Sarah Gailey

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.

When We Were Magic

Katheryn

“Profoundly thoughtful…An intimate portrait of female friendship laced with literal and metaphorical magic.” —Kirkus Reviews “A laugh-out-loud, exciting ride…a darkly comedic coming-of-age story.” —School Library Journal 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.

lisa roeling 

A.L.L.

I read this for a bookclub. It's not a book I would have looked at if not for the club. 

Parts were very funny. I appreciated all the healthy modeling of good self talk, healthy relationships and communication etc. 

Pacing felt very slow and I found myself feeling that we never get quite enough of any of the elements for it to be satisfying. For example it takes them so long to get rid of the body and that is so you can spend time with each of the characters...but we don't actually to spend enough time with any of the girls to really get to know them so it leaves you feeling kind of hollow. 

Being stuck with Alexis's point of view also felt extremely myopic, like there was so much more going on in the story than we ever got to see because we were stuck with Alexis. I am not sure if that was intentional or not. 

There is no satisfying crescendo or resolution or conflict. It feels very much like an early work, like the author is still practicing and honing their skills. All the pieces were there but the execution didn't quite land for me. 

Part of me loved seeing a boy character be the macguffin for once, after a lifetime of female characters that were throw-away macguffins. But part of me also rebels against this trope in general. I hate it when female characters are used this way, so male characters used this way chafes too. 

All in all, this was an okay read. I think if I were in the target age group I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, it left me wanting for a lot more.

Eliza Gonzalez

I don't know that I've read a book that has so thoroughly disappointed me. I've had books I've hated, sure, but I didn't have expectations of loving those books. This feels like a betrayal. This book seemed like something I should have adored, and yet!

I don't even know where to begin on a review because it all blends into one uniform, monotonous blah in my head. It took me weeks to get through the audiobook for this story because I didn't even want to passively absorb it while doing other, more interesting, things. The characters are stale and one dimensional. The magic system is ill conceived. The plot is underwhelming. The romance is boring as fuck. There wasn't much I outright hated in We Were Magic, but I can say there is not one thing I really liked. The opposite of love is apathy or whatever, I guess. 

I could break down part by part the reasons I didn't enjoy this book, but I don't want to expend any more energy thinking about it. 

Characters: 0/5

Plot Concept: 2/5

Plot Execution: 1/5

Pacing: 2/5

Writing: 3/5

Romance: 0/5

Overall Enjoyability: 1/5

Zoe Smolen

vania vela

“I didn’t mean to kill Josh Harper. Really, I didn’t. It’s just that I was nervous and condoms are more complicated than I was expecting, and one thing led to another and— well. Now there’s blood everywhere and he’s dead.”

”When we were magic” is a book that completely captures you from the first line. 

Written in first person, this book is narrated by Alexis, a magical teenager who accidentally kills a boy. The way the story develop is phenomenal. “When We Were Magic” gifts us with so many realistic characters: they make mistakes, they scream and they have bad days. Besides that, each of the main characters complements the other, creating one of the most beautiful but realistic friendships possible. Despite the problems, at the end of the day, none of that matters, because they love each other above all things.

The ending seemed to me, however, something convenient and left many doubts. It had a very rush ending and I would have liked to see more about the consequences of the corpse and the investigation. It was kinda a bittersweet ending.

This is a pretty quick and engaging read that is definitely worth to read!

Christina 

I went in with different expectations. I didn't thought solving this murder problem would take all book long but I was wrong. It still was a book which made you think sometimes. 

Ben Nathan

I love Gailey's writing and this might just be their best. Absolutely killer characters and story. I kept wanting to bypass sleep to read more. I've already suggested it to 10 people and will for many more. Just outstanding!

Heather Killeen

I'm walking through my neighborhood for the last time as the person I am now, and when I leave Marcelina's house to go home tomorrow morning, I'll be walking past this same hedge as someone else. As the person I'm supposed to start becoming. 

gahhh! Sarah, how do you so perfectly bottle up and serve me all my teenage emotions and experiences?! This was breathtaking and emotional and so, so beautiful! I've never related to a main character so hard and am convinced I'll love anything else Gailey decides to write. Full of uncertainty, friendship, young love, and hope. This is definitely one I'll want to reread :)

When We Were Magic

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