Light magic

Light Magic is a novel about suburban Jersey girls Chloe and Zarin, who have been faithful friends since meeting as 4th grade outsiders. Even into their twenties, the dorky pals remain bonded by their shared avoidance of alcohol and sex, passion for prayer, and obsession with Max Hazel, a wildly popular series of books about a boarding school for witches. The fact that Zarin is the Muslim daughter of Pakistani immigrants and that Chloe is a white evangelical Christian has only made them closer in a world where the young and devout seem few and far-between. Chloe and Zarin both choose to attend grad school at Roving University, and the two could not make better roommates. But when Zarin finds love shortly after Chloe loses it, it opens the door for both of them to questions about sexuality, prejudice, feminism, and their own friendship. Frustrated by her virginity, Chloe tries to find purpose in founding the Interfaith Max Hazel Alliance, and Zarin, busy with raising money for an Islamic girls’ school and embarking on a secret romance, finds little time to help with the new project. It soon becomes unclear whether the friends will have to go their separate ways as their respective faiths change (for better or worse), or if they can help each other magic their way into womanhood as they’d always planned.M.F.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Katherine Emily Callaha