My heart is singing, this book filled me with so much JOY!!! It is the Drarry revision of Half-Blood Prince that so many fans would have wanted, and it's The Marauders fanfiction I've always craved! Everything about this book feels nostalgic and familiar, while also improving on all the problematic elements of Harry Potter. Of course there's a queer romance front and center! Of course the headmaster who makes sacrifices "for the greater good" is not the hero he believes himself to be. Of course the girlfriend isn't a trophy awarded in the epilogue to The Chosen One after he's saved the day, but rather a full person with her own feelings and motivations who doesn't want to put her life on hold, or worse, be fridged! Of course there's a legacy child who grew up with magic and is BORED TO TEARS at how wasteful and selfish it is, so she actively chooses a magic-free life! Of course one of the main characters is an English-Indian descendant who deals with the microaggression of "your name should match your skin color". Of course the modern school doesn't rely on slavery, but rather encourages the students to learn some life skills while away at boarding school by having them pitch on for meals, laundry and cleaning! Of course the language of spells isn't Eurocentric and archaic Latin, but rather songs and rhymes and idioms, words we give power and meaning by how much we repeat them and pour feeling into them, and it evolves as we do. Of course it's an ensemble cast and THEREFORE is written with multiple PoV!!!

This book DEFINITELY reads as Harry Potter fanfiction (really really good Harry Potter fanfiction!), but it stands on its own merit, too. Starting in media res, the book assumes you've read some fantasy before, and you don't need your hand held through all the naive, wide-eyed, introductions to the magical world. There are enough details given that the reader can figure out the world for themselves, and still feel its depth. But it starts with a hero who has already been on half a dozen adventures, who is sure of their place in the magical world, and then has to challenge what they've learned as truth. In short, the book remembers what Fantastic Beasts forgot: That the magic of the magical world is not in the spectacle and whackadoodle theatrics of magic, but in the heart of the characters and who they grow to be because of each other.

BRAVO, RAINBOW ROWELL!!!!! I am so hyped to read the rest of the Simon Snow books!