First published 2015
Mal holds her mother's ancient spell book, its pages now crowded with her own handwriting alongside Maleficent's dark magic. The leather-bound tome has become something unexpected at Auradon Prep: a diary shared between four misfit friends. Evie scribbles beauty tips next to transformation spells. Jay adds commentary about stealing techniques. Carlos draws nervous doodles in the margins of curse instructions. Together, the children of famous villains fill every available space with inside jokes, worried confessions, and the messy truth of trying to fit in somewhere they were never meant to belong. Each page reveals their struggle between the evil legacy their parents planned and the good they might choose instead. The spell book becomes their secret refuge, a place where they can be honest about feeling caught between two worlds. Through shared laughter and tears captured in hastily scrawled notes, Mal discovers that the most powerful magic might be friendship itself.
Genres: coming-of-age, fantasy, contemporary, young-adult
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Auradon Prep
190 pages · Hardcover · Random House/Disney