magical, and this divergence has led to a decade-plus estrangement. However, when she arrives, because she is Tabitha's twin, everyone assumes she is magical, too. Ivy, unable to resist the temptation of trying on the magical life, does not correct anyone and even leans into their assumptions.
I very much enjoyed Magic for Liars. Gailey creates a magic school that is much closer to a typical American prep school than Hogwarts - the only thing that distinguishes it from a normal high school is that the students study and use magic in addition to math, English, physics, etc. Ivy is not always a likable person - while she is quite good at being a detective, she is does not have her shit together and makes some pretty bad choices. Yet, I still really liked reading about her. I loved the complexity of her relationship with Tabitha, and how that relationship shifted and improved over the course of the book. I loved that she was good at her job even while being a mess. The secondary characters were also really good and had real depth, from the mean girl queen bee right down to the school secretary. The mystery was very compelling, too, but I won't say more so as not to spoil anything.
