“I finally get it. I trust her. I trust her with my secrets, and I trust her with my friendship, and I trust her with my gratitude. I don’t need to apologize for being thankful for her. I don’t owe her an apology—just gratitude.”
Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2018, Sarah Gailey’s trajectory does not seem as though it will stop soaring any time soon. Even though Gailey only published Magic for Liars, their first full-length book in 2017, they had been truly prolific in the field of short stories and comics, including a few Steven Universe works, one of the most beloved cartoons in the last few years. This year, Gailey keeps going strong. They published a new novella in February titled Upright Women Wanted, and now their first YA novel: When We Were Magic.
Easy to follow and straightforward, When We Were Magic is a beautiful—and very much needed—exploration of female friendships and the deep bonds that tie friends together through the thick and thin of high school. In this case, exploring it through a very special group of friends who are in the process of understanding their ever-growing magical powers. Making use of a lighthearted narration, Gailey doesn’t rely too heavily on metaphors and other stylistic devices, as we follow the story through the protagonist’s eyes. With a simple first-person narration, Alexis’ words and narrative style is quick and sharp, yet considerate, matching her mental process. At the same time, through her eyes and thoughts, we get to understand her deeply rooted insecurities and the painful way in which we sometimes overthink everything that happens to us, to the point where we even doubt whether we are worthy of the support and love our friends and families offer us. In contrast to these recurrent aspects in her personal behaviour, the most engaging element in the narration is the fierce love Alexis has for her friends, which is ingrained in every single one of her thoughts.
However, this undying love does not only go one way. The driving force of the novel is the undying affection Alexis and her friends—Roya, Iris, Paulie, Marcelina, and Maryam—constantly show for each other, never faltering for a single second. Following these lines, trust and accepting help are the two core themes in their story, and Sarah Gailey even says so themselves in the acknowledgements section of the novel. Despite being fully aware of the support we have around us, our insecurities sometimes blind us and don’t allow us to accept the love and caring our friends and family offer us. Nonetheless, we are social animals after all, and we need other people to grow and feel secure. Accepting help is not always easy, but we have to let others lend us a hand, both for our sake and theirs. Relationships are a symbiotic union, and it is only natural that if we help our friends and family, we should also let them do the same for us.
The topic of friendship and the insecurities that commonly come along with it are a breath of fresh air. For the most part of the YA literary production, friendship tends to be relegated to a second plane. Friendships are taken for granted as something that the characters don’t have to cultivate and nourish at all. On the contrary, romantic relationships take the lead and become the focal point of most narratives. This is not the case of When We Were Magic. Their friendship is beautiful, they are all honest with each other, even when they have to call out a wrongdoing. They respect each other’s opinions and feelings, and give each other space when they need to do so. Also, Gailey explores the subtlest forms of affection, which tend to go unnoticed, like learning the patterns of your friends’ personalities, hence knowing better than anyone else when to act and when to support each other, and even when and how to calm them during a crisis. When We Were Magic gifts us with the purest and most magical friendship, while also being 100% realistic: they scream at each other, and steal the other’s food, and make mistakes. But, at the end of the day, none of that matters, because they love each other above all things.
Despite this diversion from the mainstream, romance also plays an important part on the novel—as Alexis is secretly in love with her best friend, Roya. Nonetheless, friendship is still the powerhouse of the novel, and it does not get overshadowed by romantic love. Both types of relationships are perfectly balanced, and nourished with the same amounts of dedication and affection. As a result, Alexis and Roya’s oblivious mutual crush is delightfully cute and realistic. Along with their beautiful friendship, this slow-burn w/w romance is all we needed to make our hearts melt.
There is no doubt that the six girls and their interactions are the highlight of the novel. Each girl complements each other both in terms of their personalities and magical abilities, while also remaining perfectly unique on their own. Their identities are polished and defined, in such a beautiful display of diversity that all readers can find some form of representation to feel identified with. Alexis and her friends are all such round characters that none of them gets overshadowed by the rest and you get attached to all of them. Furthermore, they deal with very relatable topics—apart from the murder, of course…or so we hope—both for teenagers and even some older audiences.
Even the secondary characters are lovable and relevant enough for the reader to get attached to them. This is especially the case of Alexis’ dads, who, throughout the entire novel support their daughter through thick and thin. In YA novels, it is not unusual for parents to be completely absent for their teenage children, often showing very little support or attention towards them. Contrarily, in When We Were Magic, Gailey presents an extremely loving pair of dads, who listen to their daughter and give her space to grow, but who also reprimand her when she’s done wrong. Parental love is extremely rare in YA, so it is truly charming to read about positive and supportive parental figures for a change.
Obviously, When We Were Magic is a character-driven novel, where the growth and emotional landscape of the characters takes the spotlight, rather than the plot. Consequently, not much happens action-wise apart from the big murder that jumpstarts the story —with no less than an exploding penis—, or the gang’s attempts at getting rid of the body. The main focus is placed on the girls discovering the consequences of their own powers and learning how to deal with mistakes together. Notwithstanding, the plot doesn’t get repetitive or boring at any point.
Due to the overall positive undertone of the novel, the reader might expect everything to turn out okay—meaning that the girls are able to bring the murdered boy back to life. Nonetheless, Gailey teaches Alexis and the reader a lesson: there are certain mistakes that cannot be fixed, but we have to learn to live with them and try to become better than the person we were when we did such a thing. At the same time, while the ending is perfectly coherent and offers quite a reasonable conclusion to the girls’ problem, it also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Hence, the ending feels a bit rushed and rather incomplete. Maybe it would be nice to read a sequel in the future, where we are able to learn a little bit more about how everything got sorted out and see how the girls are managing their magic.
All in all, When We Were Magic is a charming first dive into the world of YA literature. If you are looking for a refreshing read full of magic and wonderful characters to whom you can relate, this may be the perfect pick.
When We Were Magic is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of March 3rd 2020.
Will you be picking up When We Were Magic? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A moving, darkly funny novel about six teens whose magic goes wildly awry from Magic for Liars author Sarah Gailey, who Chuck Wendig calls an “author to watch.”
Keeping your magic a secret is hard. Being in love with your best friend is harder.
Alexis has always been able to rely on two things: her best friends, and the magic powers they all share. Their secret is what brought them together, and their love for each other is unshakeable—even when that love is complicated. Complicated by problems like jealousy, or insecurity, or lust. Or love.
That unshakeable, complicated love is one of the only things that doesn’t change on prom night.
When accidental magic goes sideways and a boy winds up dead, Alexis and her friends come together to try to right a terrible wrong. Their first attempt fails—and their second attempt fails even harder. Left with the remains of their failed spells and more consequences than anyone could have predicted, each of them must find a way to live with their part of the story.
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