Review: A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow

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Review of A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow (4916 words)

Apex Magazine, Issue 105 : Purchase or Read Online

In this world, some librarians are witches, and almost all books are magic. This is the premise and it’s immediately relatable because all readers, at some point, have genuinely believed books were a type of magic.

They can transport you somewhere else, which is just what the skinny black teenager wants. He just wants to go somewhere else, anywhere but where he is, stuck in a life that isn’t what he wants it to be.

And the narrator, the witchy librarian, wants to help as much as she can, but even witches have rules. And this story is about whether or not to break those rules, whether or not to give someone what they really need, so that they can have their chance at happiness.

Cleverly written, with a great magical reality so closely coexisting with our own un-magical one. The tight plot and vivid descriptions make up the rest of why this story was a 2018 Nebula nominee. And with good reason!

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