The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher – Review

Published: June 9, 2026

Publisher: HarperVoyager

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 464 (Kindle)

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
Casey McQuiston meets The Secret History in this unmissable dark academia fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Lex Croucher following former childhood best friends who reunite at magical boarding school after years, only to find themselves enemies on opposite sides of the ugly secrets hidden within the gilded walls.

Welcome to the Temple School of Thaumaturgy … and your newest dark academia obsession.

For as long as they can remember, Briar Jones dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy. Behind its looming ornate gates, the elite prep school—the place that has produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in British history—is whispered to be magical. 

Briar’s best friend, Sebastian Wolfe, never cared about Temple or believed in the rumors. He just wanted them to stay together forever. 

When, at age 11, Seb gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn’t, their childhood friendship is shattered. Seb vanishes onto Temple’s grounds and Briar resigns themself to a mundane life. But they can’t completely forget their yearning for Temple, for the extraordinary, to be one of the chosen in the ivory tower. 

Seven years later, a summer job advert a temp position sorting through the junk in Temple’s attics. Briar takes it. And they discover that quiet, sensitive Seb, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become a beautiful, arrogant villain feared by most of the school. And worse, the secrets Temple is hiding might not be so magical after all, but a dark conspiracy with implications that extend far beyond the gates.

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This book is basically if normal people knew about Hogwarts but brushed the magic part off as rumors. Except of course, for the local kid obsessed with magic who is heartbroken when they don’t get their letter and even more heartbroken when their best friend does get in. I was delighted by how quickly this world sucked me in and didn’t spit me out until I turned the final pages. The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones was a thoroughly addictive read filled with drama, hilarity, new friendships, and old grudges. 

Briar Jones has tried to forget about their childhood best friend, Seb, since he went off to the Temple School of Thaumaturgy and has utterly failed. Yes, Briar has made new friends but the pain of Seb’s abandonment that summer has never left them and neither has the curiosity about what goes on behind Temple’s walls. Of course Briar takes the summer job at Temple – why wouldn’t they want to see what they’ve been missing out on. What Briar doesn’t expect is that school is still in session and Seb is still there finishing out his final year and the two have changed a great deal since they were 11.

Instead of rekindling the friendship with Seb, who now goes by Bastian and is the scariest guy in the school, Briar falls in with a group of outcasts who care very little that Briar isn’t thaumaturgically gifted. Mostly because Briar is absolutely jacked and has a set of staff keys and a willingness to thwart Bastian’s plans. There’s a new group of kids in (they call them pips) and the gang is determined to absolutely fuck up the traditional hazing of the new kids, thus making the group of powerful seniors Bastian hangs with look very bad. You’d think this couldn’t possibly go wrong, but it absolutely does and Briar is absolutely in danger since they have no protection against even low level thaumaturgical abilities. The powerful abilities are terrifying, especially in the hands of the vindictively creative.

This book is such a good time. I love the group that Briar becomes friends with and I love Briar even more. Briar isn’t perfect and doesn’t hesitate to throw a punch when necessary. This book is so full of feelings and does a solid job of highlighting the inequities of station/birth. I was highly invested in Briar and Bastian, no matter how the relationship between the two panned out! The ending was quite the surprise, which I appreciated and I think it was probably the best way the story could have wrapped up. I think if you’re looking for an unconventional perspective into a more traditional magic school setting, this would be a great book to check out!