Review: The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones

The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb

Briar always dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy, the elite boarding school that's produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in history, long rumoured to be magical. Briar's best friend, Sebastian (Seb), just wanted them to stay together forever.

When Seb gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn't, their relationship is shattered - until, at eighteen, Briar secures a temp job sorting through the magical junk in Temple's attic, and discovers that quiet, sensitive Seb, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become Bastian the villain.

In fact, Temple is more of a horror show than Mallory Towers (since Hogwarts is now problematic because of HER).

Briar cannot believe that the older children are allowed to torture and humiliate the younger children, even worse that it is actually encouraged by the headmaster - its an extreme form of hazing intended to weed out the weak. Although you could argue it weeds out those with a moral compass who refuse to participate. Anyway, Briar soon becomes friends with three students who have made it their mission to disrupt the 'trials' and expose what really goes on at Temple.

Briar is still angry at Seb/Bastian for going to school and never looking back, not even returning for Christmas - but Bastian has a shocking story to tell him.

This was a a very dark story, some of the characters were just awful people through and through. Briar was an amazing character, and great to see a non-binary character in such a prominent position.

Absolutely loved it - just sorry it wasn't the first in an epic series!

I was lucky enough to buy the Kindle edition for 99p.

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