This week is about magic systems, and I'm very excited about this.
1. The Girl With The Red Balloon by Katherine Locke
I have only just finished this, but I want to talk about it anyway. We meet Ellie, a young Jewish girl from America visiting Berlin. She touches a red balloon, and then somehow time travels to 1988 East Berlin. The time travel magic uses maths and science, but also the DNA of the person who wants to travel. It is wonderful, and currently a part of the #biglibraryread so if you have a library that is a part of this, I thoroughly recommend reading it.
2. The Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo
Of course I'm going to talk about this. I love how the magic is innate, and the way magic can be trained but everyone has their own methods of accessing their magic. I adore the Grishaverse, as you may already know, so if I have any excuse to talk about it, I will.
3. Freak House trilogy of trilogies, by CJ Archer
Once again, the magic someone has comes from within them, but it also has ties to a mystical world. Like the Grishaverse, I adore these books. I especially love the dynamic between Hannah and Jack's magic, and how... Well I guess you'll have to read it to find out.
4. All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness
My friend got me reading these books three years ago, and she is going to love me for mentioning these. Diana reads an old book and then magic happens. How delightful is that? There are a few types of magic in this, but I just love that initial read-book-and-magic-happens moment.
5. Lost Girl, TV series
I binged this series forever ago, and I still love it. Bo is a succubus and can use sexuality and desire to do magic, basically. In the very first episode she kills a man who wanted to assault Kenzi, who almost immediately becomes her sidekick. Again there are different types of magic, as each creature can do different things, but my favourite is probably Trick. I'm not going to say why because it will be spoilers, but I do love Trick.
All five of these have LGBTQ+ representation; some have disabled characters, and most have people of colour.
That's my five, what are your favourite magic systems?
E