PositiveLambda LiteraryGideon the Ninth is unlike any other book I’ve read recently ... when it comes down to it, it’s really something you have to read to believe ... Muir weaves seamlessly between mystery, intrigue, and quest, and between science fiction and fantasy, to craft the start of a series that rivets and enthralls like the dark and dangerous magic it depicts.
Sarah Gailey
RaveLambda LiteraryWhat would have happened to Petunia Dursley if she were left behind and decided to become a private investigator instead of a nosy homemaker? The answer is a painfully human protagonist, who struggles with alcohol and a simmering depression, as well as unresolved and lingering grief, barely articulated, from her mother’s death ... Gailey relies on magic school tropes with a light and sly touch ... Queer themes are woven very subtly and neatly into the story–it’s a thing that is so normal as not to need to be overtly commented on. More than anything else, though, Magic for Liars is a quietly emotional story. Readers will want to know whodunnit, but more than that, they want to know Ivy, and are invested in Ivy’s processing of her past with Tabitha, the way the sisters navigate jealousy, betrayal, estrangement, grief, and love.
