Uncommon Charm by Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver

This novella came to my attention when Sacha Lamb tweeted about it: “If you haven’t read UNCOMMON CHARM yet, it’s excellent, like Nancy Mitford meets Jonathan Strange in a bite sized novella length.”

Well, hello. Of course I was going to immediately acquire something described as such. And Sacha Lamb hit the nail on the head. The interwar time period, eccentric upper class characters, and dialogue peppered with witticisms and slang made this story very Mitford-esque indeed, and it was all tumbled together with societally accepted, if misunderstood, magic.

A couple of things distinguish this slim book from Nancy Mitford novels, though. Things that, in my opinion, only improved upon them. One is that the characters are much more soul-searching than any Mitford heroine. Another is the distinction in class between the two main characters.

The irrepressible narrator, 16-year-old Julia (Jules), is a delightful mixture of smarts, wit, insouciance, and self-awareness. She is the daughter of the Lady Aloysia, one of the foremost magicians in England, and at the novella’s start she has just been expelled from school. She is therefore underfoot at home when Simon, the natural son of the exiled prince Vladimir Koldunov—“Uncle Vee” to Jules—arrives to be tutored in magic.

Simon is a quiet young man who was raised by his radical Jewish mother in the East End, far from the streets of Mayfair. By age twenty he has displayed enough of a tendency towards magic that he has been brought to the attention of his putative father, and, after a failed attempt at integrating him into the wealthy home of the Koldunov family, has been packed off to Lady Aloysia to see what she can make of him.

As Simon tentatively explores his magic and what it means, the quickly established camaraderie between he and Jules deepens into a true and expansive friendship. This is not a romance; both Simon and Jules are interested in people on the fringe of the novella. Rather than telling a love story, Uncommon Charm is about an improbable and transformative friendship, and I loved that this kind of connection was given centre stage here. There is fun and tenderness and teasing, and it is all absolute perfection.

Simon is not the only one doing a deep dive into his inner self. Jules is also confronting her demons, and those of her family, and this is all tied together with magic (although Jules herself possesses none). Together, Jules and Simon navigate family secrets, ghosts, faith, responsibility, and hard truths, leaning on each other to find the strength to do so.

I don’t want to get into too much plot detail here because the book is very short and saying too much would be criminal. Suffice it to say that with its irreverent narrator and sparkling sense of humour, Uncommon Charm is a deceptively light book with important reckonings at its core. All wrapped up in lush descriptions and spot-on 1920s atmosphere, it’s got everything I want in a book. Just pure joy.

And, bonus!

Kat Weaver’s website has links to two more stories set in this universe that you can read for free online! “Slip Stitch” in Timeworn Lit, and “Darling” in Metamorphosis.