This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection on preorder and will recommend it to students.

Loved this book! Such a great read. This is my first book by Sarah Gailey but it will not be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In an attempt to catch up with the reviews I fell behind on in 2020 I am only leaving star rating for the books that I didn't feel incredibly passionate about.

Blood. Viscera. Exploding genitals. A prom night gone horribly wrong. From the very beginning, Sarah Gailey’s YA debut When We Were Magic had me asking: What have I gotten myself into? Gailey doesn’t pull any punches––Josh Harper is dead. Alexis killed him, but she doesn’t know how. All she knows is that she lied so she could sleep with Josh. And then, some ugly part of her magic reared up inside her and killed him dead. It’s up to Alexis and her girl gang of witches to either hide the body . . . or try to bring him back.

Being a fan of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, I was super excited for When We Were Magic. The first chapter promises a lot: blood magic, urban fantasy, body horror, and a kickass coven. Unfortunately, the novel grows cold as quickly as the dead boy’s body. The rest of the book is about disposing of each necromantic body part. Alex feels a responsibility to oversee each sacrifice, while holding out a vague hope that the witches’ volatile magic will bring the boy back when all the parts have been destroyed. The stakes seem high at first, but once magic easily vanishes all the bloody evidence and no one’s parents notice the duffel bags full of limbs and livers, it becomes too easy and very repetitive. Alex’s friends are confused and worried, but ultimately don’t hesitate to be accomplices. Alexis, of course, is disturbed by her magic acting out and causing injuries to others, but none of them are as literally explosiveas Josh’s death––just a nosebleed here and there.

It isn’t until nearly two hundred pages in that Gailey gives us actual consequences for Josh’s murder, although they come gloriously. As each of Alex’s friends uses their magic to destroy the body parts, each of them loses something in return. Paulie loses memories of her dead brother. Marcelina cannot forget anything. Iris can no longer see the threads of her own magic. These losses are the burdens these young witches must bear for the death of a human boy. This was the most fascinating part of the book––the most fascinating exploration of how Gailey’s magic system works. More importantly, these losses gave me so much insight into the rather large cast of supporting characters; they know that they will lose what’s closest to them, and yet they move forward anyway on the tissue-paper hope that they can bring a stranger back to life. It’s a shame that it took two-thirds of the story to see these character dynamics.

The need to resolve the murder motivated me: What is this blood magic? Will it consume Alexis and everyone she loves? Will they get caught? Will Josh stay dead? While the plot itself plodded along, these questions kept me reading at a furious pace. I had to know! Which is why I was so, so disappointed that by the end, nothing felt resolved. Once again, it felt too easy. Suddenly, Alexis knows how to control the blood magic. The ending of the book felt almost trivial compared to the circumstances that began this story. Did a boy really die because of a jealous crush she’d been holding onto? Why was the ending so convenient? I can understand that as a whole, the book was never really about a body (except it was); it was about strong female friendship. But friendship isn’t enough to pave over plot holes and inconsistent characterization.

When We Were Magic didn’t live up to my expectations. It had flaws that were difficult to ignore. I don’t regret reading the book; in fact, I still think about it––a sure sign that it made an impact. Gailey’s descriptions were lovely and I adored the supporting characters and their friendships. The aesthetic was gory, witchy, and perfect for fall. And as I’ve come to expect from Sarah Gailey, these characters are diverse and not afraid to address systemic inequality. Don your witch’s hat if you want to be entertained, but don’t expect a flawless narrative.

A group of strong females, check. A group of strong female magic wielders, check. Now the sad parts. This book was all that I hoped it to be but the writing was not the best, the story was just okay, but the characters were enjoyable.

I enjoyed reading several aspects of this book! The pacing was wonderful, characters were well drawn, and the reading experience on the whole was delightful.

They’re classic girl buddies, pinky-sworn to support one another. One is the nurturer, another the innovator, yet another the nature lover. One (the narrator) has a secret crush on another girl. But they’re also magic, each with her own gift, and all determined to keep what they can do secret. So when Alexis, in order to make her secret crush jealous, allows herself to be seduced by the high school golden boy on prom night, her dishonesty with herself ignites her magic with disastrous – and lethal -- results. What to do with the body? Call her friends, of course! An ill-conceived plan to chop up his body and get rid of the separate pieces leads to ever more dire complications. Only by unveiling secrets and working together can Team Magic put the world right again.

Wonderful authorial voice, a freshly imagined system of magic, awesome girl friendships, and plot twists galore create a fast and absorbing reading experience.

I love a good witch book, bonus points for extreme diversity, but when the opening page has an exploding body part I just never recovered.

Sarah Gailey is one of my favorite authors, but this was a miss for me. :(

The representation is stunning and vast as is usual for Gailey, but the plot really had me wanting more. We start with an instantly gripping, darkly humorous scene that had me hooked, but the momentum doesn't keep up throughout and the ending left me unfulfilled.

SOOO much love for Sarah Gailey's <i>When We Were Magic</i>! It's dark, it's funny, it's queer, it's about witchcraft and friendship and it was such a treat to read.

Let me say that I am usually not a big YA reader but Gailey deftly walks the line between YA fluffy and tongue-in-cheek. It is just the perfect escapist book nugget to help you forget all of your problems (I mean, unless being a teen witch who accidentally killed a guy IS what you are trying to forget)

I would recommend this book to folks who love a witchy teen coven (yessssssss) and those looking for a f/f romance that's not super mushy (even though, ok sure, it is a bit).

Well, this book certain started off with a bang.

Well, near bang.

Well, a boy’s genitals were exploded by accident.

So… technically?

This book had a lot of things I loved (not the genital explosion. Should I stop saying genitals? I’m going to.) like queer teens, teen witches, wild and unknown magic, the best ride or die squad you could ever hope to see. There’s a death and Alexis and her BFFs have to race to hide the body parts before the town and the police figure out what happened.

It’s got all the things I loved, but I didn’t really love it enough. We’re introduced to SIX people right off the bat (not including Dead Boy) and we’re expected to remember each and every one of them and their particular magic. It got real confusing, real fast. If we were slowly introduced to them instead of all at once, I may have been able to better understand them all. But as it stands, I can’t even tell you all their names right now because they all just get jumbled in my head.

I also feel like we don’t really spend that much time understanding the world and the tension Gailey is attempting to nurture. Why are these girls magic? Where did that magic come from? Who else is magic? What does it mean when the cop who gets assigned to the high school to question everyone keeps lingering her eyes on Alexis? We don’t really get answers to a lot of stuff and it’s frustrating.

It tends to feel like we end up getting snippets and vignettes of the characters burying each body part before it all comes to a convenient close.

BUT. There are loads of great things, as always. Gailey is a master of queer rep and Alexis has two dads, at least three of the girls are openly queer, one is heavily suggested to be nonbinary/genderfluid (it’s never stated explicitly on the page, but the characters do have a conversation about them wanting to move to the Big City and cut their hair and go by different pronouns). Alexis ends up coming out to her friends as bi (Heck. Yeah. On screen bisexuality) and there’s so much queer rep my cup overfloweth and thank you Sarah Gailey, you’re the Reagent of Queer in my life, bless you.

I loved the squad’s connection, how they used their magic in little ways, how each time they buried a body part, they lost something vital to themselves. It was heavy and I loved it. Their friendships were stellar and really the greatest part of this book.

All in all, a good book, a great tale of friendship and queerness, but left me wanting for more. I feel like that’s a usual thing for me and Gailey’s books–I just want so much more, I want to bury myself in 600 pages of their writing.

The story was well written. The characters were relatable. I highly enjoyed the characters for the entire book. I would say it's a must read. My attention was held the whole time. What a fun story!!!!

This is the kind of book Teen Me would have loved, but that sadly left Adult Me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It's nothing to do with the book, which is wonderful and full of diverse characters and shades of queerness and cool magic and an interesting plot. But I think I've just reached an impasse with the tone of most YA books. However, I would recommend this book to teens in a heartbeat, and I will say that my favorite thing about it was the depiction of female friendship and support.

Okay so a few months ago I was going through releases of 2020 and when I saw this I was shooketh. I mean, who doesnt love WITCHES?! This book was even better than I thought it was gonna be (and I had high expectations). I'm planning on getting a physical copy of this ASAP!

The overall plot of this book felt sparse to me. It's more of a character study than a plot-driven novel, which is fine, I just was not expecting it to be so slow and meandering. It's not that I particularly disliked it, I just didn't feel like the plot was fleshed out enough. It kind of is just a story where nothing happens, except for a dead boy that nobody seems to feel too badly about killing and dismembering.

The nitty-gritty: Six high school friends with magical abilities get into a heap of trouble in Gailey's first foray into young adult fiction.

Sarah Gailey is a rockstar in publishing these days, with no less than four new books published within a span of less than two years. In their latest, they dip their toes into the young adult pool, giving us a story with a hint of magic that mostly focuses on teen friendships, romance and family relationships. Although this story might be a little too teen angsty for some adult readers, I found its many messages about body positivity, diversity and sexual identity perfect for teens who are looking for stories with diverse representation. And the magic is a bonus!

High school senior Alexis, along with her five best friends, is able to do magic, a secret that bonds the girls together as they navigate the ups and downs of high school and family life. Alexis is attending a prom afterparty and scheming to lose her virginity with lacrosse star Josh Harper when something horrific happens: her magic unexpectedly goes very wrong, and Josh winds up dead. Calling on her five besties for help—Iris, Roya, Maryam, Marcelina and Paulie—Alexis and her friends try to solve the problem with more magic, but that makes things even worse. Now the girls are stuck with Josh’s dismembered body parts and they must figure out how to get rid of them before the police start asking questions.

I know that’s a very short story recap, but that’s really all you need to know. When We Were Magic is actually very light on plot and focuses mainly on the relationships among the six friends and their respective families. At first I was a little disappointed with that focus, but I have to admit Gailey did a great job of pulling me into the drama—which I tried to resist!—and I grew to care about these girls as if they were my own friends.

And boy, if you are looking for a diverse read, well you have found it. This book is chock full of diversity. Maryam is Muslim, and Roya is Afghani and biracial (I think). Marcelina is not only Filipina, but she’s also described as “plump” and is completely comfortable with her body. Alexis and her brother are both adopted and have two dads, and Alexis, Roya and Paulie are all queer. The story is told from Alexis’s point of view, and she calls herself “ordinary” and compares herself to her beautiful friends. She’s clearly struggling a bit with her body image but it felt real to me, because I know lots of teens aren’t happy with the way they look.

But what really stood out for me was the way all six girls lifted each other up and stuck together through thick and thin. There are so many teen positive messages in this book. Alexis, who has technically murdered someone, knows she has to take responsibility for her act, even though it happened by mistake, and she even tries to talk her friends out of getting involved, so they don’t have to suffer the consequences. I also enjoyed the emotional moments when the girls are trying to cope with eventually splitting up as senior year comes to a close, that inevitable time when friends are forced apart. Having recently experienced the emotional trauma of high schoolers going off to college, I have to admit I teared up a bit!

However, if you’re one of those readers who wants concrete information about where the magic comes from or how it works, you might be disappointed. Gailey’s characters have magical abilities that just are, no explanations given. It’s also not clear how many people out there have magic, since the story is tightly focused on the six main characters. Although near the end, we find a seventh teen also has abilities, but she’s been scared and hasn’t told anyone, up until now. I did love the different types of magic the girls each had: Alexis can communicate with animals, Marcelina can talk to trees and plants and make them grow, Maryam has an affinity with colors, Roya has healing magic and flowers burst into bloom around her whenever she’s happy, etc. Even though I loved these magical abilities, they felt sort of all over the place to me, with no real connecting tissue.

I also had lots of questions about why certain things happened. Why did Josh’s body disappear and then reappear in pieces? Why did the girls start losing things (like memories or freckles) when the body parts were destroyed? Why did Alexis’ magic suddenly turn “bad”? And what the heck was that scene in the woods where six dead hawks fell out of the sky? If you’re OK with going with the flow and can get past these unanswered questions, you’ll be fine. But you might struggle in parts like I did, if you’re a reader who needs their magic systems to have rules.

But despite those negatives, I am recommending this, especially to younger readers who are looking for diverse stories about friendship with a bit of romance. This isn’t my favorite Sarah Gailey book, but it was the right book to read last week when the world was falling apart, a lighter read that left me entertained and smiling at the end.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This is the witchy book I have always wanted but never gotten until now. I love the slight humor woven throughout the story. I love Alexis' exploration and examination of the dark and scary parts of herself. I love the tight friendships and support systems in this story. I love Gailey's writing. The only thing that could make this better is if it turned into a series, each focused on one of the girls.

What an opening! And it continues to be a fantastic read, all the way to the very end. Truly, a wonderful book.

Every book I read by Gailey keeps showing improvement. In this one, here usual interesting high concept and world building was matched by fully fleshed out characters who all had room to breathe. Although I'm not a teenage girl (and never was), I loved the strength of the bonds between the main friend group. Sure this is a book about the power (for good and bad) of magic but it's really about the power (for good!) of friendship. As a side note, I loved the portrayal of the protagonists parents as clued in, emphatic, kind, and loving. And this book had one of the most interesting (and touching) coming out scenes you will ever read.

Sarah Gailey is an incredible author. The writing style flows so nicely that you just can’t stop reading. This book is about friendship and how to accept love and support from others. This story also touches on the drama of teenagers and learning and accepting who you are. The story is somehow dark and uplifting at the same time. The relationship between these 6 friends is one to make anyone jealous. The magic was so different from anything else I’ve ever read. Each character’s magic is different from the others and they all learn together how to use it, they also learn that magic comes with a price.
I love how they are all such good friends despite how different they are. This book does a great job at representation, including different races and sexual preferences. This is an all around acceptance story which makes you stop and think about accepting others and accepting the support and love from friends and family. This was a great read!