Higher Magic - Courtney Floyd - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Courtney Floyd

GENRE: Dark Academia, Fantasy

PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A dark-academia novel filled with witches and magic and supernatural stuff. Fairly cosy despite the darkness. Excellent themes, though a bit preachy at times. Decent characters and plot, slow-ish pace, predictable mystery. A bit too cluttered, but many subplots become relevant later. Had great potential, but somehow, it ends up just ‘good’ instead of ‘fabulous’. Still, recommended.

Plot Preview:

Dorothe Bartleby is a first-generation graduate student who teaches spell-making to freshers while simultaneously preparing for her doctoral submission to become a mage. She had flunked her first exam after freezing with anxiety, so the second attempt is her last chance to prove her thesis that magic existed in classical literature. Her troubles increase when her advisor recommends that she use Digimancy to prove her dissertation. Dorothe isn't destined to use tech well. To add to the challenge, mage students, including a couple of Dorothe’s charges, are vanishing from all over the campus. Now she has to figure out what’s happening while still meeting the deadline of her exam. Luckily, she has help.

The story comes to us in Dorothe’s first-person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

🔮 Anne. I can’t reveal any spoilers on Anne, so I leave it to you to discover the identity of this amazing character. Their personality, their reporting, and their one-liners further the narrative excellently.

🔮 I didn't expect Jane Austen and other classic lit references in this book – what a pleasant surprise! To be clear, I don’t know how those who aren’t familiar with the classics will feel about these inclusions, but I’ve read most of the included classics so this was an entertaining inclusion.

🔮 Dorothe. A surprisingly understated lead for a fantasy. She isn't dynamic or vivacious, and her lack of confidence further puts her protagonism in question. But her flawed character appealed to me much more than a perfect lead would have.

🔮 This is a dark academia novel where ‘dark’ and ‘academia’ both get equal importance. Dorothe’s dual role as a student and a teacher ensures an unusual two-way look at the university’s issues.

🔮 The accurate depiction of mental health issues, specifically anxiety. Love how the book shows no instantaneous cure and how Dorothe takes almost the entire book to grow in confidence.

🔮 Excellent diversity in the characters. Appreciate the disability rep most of all. Admittedly, this becomes a little preachy at times, but it’s a worthy and uncommon theme, so I can cut it some slack.

🔮 Every chapter begins with a kind of quote, either by a famous person or a distortion of an actual quote or even snippets of diary entries and newspaper articles. These were all fabulous!

🔮 I can’t tell you the main theme of the book as it is directly linked to the mystery, but I can tell you that I absolutely loved it and that it is highly relevant these days.

Bookish Okays:

⚔ The remaining important characters are good but also kinda one-noted. I wish their detailing was more layered.

⚔ The usual ‘kitchen sink clutter’ issue of debut novelists strikes again in this novel. There are way too many important themes that demand our attention. To the author’s credit, most of these topics are actually used in the plot than being mere token entries.

⚔ The magic in this fantasy works both for and against the story. The presence of disparate types of magical powers gives us a good variety but no depth. For instance: Digimancy is barely explained and it is up to us to figure out how it works.

⚔ The worldbuilding is interesting but restricted to the university. I wish there had been more clarity on the non-magical humans as well, especially Dorothe’s parents and their fear about you-know-what-if-you-read-the-book.

⚔ The romance is minimal and doesn’t supersede the plot for the most part, which I appreciate. However, I don’t think the romance was needed at all, especially as there was barely any chemistry between the couple. They worked better as friends.

Bookish Nays:

☠ Honestly, Dorothe’s dissertation went over my head. I wanted to like her project considering it was linked to classical literature, but I just didn’t get it. There needed to be more elaboration on this, especially as it was a key component of the plot.

☠ The mystery is very guessable, not just in terms of the why but also the who. There is one crucial sentence in between that reveals everything immediately, but as Dorothea misses its significance, we have to wait for her team to catch up with the facts. The mystery is also a bit farfetched. Of course, this isn't marketed as a mystery, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

☠ The pacing is fairly slow, and the content gets a little repetitive at times. The ending is too dragged.

Overall, this isn't a bad debut at all. There is some strong magic and amazing themes within its pages. But I can't help feeling that this book would have worked wonders in the hands of a more experienced novelist. No doubting the author’s creativity though; all that’s needed is a firmer hand on the edits. Regardless, the theme is an important one, so if you feel strongly about inclusivity and accessibility, you might enjoy this novel. It would help if you are a cozy fantasy fan.

Recommended to those looking for a cozy fantasy with powerful themes and willing to read without overanalysing.

3.5 stars. (This was 3.75 until the final few chapters, but I am anyway rounding it up wherever applicable for the theme.)

My thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and MIRA for providing the DRC of “Higher Magic” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.