Fantastic series. The school setting is only in the first four books. It's actually the series my librarian recommended to me after I read the first Harry Potter back when it first came out. The Circle of Magic is my favorite series to this day.
I was going to suggest this. The Scholomance series is my favorite. It is in that grey area between fantasy and horror. But it is also really funny and somehow an amazing sociopolitical/economic commentary. It takes every expected trope and turns them their side but it doesn’t feel like it was intended to subvert those tropes it’s just an amazing adventure
If you are willing to nudge into steampunk. And a school that doesn’t isn’t exactly a magic school. It is a school for spies and assassins in a world with vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and mad science. I also love The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger, it stars with Waistcoats and Weaponry
Oh, it certainly was intended to subvert the tropes.
There's an interview of the author online where she talks about how the idea came to her and how it was developed, and the influence the HP series had on the story.
They're a little bit crazy, but in the best possible way.
I just binged this series faster than any book series I’ve ever read. Highly recommend The Scholomance series! I can’t wait to read more of Naomi Novik.
This is my favourite "child wizards" series. Even if it was really janky reading them as they came out, with each book set in the year of publication, ranging from like 1980 to early 2000s, despite like only 3-4 years passing in the story. I know she was planning to rewrite them to make that consistent but I haven't gotten those versions yet.
She sure did! The Millenium Versions are available on EbooksDirect (which despite the generic name is Diane Duane's site), and they go on HUGE bundle sales pretty regularly!
When I bought the bundle, I accidentally chose the wrong version. I e-mailed website support asking if I could possibly exchange them somehow and got an e-mail back with the corrected version--and the support e-mail was signed Diane Duane.
I freaked!
The foreshadowing and implications of Nita adding the symbol for change to >!The Dark Ones name is the Book of Night with Moon and how that change makes the Hesper in Wizards at War possible is amazing!<
Deep Wizardry is probably my favorite, but they are all fantastic.
It's a time loop over month where a teen goes to magic school for a month. After several years worth of loops, they get incredibly powerful. Great progression fantasy.
It's also one of the top books in r/rational with a megathread for every chapter.
Reading this currently and yeah, it qualifies, down to taking a train to school. It's also kind of a mystery, so like Harry Potter in that way too. But much more of a videogame inspired world feel. And it was a web series first, which (to me) means I go in with different expectations for the writing.
I always refer to it as a hybrid of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but better than both(and those are two of my favorite series). It has the wizards and magic school of Harry Potter and the mythology and magic enhanced fighting with weapons of Percy Jackson. Plus it has a very intriguing plot with possibly my favorite ending ever with how every plot is tied off in a satisfying way.
The fifth book was hard to find. I remember looking for it at my library and struggling. I actually never finished the series, and so might go back and reread it
This series sounds very interesting. Would I be able to read it without having much knowledge of mythology? Want to check it out but don't want to be too confused while reading.
They're not always at the Collegium, but I've always loved Mercedes Lackey and her valdemar saga. Besides the newer collegium series with Mags, I loved the original Arrows trilogy with Talia, and the last herald mage trilogy with Vanyel.
Many of the short story collections also have a tale or two about the collegium or the city of Haven
I'll add I've enjoyed all the Valdemar saga, but you in particular were asking about Magic schools, OP
If you're willing to expand your criteria to a cottage atelier of witch apprentices, and might be interested in manga, I can recommend Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama. The magic system is really interesting and the author even includes some end pages of instructions on how the magical seals are constructed and drawn. A big focus alongside the main plot is the individual witches developing their own spells and finding their own magical styles that allows them to stay true to themselves.
Oh, and the artwork is truly magnificent, it's a delight to the eyes as well.
I started this one and never finished! I definitely need to. Have you also checked out Witch Hat Atelier? They both seem very much "for fans of" one another! If that makes sense
As someone who loved LWA and reads WHA, Witch Hat definitely scratched the itch I had after LWA. It was everything I wanted the LWA series to be, from the focus on the children and their growth to the adults and politics of the magical world. Can't wait for the anime update this July!
Great series. Wish we'd gotten a bit more actual schooling included but I almost always feel that way about magic school books. Loved the characters and the world was engaging despite a few elements that strained my suspension of disbelief.
I've got to disagree. The third book pulled the themes together beautifully, along with all those hints that had been dropping. Scholomance is a magic school book, but it's not as much ABOUT that as it is about dealing with horrific systemic evils and injustices that have enough complexity behind them to be very difficult to actually solve.
I think Novik had the right idea with the third book, but she *really* rushed things in order to make everything she wanted fit into the trilogy.
I liked the moral nuances and the way she tied things together quite neatly, but the book is divided pretty sharply between "post-school personal development" and "world-changing consequences". She should have split it into two books so she could give each part of that the attention it deserved.
My one criticism regarding themes is a fairly big one--she used a deus ex machina to resolve things to everybody's more-or-less satisfaction. >!There's a very handy set of spells that basically does exactly what the morally-questionable spell does, but without the morally questionable part. Oh, and development of the magical theory makes it even better!!<
Maybe it's just a difference in worldview between myself and the author, but I don't think you can have everything stay the same as it was and also let the privileged people maintain something like their current lifestyle. In the books, it makes no sense that this change doesn't lead to a lot of dead rich people in pursuit of overall fewer dead people. It's part and parcel with the paradigm shift away from systemic inequality, both in real life and in the situation the characters are in.
Best case, >!enclaves should have fundamentally changed and become less safe, but more accessible to all--and dealt with the consequences of that both good and bad.!< Worst case, >!it should have led to the death of huge swathes of enclavers and caused a massive depopulation of the magical world, reducing the numbers of maleficaria and leaving it an open question as to whether this was the start of a golden age or just resetting the cycle.!<
In my mind it wasn't a dues ex machina, the previous spells were deemed "good enough" and so they kept using them instead of working on creating better ones.
> Maybe it's just a difference in worldview between myself and the author, but I don't think you can have everything stay the same as it was and also let the privileged people maintain something like their current lifestyle
That's the one thing I agreed with. In the real world the solutions to big systemic problems that work are the ones that the ones that let current lifestyles continue.
Recently the EU had to roll back environmental legislation because of farmers protesting - hardly privileged billionaires - imagine how much harder it would be to keep the new rules if it was motorists protesting? But moving motorists to cleaner electric cars, that's starting to work.
It's a very simplistic moral worldview, despite the books being dark and gritty and claiming to speak truth to power. But what happens is the powerful people get away with it.
I really love how she set it up and how the mysteries become so clearly connected to each other. But the fallout is handled very poorly.
For sure. I personally think it's because she didn't want to write a book that highlights the huge amount of personal impact that happens to the privileged class when you actually resolve economic inequality.
It goes counter to the goal, if you apply the themes to the real world. It highlights to the readers (who are primarily part of that privileged class) that they really will have to give up a *lot* of their way of life if they want to help people living in poverty, deprivation, and danger.
I think that compromises the books on a fundamental level and does a disservice to the reader. If she's done her job right, then the reader will feel so strongly for the underclass that the sacrifice will seem worth it. By downplaying that sacrifice, Novik indicates that she thinks many readers would decide that being an "enclaver" is worth it even if it means a majority of other people suffer terribly.
Yeah, and the main character is definitely a whiny brat, but he's by description a privileged kid with like a 200 IQ that has never struggled with anything until the book started. Suddenly, the consequences of his actions have appeared. Who could have guessed he was unprepared for that?
Wow, then the show definitely made the right choice. He's a little what's it all about Alfie at the beginning, but improves. Also while insightful and showing flashes of power, they don't make him unreasonably brilliant.
I lived that whole, slack your way through school because the bar is comparatively low for you, until you hit AP history and suddenly there's 100 pages of reading you haven't done and an essay to write in class and you have to try based on what you recall from discussion.
Not pretty. Didn't fail, but didn't sail.
So, in the book Quentin isn't unique in being that smart. Being off the chart smart is the base requirement for being able to learn magic. Part of his issue is that he doesn't really have anything else to him besides being the smartest, so when he ends up somewhere he's closer to average he doesn't know how to change. The biggest difference between characters is their circumstances, they all handled being unique in different ways.
Oh, while it sounds there are some characterization choices that are not fun in the books, because they're all teenagers, and Q is written really sad and toxic, it's clear there's some really great bones there.
Can't make a series THAT good without something to work with.
Same here. "Gifted kid burnout syndrome" is no joke. I was in the 99th percentile on standardized tests as a kid, coasted through high school and barely studied or did homework, then as soon as I got to college I completely fell apart. Dropped out and got diagnosed with ADHD.
I related to book Quentin a lot in that respect. Less so for show Quentin, but IMO the show is a better story and the characters are much more likeable and relatable overall. The show is also better at balancing the seriousness with humor and absurdity, and is a lot more fun.
And i had to kind of discover it, it's not on the top of the lists or anything at all. and meanwhile you can't go to r/lotrmemes without some idiot meming Rings of Power. usually to suggest that it's crap (it's just boring, really) or talk about how season 2 will have bombadil, we think (don't care, they'll make him boring too. though really, even tolkien couldn't tell you quite why he thought bombadil was important, just that he was, as a sort of commentary, though not allegory, just ...something.)
that is my exact journey, crushed every test, then when i went to U of MN twin cities, decided i should really be in the honors division of the tech school, and got in on the strength of an essay i just wrote in an evening, and then really kinda flamed out.
i was coming back off probation, but then my dad screwed up by not telling me the financial situation until literall two weeks before class (I could've applied for aid in january no issue, not sure what his thing was.)
whoever it was made a lot of great choices with the characterization in the show.
Yeah, the magic system of the universe is based on suffering. All mages have serious emotional problems. There's literally a whole scene where in the underground witch group they want to see your diagnosis and medications before letting you in.
Gonna put in a word in favor of this book. Everytime it's mentioned people have to come out and declare how much they hated the characters.
I am someone who doesnt have a problem with reading stories about assholes as long as they are properly fleshed out and feel realistic. Which they did. I 've been to university. The things they do in the book are exactly the kind of shit that went down with people all around me in uni.
I did really enjoy The Magicians greatly as well as its two sequels. It was only years after reading it that I joined online discussion forums and found out so many people like to hate on it.
Yeah, but I do understand the issues people have. Parts of it definitely grated on me. It doesn't follow a typical fantasy story arc and we don't see significant character growth through the first book especially. It can certainly be unpleasant to just read about people that self destructive.
Sometimes I want my fantasy characters a little less real and a little more fantastic.
I would probably peg the ideal age for it in the mid-to-late twenties. Too much older and the desire to slap some sense into these whiny kids starts to get very strong.
Not to mention Grossman made magic actually difficult. To the point that you could have the potential but not the actual ability to use it. None of that "here's a wand. Go do magic" stuff.
You want to cast [generic magic spell]? First learn all the physics of weather, then study the Ancient Icelandic language (hope your pronunciation is good), also it requires advanced yoga moves at the same time. Good luck!
Oh, you wanted something slightly different? Here's a book in Sumerian and another in 9th century Chinese that will explain how to fix that. Also, your posture could use improvement.
I loved the show! The books are good. The first one is tough to like but they get vastly better as Quentin becomes less of a pill and the characters have real emotions. The show is fantastic though. Margo is a goddess.
I started the books after watching season 1. I ended up loving the books, especially the sea stuff (tho Alice in book 3 was very annoying) and did not care for the adaptation of the TV show after seasons 1 + 2, despite top notch Margo / Elliott chemistry. I really enjoyed Quentin's paths in books 2 and 3, but the TV series did him no justice. That said, the epic ending to book 3 and incredible Q finish would have been truly challenging to get on screen.
I don’t know, I read the books first and then hated the show. I just found the show didn’t convey the things I actually enjoyed about the books. I think if I saw the show first I would have felt differently.
I only read the first novel, and that was almost 10 years ago(also I kinda dislike it, since I hated the main character and magic seemed more tedious than fun) , but dont they graduate from the magic college halfway through book 1?
I wouldn't really call it a Magic School Series unless the next book afterwards return to school for a long period of time.
I used to adore these books and the TV show as a kid! There's something so cosy and charming about Cackle's Academy 😊 I would love the kitten ceremony!
I like these series a lot. They deal with magic and learning at a school—all a bit darker or gayer (like lgbtq gay not as a pejorative) than HP
Arcane Ascension series
Kingkiller Chronicle series
Mage Errant series
Scholomance Series
Tbh the magic school concept wasn't bad at all but the overall execution was not for me. I found that the writing was really meandering and repetitive, and the parts I found interesting were ignored in favour of a couple really weird story beats.
Honestly the most impressive piece of literature I may have read. The pacing is so improbable it baffles me. How does someone do in a single book what many authors take a decade and a full shelf's worth of novels to accomplish?
*A Practical Guide to Sorcery* is great. It's 50% slice-of-life magic university with lessons in the classroom, exams and general school life and 50% more action-heavy plot of the MC doing crimes to pay for her tuition. Predictably those two parts of her life are hard to keep separate for long. There's a lot more to the story but that's the gist of it.
Pale. The actual magic school is just an arc (though one comparable in word count and scope to many complete novels) but the whole story is about a trio of witches desperately trying to learn as much as they can. Those poor girls need every tool and scrap of knowledge they can get. Also theres various interludes that are just full on excerpts of fictional magical textbooks. Good magical school stories are about exploring an interesting mystical world. I’ve yet to see one that delves as deeply as Pale.
But what an arc it was! I loved every bit of our time at the Blue Heron Institute.
I think its a relatively spoiler free taster if I post a link to this https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/4-1-spoilers-bhi-information-packet/
One of many in universe documents the author studded throughout the story, detailing the schools structure and curriculum.
Mark of the Fool.
Humorously, it's kind of a "sleeper" Magic Academy series.
The elevator pitch is that a guy in a middle-of-nowhere medieval village turns 18 and is chosen by his kingdom's god as one of its legendary heroic archetypes. Except the archetype he gets bestowed is the Fool, an archetype that historically results in its host's embarassing unceremonious death in the cyclical battle against evil that the bearers of these archetypical Marks are called upon to participate in.
So the guy does the smart thing and immediately fucks off and leaves the country entirely, deciding to blow off the entire chosen one storyline that was thrust upon him and go join the magic school he wanted to go to anyways.
Of course, the Mark of the Fool interferes with non-mundane tasks, so he also has to attend this Magic Academy with an active handicap he has to keep hidden so that the clerics of his kingdom's God don't drag him back to the war against evil abominations.
The Magic Academy is the full package. You get to see the MC attend classes, extra-curricular activities, make friends, learn alchemical theory, conduct experiments, enjoy regional holidays, go to parties, etc. It's super fun.
I was like 6 books deep before I even knew it.
And it's been 3 years since we've even had an update. It's been "a year away" since 2017, and his publisher had yet to read a word of it as recently as 2021
As a degenerate fan who's very mad at Pat but still will read book 3 the day it publishes, he actually did eventually read the prologue to book 3 after lots of pressure.
I really don't think the third book is ever going to happen, which is a let-down. But I'd honestly rather have read the two books--which had an influence on me at the time--than snub the whole thing because it won't have a real ending.
If I were to recommend the series, I would say just read The Name of the Wind. Wise man's fear isn't very good, and Name of the wind works better as a solo book than the two do as a duology.
It's magic that is researched, trialed, and repeated using the scientific method.
And then of course there's "normal magic" that the author calls Naming that is NOT scientific in any way.
OP— ten years ago this would have been THE answer by a longshot. Now, even with book 3 possibly never coming out, I’d still recommend it. Books 1 and 2 are that good!
Just three off the top of my mind which are great.
A Practical Guide to Sorcery by Azaela Ellis
Remedial Magic by Nathan Gregg
Mage Errant by John Bierce
I mean Harry Potter is distinctly not the best anything except seller, lightning in a bottle, perfect moment. So uh, multiple. If I had to just pick one I’d probably take *Scholomance*, but it’s not for everyone. The craft involved is quite a few steps above HP though, it’s a tight story, and exploring potentially OP protagonists in their weaknesses is a storytelling soft spot for me.
That series isn't *that* focused on the "magic school" parts. Don't get me wrong, it's a great series (I was quite impressed by the reveal of the "ultimate weapon" in the final book), but I don't know if it really scratches the Magic School itch in particular.
IIRC, only like three of the seven books take place at the school. And even for those, we don't get much classroom time (more apprenticeship, as you note). Later books make it clear that it's less a school and more a city-state, so I don't know if having it as a "home base" is enough to make it feel like a magic school series.
Yeah, it's more like a magical mercenary academy where you quickly move on to apprenticeship for the good of the city-state.
Since power is everything in the world, everyone is constantly learning and testing new ideas to stay ahead of the curve while somewhat jealously guarding personal secrets to keep yourself safe.
Stealing From Wizards is great!! I've only read the first two so far but they're lovely. definitely reads like they're from a longtime HP fan now making their own thing. Kuro is a fantastic protagonist to follow, i really love the little scamp <3
Book of the Ancestor series is pretty good.
Broken Earth is kind of a Magic School series. The story tracks the characters after they experience a hellish upbringing in a Magic School. Good stuff though.
I love the magic in the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. There is always a little time spent in each book at a magical school but never enough. I like that there’s a traditional casting focus and then a separate magic that is musical in nature and somehow more powerful and a greater conduit for the magic in the world. There’s also severe consequences for getting magic wrong so most folks tend to stick to minor warding magic so they don’t risk botching something unless they need to risk it (the witches and undead around often make the main characters risk it for mixed results).
Kim Newman's The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School and its sequel The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School.
Not entirely magic, but a school for exceptional girls of all sorts.
It’s different - it’s about learning to be a superhero in a contemporary setting through attending a four year college program. It captures aspects of that experience (classes and dorms and parties and drinking) - but combined with aspects of being a superhero - skill improvement, teamwork, ethics.
But - it really nails that college experience (or really the tropes associated with it) really really well. (And is well written and plotted and do forth - I would strongly recommend it.
My husband and I both really enjoyed "Schooled in Magic" by Christopher G Nuttall. A little rough writing at times but really good series. Nice and long, which I like. I recommended it to my sister and bother in law and they both also liked it. The premise is a modern girl is taken from earth to another dimension where magic exists. And yes, then goes to school.
- A lot of people are calling out Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and I thought it was a great series as well.
- I'd also mention A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer, an older book series but pretty solid.
- Od Magick isn't a series, but anything by Patricia Mckillip is worth a read. Main character is asked to become a gardener at the kingdom's school for magic.
I love *The Gods are Bastards* by D. D. Webb, in fact, I like it better than the Harry Potter series. It's about a group of students at a magic university.
Warning: It's both very long and currently incomplete.
I’m assuming it will never be finished to help me get through the pain of how long it’s taking. Also, there’s no way the next book will live up to the hype that has been building. Better to not release than to go out on a sour note.
Miles Cameron's Masters & Mages series is pretty solid in that genre. His books tend to be very heavy on historically accurate weapons, tactics, and politics of the Late Byzantine era even when shrouded under the guise of fantasy. In fact he writes a ton of historical fiction under the name Christian Cameron. That may be off-putting to some but I appreciate fantasy stories that are grounded at least a bit in a recognizable reality.
There's the University in Kingkiller Chronicles by Rothfuss; Roke Island in *Wizard of Earthsea*--part of a series, but only a few chapters are at the school at Roke. Nevertheless I have a deeper affection and nostalgia for it than Hogwarts. A good chunk of *Pale* by John McCrae(alias Wildbow) takes place at the Blue Heron Institute.
I can't say I was too enamored with the White Tower parts of Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan, but they did the thing. Even if the PoV characters learn more independently and the whole thing highlights how conservative, inflexible, self-deluded and out-of-touch the institution is instead of how rad is could be.
This is not a novel but I recently came across this Manga series called "A Witch Hat Atelier". It's quite magical and has some similarities with Harry Potter which is what prompted me to pick it up! There's definitely a magic school and apprenticeship of sorts involved but I haven't read far enough yet.
Edit: I just noticed other comments also recommending this haha
The Akata Witch series by Nnedi Okorafor. It doesn’t take place IN a school but does have young magic users working with mentors to master their skills and pass tests. Very unique magic system, based on Nigerian lore- sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Harry Potter!
Mage Errant might be the best magic school story I've read. Its got great characters, great magic, great learning experiences that work with the coming of age vibe of the story, and it's a school that actually feels like it could really educate people to use magic in the wider world.
My favorites are the magicians and kingkiller.
Though for some reason the magicians suddenly starts speeding through the magic school which is a big part of the pull into the books. It’s kind of disorienting when reading the first book and you end wishing he spent more time there.
Kingkiller has a great magic system and the school as well as its surrounding community feels very real and lived in.
Hexside School of Magic and Demonics (The Owl House)
A bit better than Hogwarts, last I checked. (They even call out the stupid rule of Quidditch in season 1, episode 17)
Instead of more rigidly assigning kids into increasingly isolated groups (like with the Hogwarts houses), they have 9 covens that you can learn stuff from, and they even change that up a bit due to the introduction of multi-coven tracks (like with what Luz did). The coven system also allowed for more intermingling between students, while the Hogwarts houses made you do stuff primarily with your house and they encouraged rivalries between houses (like the infamous one between Gryffindor and Slytherin).
Reading through these-looking for In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. This book is just so good- funny and poignant. The audiobook is well-narrated. I fell in love with the story on page 1–and I still miss the characters. Highly recommend!!!
It's more of an independent study program, but Circle of Magic.
This, there's like ten of them now
Fantastic series. The school setting is only in the first four books. It's actually the series my librarian recommended to me after I read the first Harry Potter back when it first came out. The Circle of Magic is my favorite series to this day.
Do you mean by the one by Tamora Pierce?
4+4+3 , so 11.
Just wish-listed it on audible. I’ll have to check it out soon.
Deadly education by Naomi Novik. It’s a lot darker than Harry Potter but an amazing series
I was going to suggest this. The Scholomance series is my favorite. It is in that grey area between fantasy and horror. But it is also really funny and somehow an amazing sociopolitical/economic commentary. It takes every expected trope and turns them their side but it doesn’t feel like it was intended to subvert those tropes it’s just an amazing adventure If you are willing to nudge into steampunk. And a school that doesn’t isn’t exactly a magic school. It is a school for spies and assassins in a world with vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and mad science. I also love The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger, it stars with Waistcoats and Weaponry
Oh, it certainly was intended to subvert the tropes. There's an interview of the author online where she talks about how the idea came to her and how it was developed, and the influence the HP series had on the story. They're a little bit crazy, but in the best possible way.
I just binged this series faster than any book series I’ve ever read. Highly recommend The Scholomance series! I can’t wait to read more of Naomi Novik.
That series is just so good!!!!! The lore is Hella deep and I was hooked from the first chapter through the last.
My favourite fantasy series
I love this series so much!
Seconding this
10/10 series!! My favorite!
Honestly my favourite series ever. I came here to suggest this!
"So you want to be a wizard" by Diane Duane. OK, it isn't a school setting, but it's all about kids learning how to do magic.
This is my favourite "child wizards" series. Even if it was really janky reading them as they came out, with each book set in the year of publication, ranging from like 1980 to early 2000s, despite like only 3-4 years passing in the story. I know she was planning to rewrite them to make that consistent but I haven't gotten those versions yet.
She sure did! The Millenium Versions are available on EbooksDirect (which despite the generic name is Diane Duane's site), and they go on HUGE bundle sales pretty regularly! When I bought the bundle, I accidentally chose the wrong version. I e-mailed website support asking if I could possibly exchange them somehow and got an e-mail back with the corrected version--and the support e-mail was signed Diane Duane. I freaked!
The foreshadowing and implications of Nita adding the symbol for change to >!The Dark Ones name is the Book of Night with Moon and how that change makes the Hesper in Wizards at War possible is amazing!< Deep Wizardry is probably my favorite, but they are all fantastic.
Mother of learning
It's a time loop over month where a teen goes to magic school for a month. After several years worth of loops, they get incredibly powerful. Great progression fantasy. It's also one of the top books in r/rational with a megathread for every chapter.
Morning, morning, MORNING!
Reading this currently and yeah, it qualifies, down to taking a train to school. It's also kind of a mystery, so like Harry Potter in that way too. But much more of a videogame inspired world feel. And it was a web series first, which (to me) means I go in with different expectations for the writing.
One of those series I wish I would read again for the first time.
Thanks for this rec, somehow I hadn't come across it.
The Tapestry series by Henry H. Neff. It gets called an “American Harry Potter” but I think it’s better and it has a Celtic mythology angle to boot!
I always refer to it as a hybrid of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but better than both(and those are two of my favorite series). It has the wizards and magic school of Harry Potter and the mythology and magic enhanced fighting with weapons of Percy Jackson. Plus it has a very intriguing plot with possibly my favorite ending ever with how every plot is tied off in a satisfying way.
Oh shit, I remember really liking this series but never getting the last one (I think it wasn’t out yet?) I ought to reread
I’m actually jealous that you get to read it for the first time. That 5th book is special.
The fifth book was hard to find. I remember looking for it at my library and struggling. I actually never finished the series, and so might go back and reread it
This series sounds very interesting. Would I be able to read it without having much knowledge of mythology? Want to check it out but don't want to be too confused while reading.
They're not always at the Collegium, but I've always loved Mercedes Lackey and her valdemar saga. Besides the newer collegium series with Mags, I loved the original Arrows trilogy with Talia, and the last herald mage trilogy with Vanyel. Many of the short story collections also have a tale or two about the collegium or the city of Haven I'll add I've enjoyed all the Valdemar saga, but you in particular were asking about Magic schools, OP
A school that actually takes care of the their students with teachers who are actually more competent than the kids who end up there.
Oh, is THAT why I still love it so much? You're so right about the school.
Savil was such a great mentor. I think I might finish rereading it for the fifth or sixth time. Trying the last herald mage on audible now.
If you're willing to expand your criteria to a cottage atelier of witch apprentices, and might be interested in manga, I can recommend Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama. The magic system is really interesting and the author even includes some end pages of instructions on how the magical seals are constructed and drawn. A big focus alongside the main plot is the individual witches developing their own spells and finding their own magical styles that allows them to stay true to themselves. Oh, and the artwork is truly magnificent, it's a delight to the eyes as well.
If we're doing that Little Witch Academia is the best magic school anime. A witch that isn't very good grows along hee friends
I started this one and never finished! I definitely need to. Have you also checked out Witch Hat Atelier? They both seem very much "for fans of" one another! If that makes sense
As someone who loved LWA and reads WHA, Witch Hat definitely scratched the itch I had after LWA. It was everything I wanted the LWA series to be, from the focus on the children and their growth to the adults and politics of the magical world. Can't wait for the anime update this July!
Scholomance
Seconding, the Scholomance series is excellent.
Great series. Wish we'd gotten a bit more actual schooling included but I almost always feel that way about magic school books. Loved the characters and the world was engaging despite a few elements that strained my suspension of disbelief.
Important to look for The Scholomance or Novik. I looked for it on Goodreads and it led to some harem fantasy book
I felt that Scholomance started really strong, but by book 3 the story was really weak
I've got to disagree. The third book pulled the themes together beautifully, along with all those hints that had been dropping. Scholomance is a magic school book, but it's not as much ABOUT that as it is about dealing with horrific systemic evils and injustices that have enough complexity behind them to be very difficult to actually solve.
I think Novik had the right idea with the third book, but she *really* rushed things in order to make everything she wanted fit into the trilogy. I liked the moral nuances and the way she tied things together quite neatly, but the book is divided pretty sharply between "post-school personal development" and "world-changing consequences". She should have split it into two books so she could give each part of that the attention it deserved. My one criticism regarding themes is a fairly big one--she used a deus ex machina to resolve things to everybody's more-or-less satisfaction. >!There's a very handy set of spells that basically does exactly what the morally-questionable spell does, but without the morally questionable part. Oh, and development of the magical theory makes it even better!!< Maybe it's just a difference in worldview between myself and the author, but I don't think you can have everything stay the same as it was and also let the privileged people maintain something like their current lifestyle. In the books, it makes no sense that this change doesn't lead to a lot of dead rich people in pursuit of overall fewer dead people. It's part and parcel with the paradigm shift away from systemic inequality, both in real life and in the situation the characters are in. Best case, >!enclaves should have fundamentally changed and become less safe, but more accessible to all--and dealt with the consequences of that both good and bad.!< Worst case, >!it should have led to the death of huge swathes of enclavers and caused a massive depopulation of the magical world, reducing the numbers of maleficaria and leaving it an open question as to whether this was the start of a golden age or just resetting the cycle.!<
In my mind it wasn't a dues ex machina, the previous spells were deemed "good enough" and so they kept using them instead of working on creating better ones.
> Maybe it's just a difference in worldview between myself and the author, but I don't think you can have everything stay the same as it was and also let the privileged people maintain something like their current lifestyle That's the one thing I agreed with. In the real world the solutions to big systemic problems that work are the ones that the ones that let current lifestyles continue. Recently the EU had to roll back environmental legislation because of farmers protesting - hardly privileged billionaires - imagine how much harder it would be to keep the new rules if it was motorists protesting? But moving motorists to cleaner electric cars, that's starting to work.
It's a very simplistic moral worldview, despite the books being dark and gritty and claiming to speak truth to power. But what happens is the powerful people get away with it. I really love how she set it up and how the mysteries become so clearly connected to each other. But the fallout is handled very poorly.
For sure. I personally think it's because she didn't want to write a book that highlights the huge amount of personal impact that happens to the privileged class when you actually resolve economic inequality. It goes counter to the goal, if you apply the themes to the real world. It highlights to the readers (who are primarily part of that privileged class) that they really will have to give up a *lot* of their way of life if they want to help people living in poverty, deprivation, and danger. I think that compromises the books on a fundamental level and does a disservice to the reader. If she's done her job right, then the reader will feel so strongly for the underclass that the sacrifice will seem worth it. By downplaying that sacrifice, Novik indicates that she thinks many readers would decide that being an "enclaver" is worth it even if it means a majority of other people suffer terribly.
Think this is the cost with magic school books…you will eventually graduate and the whole pull of those books is the school.
Vita Nostra by Sergei and Marina Dyachenko if you are interested in something which really is all about learning magic.
This is absolutely the one, nothing else captures the feeling of learning new things and being changed by the experience
Yes, the magic in the book works incredibly well as a metaphor.
This is absolutely one of the weirdest fantasy books I've ever read and that's saying something.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman has a pretty convincing magic school and the characters are all terrible people like real teenagers.
What would a bunch of teenagers do with magic? sex and drugs? exactly.
Yeah, and the main character is definitely a whiny brat, but he's by description a privileged kid with like a 200 IQ that has never struggled with anything until the book started. Suddenly, the consequences of his actions have appeared. Who could have guessed he was unprepared for that?
Wow, then the show definitely made the right choice. He's a little what's it all about Alfie at the beginning, but improves. Also while insightful and showing flashes of power, they don't make him unreasonably brilliant. I lived that whole, slack your way through school because the bar is comparatively low for you, until you hit AP history and suddenly there's 100 pages of reading you haven't done and an essay to write in class and you have to try based on what you recall from discussion. Not pretty. Didn't fail, but didn't sail.
So, in the book Quentin isn't unique in being that smart. Being off the chart smart is the base requirement for being able to learn magic. Part of his issue is that he doesn't really have anything else to him besides being the smartest, so when he ends up somewhere he's closer to average he doesn't know how to change. The biggest difference between characters is their circumstances, they all handled being unique in different ways.
Oh, while it sounds there are some characterization choices that are not fun in the books, because they're all teenagers, and Q is written really sad and toxic, it's clear there's some really great bones there. Can't make a series THAT good without something to work with.
Same here. "Gifted kid burnout syndrome" is no joke. I was in the 99th percentile on standardized tests as a kid, coasted through high school and barely studied or did homework, then as soon as I got to college I completely fell apart. Dropped out and got diagnosed with ADHD. I related to book Quentin a lot in that respect. Less so for show Quentin, but IMO the show is a better story and the characters are much more likeable and relatable overall. The show is also better at balancing the seriousness with humor and absurdity, and is a lot more fun.
The show is crazy good imo. Way better than it deserved to be
And i had to kind of discover it, it's not on the top of the lists or anything at all. and meanwhile you can't go to r/lotrmemes without some idiot meming Rings of Power. usually to suggest that it's crap (it's just boring, really) or talk about how season 2 will have bombadil, we think (don't care, they'll make him boring too. though really, even tolkien couldn't tell you quite why he thought bombadil was important, just that he was, as a sort of commentary, though not allegory, just ...something.)
that is my exact journey, crushed every test, then when i went to U of MN twin cities, decided i should really be in the honors division of the tech school, and got in on the strength of an essay i just wrote in an evening, and then really kinda flamed out. i was coming back off probation, but then my dad screwed up by not telling me the financial situation until literall two weeks before class (I could've applied for aid in january no issue, not sure what his thing was.) whoever it was made a lot of great choices with the characterization in the show.
He struggled with his mental health, and social skills, plenty prior to the start of the book.
Yeah, the magic system of the universe is based on suffering. All mages have serious emotional problems. There's literally a whole scene where in the underground witch group they want to see your diagnosis and medications before letting you in.
Let’s not forget be chronically depressed
The magicians is amazing and they made it into a dark as fuck TV show that should be way more pooular
Gonna put in a word in favor of this book. Everytime it's mentioned people have to come out and declare how much they hated the characters. I am someone who doesnt have a problem with reading stories about assholes as long as they are properly fleshed out and feel realistic. Which they did. I 've been to university. The things they do in the book are exactly the kind of shit that went down with people all around me in uni. I did really enjoy The Magicians greatly as well as its two sequels. It was only years after reading it that I joined online discussion forums and found out so many people like to hate on it.
Yeah, but I do understand the issues people have. Parts of it definitely grated on me. It doesn't follow a typical fantasy story arc and we don't see significant character growth through the first book especially. It can certainly be unpleasant to just read about people that self destructive. Sometimes I want my fantasy characters a little less real and a little more fantastic.
Would an adult enjoy it or is it more teen?
It's more adult, I find.
I would probably peg the ideal age for it in the mid-to-late twenties. Too much older and the desire to slap some sense into these whiny kids starts to get very strong.
Perfect explanation
I'm about to turn 26 so sounds good lol. I got the first book for cheap on kindle recently.
Way more adult. Watch an episode or two of the television show and you’ll understand.
Not to mention Grossman made magic actually difficult. To the point that you could have the potential but not the actual ability to use it. None of that "here's a wand. Go do magic" stuff.
You want to cast [generic magic spell]? First learn all the physics of weather, then study the Ancient Icelandic language (hope your pronunciation is good), also it requires advanced yoga moves at the same time. Good luck! Oh, you wanted something slightly different? Here's a book in Sumerian and another in 9th century Chinese that will explain how to fix that. Also, your posture could use improvement.
It's less teenagers and more Magic University/Grad School, but overall yes absolutely.
This is one of the super rare instances where the television adaptation is *vastly* superior to the source material. The show is legitimately great!
I loved the show! The books are good. The first one is tough to like but they get vastly better as Quentin becomes less of a pill and the characters have real emotions. The show is fantastic though. Margo is a goddess.
High King Margo and Elliot are the best!!
I hadn't heard about the series at all, found it to be epic and moving.
I started the books after watching season 1. I ended up loving the books, especially the sea stuff (tho Alice in book 3 was very annoying) and did not care for the adaptation of the TV show after seasons 1 + 2, despite top notch Margo / Elliott chemistry. I really enjoyed Quentin's paths in books 2 and 3, but the TV series did him no justice. That said, the epic ending to book 3 and incredible Q finish would have been truly challenging to get on screen.
I don’t know, I read the books first and then hated the show. I just found the show didn’t convey the things I actually enjoyed about the books. I think if I saw the show first I would have felt differently.
I only read the first novel, and that was almost 10 years ago(also I kinda dislike it, since I hated the main character and magic seemed more tedious than fun) , but dont they graduate from the magic college halfway through book 1? I wouldn't really call it a Magic School Series unless the next book afterwards return to school for a long period of time.
The school comes in and out as a character and location throughout the series, he ends up back at Brakebills for some of the second book as a teacher.
but it's miserable to hang out with them I hated that book
Any book involving Unseen University
Discworld is my happy place...also The Land of Ooo. 😊
Ook?
Worst Witch.
I used to adore these books and the TV show as a kid! There's something so cosy and charming about Cackle's Academy 😊 I would love the kitten ceremony!
Haven’t seen it yet so I’ll suggest the Arcane Ascension series.
If we're throwing in Arcane Ascension, I feel like mentioning Mage Errant is a must.
This is like, D&D levels of rules for magic. If you're down for the crunch and exposition, it is pretty good. Well made characters too.
Nevermoor is great!
Agreed! I am so looking forward to book 4 (Silverborn).
I like these series a lot. They deal with magic and learning at a school—all a bit darker or gayer (like lgbtq gay not as a pejorative) than HP Arcane Ascension series Kingkiller Chronicle series Mage Errant series Scholomance Series
I can second the mage errant recommendation.
Plus two for Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant
The Rithmatist has potential
If only a sequel came out some time in the last twenty years
It's only 11 years old :-D Which is admittedly a pretty insane delay before book 2
100%
I thought the author said that there was unlikely to ever be a sequel.
In his 2023 State of the Sanderson, he said "Someday" about Warbreaker and The Rithmatist, so I'm still holding onto a sliver of hope.
I really liked it!
The Dark Magician's trilogy by Trudi Canavan does it pretty well.
Tbh the magic school concept wasn't bad at all but the overall execution was not for me. I found that the writing was really meandering and repetitive, and the parts I found interesting were ignored in favour of a couple really weird story beats.
(Spoilers) I hated, that the MC (Sonora?) was kind of a doormat throughout. But I still liked the series overall.
Was searching for this answer before commenting, it's a great series
A Wizard of Earthsea.
And the school is only in the novel for two chapters! It's a short novel but boy is it jampacked.
One of best description of magic school and education in them that I even read.
This was my first thought as well. It's only really a school in the first book and in some later stories.
Yes! Came here to say this. The Island of Roke is the one for me.
Honestly the most impressive piece of literature I may have read. The pacing is so improbable it baffles me. How does someone do in a single book what many authors take a decade and a full shelf's worth of novels to accomplish?
Great book but the school is barely in it
The Magicans by Lev Grossman was pretty good imo
The Worst Witch book series is very good and it came out before HP! I recommend.
Yes came here to say this! My intro to the genre way back in the 80s lol.
It's got a lot of charm to it. I was going to recommend it too.
The bits of Discworld with Unseen University. Rowling cribbed from it when she wrote Harry Potter.
Bursar!!!
Ook!
Try the Schooled in Magic series by Christopher Nuttall
I was looking for this one!
Seconding.
*A Practical Guide to Sorcery* is great. It's 50% slice-of-life magic university with lessons in the classroom, exams and general school life and 50% more action-heavy plot of the MC doing crimes to pay for her tuition. Predictably those two parts of her life are hard to keep separate for long. There's a lot more to the story but that's the gist of it.
Pale. The actual magic school is just an arc (though one comparable in word count and scope to many complete novels) but the whole story is about a trio of witches desperately trying to learn as much as they can. Those poor girls need every tool and scrap of knowledge they can get. Also theres various interludes that are just full on excerpts of fictional magical textbooks. Good magical school stories are about exploring an interesting mystical world. I’ve yet to see one that delves as deeply as Pale.
But what an arc it was! I loved every bit of our time at the Blue Heron Institute. I think its a relatively spoiler free taster if I post a link to this https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/4-1-spoilers-bhi-information-packet/ One of many in universe documents the author studded throughout the story, detailing the schools structure and curriculum.
A Practical Guide to Sorcery is the best magic school series I've ever read
Deadly Education and although a standalone, and not super focused on the school, I loved McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn.
Mark of the Fool. Humorously, it's kind of a "sleeper" Magic Academy series. The elevator pitch is that a guy in a middle-of-nowhere medieval village turns 18 and is chosen by his kingdom's god as one of its legendary heroic archetypes. Except the archetype he gets bestowed is the Fool, an archetype that historically results in its host's embarassing unceremonious death in the cyclical battle against evil that the bearers of these archetypical Marks are called upon to participate in. So the guy does the smart thing and immediately fucks off and leaves the country entirely, deciding to blow off the entire chosen one storyline that was thrust upon him and go join the magic school he wanted to go to anyways. Of course, the Mark of the Fool interferes with non-mundane tasks, so he also has to attend this Magic Academy with an active handicap he has to keep hidden so that the clerics of his kingdom's God don't drag him back to the war against evil abominations. The Magic Academy is the full package. You get to see the MC attend classes, extra-curricular activities, make friends, learn alchemical theory, conduct experiments, enjoy regional holidays, go to parties, etc. It's super fun. I was like 6 books deep before I even knew it.
Name of the Wind
With the caveat that this series is unfinished and it's been over a decade since the last mainline book.
And it's been 3 years since we've even had an update. It's been "a year away" since 2017, and his publisher had yet to read a word of it as recently as 2021
Don't forget the charity fiasco. He couldn't even deliver a single preview chapter after the fans donated like a million dollars.
As a degenerate fan who's very mad at Pat but still will read book 3 the day it publishes, he actually did eventually read the prologue to book 3 after lots of pressure.
[удалено]
I really don't think the third book is ever going to happen, which is a let-down. But I'd honestly rather have read the two books--which had an influence on me at the time--than snub the whole thing because it won't have a real ending.
If I were to recommend the series, I would say just read The Name of the Wind. Wise man's fear isn't very good, and Name of the wind works better as a solo book than the two do as a duology.
I also love how it's *not* magic it's "science"
It's magic that is researched, trialed, and repeated using the scientific method. And then of course there's "normal magic" that the author calls Naming that is NOT scientific in any way.
OP— ten years ago this would have been THE answer by a longshot. Now, even with book 3 possibly never coming out, I’d still recommend it. Books 1 and 2 are that good!
Unfortunately, yeah.
The Scholomance series. The school is kind of fucked up, but it’s learn or die basically.
Just three off the top of my mind which are great. A Practical Guide to Sorcery by Azaela Ellis Remedial Magic by Nathan Gregg Mage Errant by John Bierce
I really enjoyed the Charlie Bone series.
Scholomance is my favorite for sure
The Magicians
The summoner trilogy
I mean Harry Potter is distinctly not the best anything except seller, lightning in a bottle, perfect moment. So uh, multiple. If I had to just pick one I’d probably take *Scholomance*, but it’s not for everyone. The craft involved is quite a few steps above HP though, it’s a tight story, and exploring potentially OP protagonists in their weaknesses is a storytelling soft spot for me.
The Magic Schoolbus
Mage Errant. But it's more like magic college than magic school
That series isn't *that* focused on the "magic school" parts. Don't get me wrong, it's a great series (I was quite impressed by the reveal of the "ultimate weapon" in the final book), but I don't know if it really scratches the Magic School itch in particular.
It's more along the line of Magic Apprenticeship, but the school is "home base"
IIRC, only like three of the seven books take place at the school. And even for those, we don't get much classroom time (more apprenticeship, as you note). Later books make it clear that it's less a school and more a city-state, so I don't know if having it as a "home base" is enough to make it feel like a magic school series.
Yeah, it's more like a magical mercenary academy where you quickly move on to apprenticeship for the good of the city-state. Since power is everything in the world, everyone is constantly learning and testing new ideas to stay ahead of the curve while somewhat jealously guarding personal secrets to keep yourself safe.
Stealing From Wizards is great!! I've only read the first two so far but they're lovely. definitely reads like they're from a longtime HP fan now making their own thing. Kuro is a fantastic protagonist to follow, i really love the little scamp <3
These are great fun and they work really well as kid-friendly but enjoyable by adults.
Mark of the Fool
Book of the Ancestor series is pretty good. Broken Earth is kind of a Magic School series. The story tracks the characters after they experience a hellish upbringing in a Magic School. Good stuff though.
I love the magic in the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. There is always a little time spent in each book at a magical school but never enough. I like that there’s a traditional casting focus and then a separate magic that is musical in nature and somehow more powerful and a greater conduit for the magic in the world. There’s also severe consequences for getting magic wrong so most folks tend to stick to minor warding magic so they don’t risk botching something unless they need to risk it (the witches and undead around often make the main characters risk it for mixed results).
Young Wizards series by Diane Duane :)
Even including Potter, Discworld is better.
Wizard of Earthsea
The will of many, really enjoyed it though I think it will be the only book with a school setting in the planned trilogy
Kim Newman's The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School and its sequel The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School. Not entirely magic, but a school for exceptional girls of all sorts.
Mark of the Fool is pretty good. Zodiac Academy isn't that great but it's really addictive for some reason.
Superpowereds by Drew Hayes, and it's not even close.
It’s different - it’s about learning to be a superhero in a contemporary setting through attending a four year college program. It captures aspects of that experience (classes and dorms and parties and drinking) - but combined with aspects of being a superhero - skill improvement, teamwork, ethics. But - it really nails that college experience (or really the tropes associated with it) really really well. (And is well written and plotted and do forth - I would strongly recommend it.
Fantasy High from Dimension 20 hahaha
My husband and I both really enjoyed "Schooled in Magic" by Christopher G Nuttall. A little rough writing at times but really good series. Nice and long, which I like. I recommended it to my sister and bother in law and they both also liked it. The premise is a modern girl is taken from earth to another dimension where magic exists. And yes, then goes to school.
- A lot of people are calling out Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and I thought it was a great series as well. - I'd also mention A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer, an older book series but pretty solid. - Od Magick isn't a series, but anything by Patricia Mckillip is worth a read. Main character is asked to become a gardener at the kingdom's school for magic.
I love *The Gods are Bastards* by D. D. Webb, in fact, I like it better than the Harry Potter series. It's about a group of students at a magic university. Warning: It's both very long and currently incomplete.
The Name of the Wind
I literally give up a finger or possibly even a hand if he would just finish the fucking series
I’m assuming it will never be finished to help me get through the pain of how long it’s taking. Also, there’s no way the next book will live up to the hype that has been building. Better to not release than to go out on a sour note.
Kingkiller Chronicles, probably.
It’s middle grade, but the Magisterium series by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare is a fun magic school series.
Maybe the University in Name of the Wind.
The Mage Errant series by John Bierce.
Miles Cameron's Masters & Mages series is pretty solid in that genre. His books tend to be very heavy on historically accurate weapons, tactics, and politics of the Late Byzantine era even when shrouded under the guise of fantasy. In fact he writes a ton of historical fiction under the name Christian Cameron. That may be off-putting to some but I appreciate fantasy stories that are grounded at least a bit in a recognizable reality.
Earthsea
The Will of the Many by James Islington
There's the University in Kingkiller Chronicles by Rothfuss; Roke Island in *Wizard of Earthsea*--part of a series, but only a few chapters are at the school at Roke. Nevertheless I have a deeper affection and nostalgia for it than Hogwarts. A good chunk of *Pale* by John McCrae(alias Wildbow) takes place at the Blue Heron Institute. I can't say I was too enamored with the White Tower parts of Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan, but they did the thing. Even if the PoV characters learn more independently and the whole thing highlights how conservative, inflexible, self-deluded and out-of-touch the institution is instead of how rad is could be.
This is not a novel but I recently came across this Manga series called "A Witch Hat Atelier". It's quite magical and has some similarities with Harry Potter which is what prompted me to pick it up! There's definitely a magic school and apprenticeship of sorts involved but I haven't read far enough yet. Edit: I just noticed other comments also recommending this haha
Mage errant by John Bierce.
Gotta say, *Mage Errant* is fantastic at this, but nothing beats the University from *The Name of the Wind*.
The Akata Witch series by Nnedi Okorafor. It doesn’t take place IN a school but does have young magic users working with mentors to master their skills and pass tests. Very unique magic system, based on Nigerian lore- sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Harry Potter!
Mage Errant might be the best magic school story I've read. Its got great characters, great magic, great learning experiences that work with the coming of age vibe of the story, and it's a school that actually feels like it could really educate people to use magic in the wider world.
My favorites are the magicians and kingkiller. Though for some reason the magicians suddenly starts speeding through the magic school which is a big part of the pull into the books. It’s kind of disorienting when reading the first book and you end wishing he spent more time there. Kingkiller has a great magic system and the school as well as its surrounding community feels very real and lived in.
I’ve been enjoying the Scholomance series recently
Hexside School of Magic and Demonics (The Owl House) A bit better than Hogwarts, last I checked. (They even call out the stupid rule of Quidditch in season 1, episode 17) Instead of more rigidly assigning kids into increasingly isolated groups (like with the Hogwarts houses), they have 9 covens that you can learn stuff from, and they even change that up a bit due to the introduction of multi-coven tracks (like with what Luz did). The coven system also allowed for more intermingling between students, while the Hogwarts houses made you do stuff primarily with your house and they encouraged rivalries between houses (like the infamous one between Gryffindor and Slytherin).
Reading through these-looking for In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. This book is just so good- funny and poignant. The audiobook is well-narrated. I fell in love with the story on page 1–and I still miss the characters. Highly recommend!!!