In this exciting and well-imagined post-apocalyptic boarding school fantasy, sorcerers took over the United States a century ago and now oppress non-sorcerers. After sorcerers killed her parents, 13-year-old Fiora works for her uncle as a tailor’s apprentice. But a clash with some of the most powerful sorcerers around brings Fiora into contact with the Incorruptibles, a resistance group that also runs an academy to train young people.
Fiora is reluctantly accepted by the school’s leader, who is suspicious of her close encounter with sorcerers and hesitant to add a new student midway through the year. Fiora struggles to retain her place and be accepted by the other members of her squad, including one girl who is particularly abrasive. A series of mishaps, however, indicate that there’s a sorcerer spy lurking at the academy. Fiora is suspect, and must work to uncover the real mole even as she learns more about both sorcerers and humans and realizes that the world isn’t as black and white as she had been led to believe.
Think of this book as the anti-Harry Potter. Yes, it’s about a youth living with an uncle after her parents are presumed dead, and who is swept away by surprising circumstances to live at a special school and learn powerful skills. But instead of training to use magic, they’re training to stop the sorcerers. It’s as if HP was told through the eyes of the Muggles, if the Muggles were engaged in a resistance movement against Voldemort’s vision of wizard supremacy.
The book subverts even more from the earlier series, not least by having a queer protagonist. Fiora has had crushes on girls before, and develops a new one at the academy (which I won’t spoil). She’s also not a “chosen one”—in fact, the academy admits her very reluctantly, and she must work hard to prove herself.
Several other significant characters are also queer: a trans woman, a trans boy, a bi boy, and a nonbinary student, plus Fiora’s crush. One character can shift gender identity and presentation at will. Other queer people are mentioned in passing, including an aromantic character.
Furthermore, Inc Academy lets students choose their squads, rather than be chosen. Uniforms consist of a colored cloak to match the color of their squad (of which there are 21, in all shades of the rainbow and in between), but students get to choose the clothes they wear under it, in whatever style they like. These small pieces of empowerment feel deliberate and welcome.
Despite the happy departures from the earlier series, the book includes much of what middle grade readers have come to expect from boarding-school fantasy stories: a small group of young people thrown together in a high-pressure situation, who must navigate sometimes-clashing personalities in order to succeed; great action sequences and an array of fantastical powers and weapons wielded by friend and foe; and a protagonist who comes to learn more about herself and her world. Author Lauren Magaziner has woven these threads onto a framework of original worldbuilding, with themes of found family, resisting oppression, seeing shades of gray, and the power of inclusion. It’s a fresh, exciting, and highly recommended read. I look forward to the planned sequel.
Fiora is White, cued as having Jewish heritage, and self-described as “plump.” Other characters reflect a range of racial/ethnic identities. One significant character has a prosthetic leg and another uses hearing aids and sign language; both characters are heavily involved in the action scenes.
