Higher Magic [Floyd, Courtney]

Description

Author: Courtney Floyd

Higher Magic is my catnip. By what dark arts I know not, Floyd has summoned up a wonderful wizard-grad-school slice-of-life, replete with organizing, romance, anxiety, camaraderie, and courage. More please! Max Gladstone, NYT Bestselling Co-Author of This is How You Lose the Time War

In this incisive, irreverent, and whimsical cozy dark academia novel for fans of Heather Fawcetts Emily Wilde series and R.F. Kuangs Babel, a struggling mage student with intense anxiety must prove that classic literature contained magicand learn to wield her own stories to change her institution for the better.

First-generation graduate student Dorothe Bartleby has one last chance to pass the Magic programs qualifying exam after freezing with anxiety during her first attempt. If she fails to demonstrate that magic in classic literature changed the world, shell be kicked out of the university. And now her advisor insists she reframe her entire dissertation using Digimancy. While mages have found a way to combine computers and magic, Bartlebys fated to never make it work.

This time is no exception. Her revised working goes horribly wrong, creating a talking skull named Anne that narrates Bartlebys inner thoughtseven the most embarrassing oneslike shes a heroine in a Jane Austen novel. Out of her depth, she recruits James, an unfairly attractive mage candidate, to help her stop Annes glitches in time for her exam.

Instead, Anne leads them to a shocking and dangerous discovery: Magic students who seek disability accommodations are disappearingquite literally. When the administration fails to act, Bartleby must learn to trust her own knowledge and skills. Otherwise, she risks losing both the missing students and her future as a mage, permanently.

Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 10/07/2025
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780778387640

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 08/01/2025 pg. 49

About the Author
Floyd, Courtney: Courtney Floyd is a neurodivergent fantasy author who grew up in New Mexico, where she learned to write between tarantula turf wars and apocalyptic dust storms. She currently lives at the bottom of a haunted mountain in the woods of Vermont with her partner and pets. Higher Magic is her debut novel.

Courtney has a PhD in British Literature and a penchant for irreverent literary allusions. Her short stories have appeared in publications including Fireside Magazine, Small Wonders, and Haven Spec, and her audio drama, The Way We Haunt Now, is available wherever you get your podcasts. Find her online at courtney-floyd.com.