While many still hold a candle for the Harry Potter franchise, author J.K. Rowling’s aggressively negative stance on transgender and queer people has complicated the relationship with the series for even the most diehard fans. When you take into consideration that the prevailing theme of Harry Potter is good triumphing over evil through the power of love, it should come as no shock that many who spent their youth waiting for an owl to deliver a letter feel betrayed by Rowling and the fans that are still clinging to their nostalgia for the series.
Rowling’s views have also inspired numerous authors to create their own magical schools in which characters who identify as queer and trans are not one welcome, but often central to the plot. The following five books are novels set in or around magical schools that are either written by authors who identify as queer or transgender, feature characters who identify as such, or, in some cases, both.
Got your own suggestions? Drop your recommendations in the comments.
5
Awakened by A.E. Osworth
On the morning of their half birthday, Wilder wakes up to discover that they are able to comprehend and speak every known language, a neat perk in a city like New York.
Their newfound magical ability quickly gains the attention of a coven of trans witches, all of whom have powers of their own; Artemis is a powerful seer, Mary Margaret has telekinetic abilities, and Quibble travels effortlessly through portals. But just as Wilder begins to come to terms with the existence of magic and to settle into their new community, an evil AI threatens to destroy their home, their family, and reality as they know it.
With a dedication that reads “For everyone who feels betrayed by J.K. Rowling,” it’s clear that A.E. Osworth wrote Awakened with one goal in mind: to create a magical world where trans people are treated with the love and respect that they deserve. The result hammers home the importance of community (found family in particular) and the dangers that AI presents, with a little magic sprinkled in.
Awakened is available for $18.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
4
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
While books that take place in magical schools are often told from the point of view of the students, that’s not the case for Emily Tesh’s dark academic novel, The Incandescent.
Set within the halls of a prestigious magical English boarding school called the Chetwood Academy, The Incandescent follows Doctor Sapphire “Saffy” Walden, a high-ranking teacher of the arcane and director of magic at the institution. When Saffy’s A-Level Invocation lessons are disrupted by the threat of a demonic incursion, she must find a way to protect her students and the school’s legacy as well as her own well-guarded secrets.
The Incandescent is available May 8 for $18.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
3
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Clocking in at an impressive 11 novellas (as well as several published short stories), Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series is pretty much guaranteed to keep even the most voracious readers occupied.
The Eleanor West Home for Wayward Children is far from your typical magical boarding school. Rather than teach its students magic, it provides a safe space for children who have returned from a magical, portal-based world (think Narnia) and need to acclimate to our mundane world. Reentry is traumatic, to say the least, and the children are given a safe (ish) place to recover.
In Every Heart a Doorway, the first novella in the Wayward Children series, seventeen-year-old Nancy Whitman has returned from the realm of the dead. While she was only gone for six months in real-world-time, Nancy lived for several years as a companion to the Master and Mistress of death, and yearns to return to them.
Shortly after Nancy’s return to the real world, other children at the school begin to be murdered, and it quickly falls to Nancy and her companions to discover who is picking them off before the killer strikes again.
Every Heart at Doorway is available for $10.56 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
2
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
What would happen if Petunia Dursley were to become a talented private investigator tasked with solving a violent murder at an academy for magic users where her estranged and magically gifted sister works? The answer is Sarah Gailey’s noir novel, Magic for Liars.
It’s important to note that Ivy Gamble is not the Chosen One in this story. Unlike her sister, Tabitha, she does not have any magical abilities and, as such, is a bit of a fish out of water at the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages. What she lacks in magical skills, Ivy makes up for in her intuition and deductive abilities as a private investigator (and a damn good one at that).
But the longer Ivy spends amongst young mages at the Academy working on the case, the more alluring the life she could have had alongside her sister becomes.
Magic for Liars is available for $11.20 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
1
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Inspired by both indigenous cultures (Blackgoose is a member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe and Anequs lives on a Masquapaug island in the novel), Norse mythology and set in a steampunk-like alternate history filled with dragons, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is not to be missed.
When 15-year-old Anequs finds the first dragon egg in generations on the island of Masquapaug, her people are over the moon. It has been years since a dragon has lived among them and the discovery of the egg signals their return. Unfortunately for Anequs it also means that the Anglish who colonized her people’s land have now turned their attention to her as well.
When the Anglish reluctantly allow Anequs to enroll in a dragon school on the mainland, she must succeed in the social and academic challenges set before her or else her dragon will be taken from her and killed.
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is available for $14.39 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
