The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones

'A wondrous book' JOHN GREEN 'What a wonderful ride' V. E. SCHWAB 'A delicious and diabolical feast' CASEY MCQUISTON 'Funny, devastating, achingly romantic' OLIVIE BLAKE 'The freshest contemporary fantasy I've read in years' LAURA STEVEN 'Wildly creative, very funny, and searingly angry' FREYA MARSKE 'This is dark academia as it should be written' BEA FITZGERALD 'Croucher is a master of the craft' KAT DUNN 'Delicious' THE FANTASY HIVE From instant New York Times bestseller, Nero Award-shortlisted, TikTok Book of the Year-shortlisted, and YA Book Prize-winning Lex Croucher comes your new dark academia obsession . . . Briar always dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy, the elite boarding school that's produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in history, long rumoured to be magical. Briar's best friend, Sebastian, just wanted them to stay together forever. When Sebastian gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn't, their relationship is shattered - until, at eighteen, Briar secures a temp job sorting through the magical junk in Temple's attic, and discovers that quiet, sensitive Sebastian, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become the villain. Dark academia meets contemporary fantasy in this timely page-turner about a student who fails to gain admission to the UK's only school of magic but then gets a job there years later and unearths the ugly secrets simmering behind its ancient walls - unmissable for fans of Babel by R.F. Kuang and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.

'A wondrous book' JOHN GREEN 'What a wonderful ride' V. E. SCHWAB 'A delicious and diabolical feast' CASEY MCQUISTON 'Funny, devastating, achingly romantic' OLIVIE BLAKE 'The freshest contemporary fantasy I've read in years' LAURA STEVEN 'Wildly creative, very funny, and searingly angry' FREYA MARSKE 'This is dark academia as it should be written' BEA FITZGERALD 'Croucher is a master of the craft' KAT DUNN 'Delicious' THE FANTASY HIVE From instant New York Times bestseller, Nero Award-shortlisted, TikTok Book of the Year-shortlisted, and YA Book Prize-winning Lex Croucher comes your new dark academia obsession . . . Briar always dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy, the elite boarding school that's produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in history, long rumoured to be magical. Briar's best friend, Sebastian, just wanted them to stay together forever. When Sebastian gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn't, their relationship is shattered - until, at eighteen, Briar secures a temp job sorting through the magical junk in Temple's attic, and discovers that quiet, sensitive Sebastian, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become the villain. Dark academia meets contemporary fantasy in this timely page-turner about a student who fails to gain admission to the UK's only school of magic but then gets a job there years later and unearths the ugly secrets simmering behind its ancient walls - unmissable for fans of Babel by R.F. Kuang and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.

"A WONDROUS BOOK...ABOUT LOVE AND HURT AND HOW WE SURVIVE IT ALL TOGETHER." -JOHN GREEN "I WAS PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE OF PUTTING THIS BOOK DOWN." -OLIVIE BLAKE "FANS OF THE MAGICIANS AND NINTH HOUSE HAVE FOUND THEIR NEW OBSESSION." -LAURA STEVEN From New York Times bestselling author Lex Croucher comes an extraordinary dark academia fantasy about dangerous privilege, corrupted power, and two former best friends caught on opposite sides of the secrets rotting at the heart of Britain's most prestigious boarding school. For as long as they can remember, Briar Jones dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy. Behind its looming ornate gates, the elite boarding 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. He just wanted them to stay together forever. When, at age eleven, 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, Briar secures a temp job sorting through the junk in Temple's attics. And when Briar takes it, they discover that quiet, sensitive Seb, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become Bastian: a beautiful, arrogant villain feared by the entire school. And worse, the secrets Temple is hiding might not be so enchanting after all.