About the Book
Title: The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones
Author: Lex Croucher
Series: none
Genre: Fantasy, Dark Academia, LGBTQ+
Pages: 447
Edition Read: Kindle eBook
Dates Read: August 28 – September 3, 2026
Blurb: Welcome to the Temple School of Thaumaturgy … and your newest dark academia obsession.
For as long as they can remember, Briar Jones dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy. Behind its looming ornate gates, the elite prep school—the place that has produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in British history—is whispered to be magical.
Briar’s best friend, Sebastian Wolfe, never cared about Temple or believed in the rumors. He just wanted them to stay together forever.
When, at age 11, Seb gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn’t, their childhood friendship is shattered. Seb vanishes onto Temple’s grounds and Briar resigns themself to a mundane life. But they can’t completely forget their yearning for Temple, for the extraordinary, to be one of the chosen in the ivory tower.
Seven years later, a summer job advert a temp position sorting through the junk in Temple’s attics. Briar takes it. And they discover that quiet, sensitive Seb, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become Bastian: a beautiful, arrogant villain feared by most of the school. And worse, the secrets Temple is hiding might not be so magical after all, but a dark conspiracy with implications that extend far beyond the gates.
Review
This is another book that I had never heard of by an author I had never heard of that I only found through one of GoodReads’ Reading Challenges. I picked it from the prompt list because I liked the title. That was it – and it was really awesome!
First, the set up. Imagine being a young kid and always dreaming about going to a mysterious, magical school. When the time comes, you apply but don’t get accepted. Your best friend, however, does. Years later, after you have completely lost contact with your best friend, you get a completely mundane job working at the school and now have to interact with all of the magic you once dreamed about learning yourself while being a completely ordinary person.
Oh, and your best friend is now a psychopath, as are a large chunk of the other students.
I really liked Briar. I think this is the first time I’ve read a book with a nonbinary main character, which was really cool. Imagining being in their shoes, seeing the thing you had wanted most from the outside and then being inside but still separate from it. It would be a weird feeling. I also really liked the students that they fall in with, Westby, Tate and Hadley. They really help see how such a toxic and terrible institution can be made to feel normal.
The magic was also really cool, but also really terrifying. I know this is classified as “Dark Academia” but this was DARK. The magic can change you into someone unrecognizable, which is exactly what it did to Seb. The older students end up hazing the younger ones, in theory to make them stronger, but also just to vent their own cruelty. It involves creepy rituals and actual torture, which was a lot to read sometimes. This cycle of abuse is completely ignored by the staff, by the way, or even worse, just treated as the way things are. And yes, the graduates of Temple eventually become leadership in British government and society.
How do you fight that? Especially as a person with no magical abilities whatsoever? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? How do you break someone out of this cycle when it’s been taken for granted that this is “normal?” That question is what makes this book such a page turner. It seems like such an impossible task, and yet, with the help of their new friends, Briar attempts to do just that, and you can’t help but go along for the twisty-turny ride.
GoodReads rating: 5 stars
Categories: Books I've Read
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