WE WHO HAVE NO GODS

A young boy begins a classic coming-of-age adventure when he joins a secret school for training witches to fight monsters…but this story isn’t about him.

Ever since their mother died, Vic has taken it upon herself to take care of her little brother, Henry. Their mother was a witch, a member of the Acheron Order, and she fought terrible supernatural monsters before her untimely (and mysterious) death. Henry, unlike Vic, inherited their mother’s magical abilities, and so Vic is determined to hide him from the Acheron Order, and save him from their mother’s fate. She dropped out of high school and spent years caring for Henry, even becoming a skilled fighter in case she had to defend him. When an Elder of the Order finally tracks them down, he warns that if Henry isn’t taught to use his magic, he will be in danger, and it would be safest for him to go to Avalon Castle, the Order’s headquarters, and be trained. This convinces Henry to go, and Vic begrudgingly agrees on the condition that she can come with him to make sure he’s safe. But Vic is out of place as a regular human among witches, who despise her presence in their classes because they believe that her humanness makes her beneath them. But when Vic finds proof—a mauled body—that magical monsters have been able to breach the Order’s magically warded walls, it becomes clear that the Order is being targeted by a rival organization of witches, and Vic’s days of knowing she could use her fists to keep Henry safe are over. Making Vic the protagonist is a smart twist to the trope of “chosen boy goes to magic school”; Anderson skillfully sets her up as the kind of curious, determined woman who might stick her nose where she’s been told not to, and figure out that things are not as they seem with the Acheron Order. But while most of the characters are well drawn, Anderson leans heavily enough on the tropes of the genre that the surrounding worldbuilding feels thin. Still, a sharp twist right at the end will make it worth watching for Book Two.

A clever switch on the magical-school trope.