"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 Fawcett's Emily Wilde series and R.F. Kuang's Babel, a struggling mage student with intense anxiety must prove that classic literature contained magic-and 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 program's qualifying exam after freezing with anxiety during her first attempt. If she fails to demonstrate that magic in classic literature changed the world, she'll 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, Bartleby's 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 Bartleby's inner thoughts-even the most embarrassing ones-like she's a heroine in a Jane Austen novel. Out of her depth, she recruits James, an unfairly attractive mage candidate, to help her stop Anne's glitches in time for her exam.
Instead, Anne leads them to a shocking and dangerous discovery: Magic students who seek disability accommodations are disappearing-quite 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.
"Sophie Amoss's narration elevates an uneven story into a more engaging experience. Struggling graduate student Dorothe Bartleby must pass her final exam in the Magic program, but when she's required to combine digital technology with spells, disaster results. Amoss's performance brings clarity and rhythm to the text, grounding its twee and meandering tone with precise pacing and emotional restraint. Amoss distinguishes each character with subtle vocal shifts that make the cast easy to follow. Her portrayal of Dorothe--a heroine whose inner monologue risks overwhelming the listener--is especially nuanced, adding warmth and dimension that the writing itself sometimes lacks. While the story's structure can be repetitive, Amoss's consistent energy and interpretive intelligence give the audiobook coherence and humanity. K.C. � AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine"
