Since #LexieSpells is all about magic, I wanted to spend a little time writing about my favorite magical systems in books. So every Friday, I’m highlighting books that had interesting magical systems and whatnot. If you want to know more about Lexie’s world, check out this blog post here.

Today’s magical book is the ultimate magical book–Harry Potter.

Seeing as Spells and Sorcery is dedicated to J.K. Rowling, I had to kick off my magical book series with her amazing books. The Harry Potter books were basically all I read from ages 11-20, and most of my writing output at that time was fanfiction. I was drawn to the whimsical world, the characters, the mystery. All of it. But since this is a blog post about magical systems, I’ll try to focus it down.

I think what drew me to HP in the first place was the little hints of worldbuilding poured into the book. It wasn’t just waving wands and things happened, there were Remembralls and Time-Turners and all sorts of little magical objects that made life easier for witches and wizards. I think those were my favorite parts of the book, mostly because they added nothing to the plot except hints of worldbuilding (I mean, the Time-Turner did, but most of the objects didn’t). Each of the little pieces added up to the larger, whimsical world that we’ve grown to love.

One of the things I most dislike about fantasy is the tendency for purple prose. In my mind, you don’t need 20 pages to describe how cold it is and info-dumping the world-building is the fastest way for me to stop reading. So what I like about HP is how we learned about the world with Harry. Jo knew that we were smart enough to pick up on the details and fill in our own blanks.

Next week, I’ll highlight another magical book! And don’t forget to check out Spells and Sorcery, available for paperback, hardcover, and a special preorder eBook price of $0.99!