Weird and twisted magical academy in *Vita Nostra*, straddling the line between the fantasy proper and weird fiction. Progression is painful and slice of life is... weird (sorry for overusing that word). Not everyone's cup of tea, but a great book nevertheless.
+1 Vita Nostra. Though it does get ‘mental gymnastics’ in the middle and you may not know what they are even learning but just go with it.
I’ll also add Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence.
The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Girls go to a magical academy where they learn to use weapons, magic and how to be assassin nuns. There aren’t really significant male love interests, it has a lot of skill progression and it’s is a very enjoyable read. The first book is Red Sister.
Ninth House - Leah Bardugo's take on Dark Academia. The school itself isn't magic, but it has the whole secret society thing nailed down.
Catherine House- this one is weird, and the magic/sci-fi/whatever the fuck is going on is not immediately apparent and the ending still leaves you with a lot of questions but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Legendborn- Modern day King Arthur tale, but told through the POV of a black college student. This one was a surprise hit for me. I devoured it in a day.
Ninth House is really good! The main character and dark feel remind me a bit of A Deadly Education. Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse books might work too, although there is some romance.
*A College of Magics* by Caroline Stevermer is a fun alt-history fantasy of manners series, starring female MCs attending a magic school in the beginning of the 20th century.
*Waking the Moon* by Elizabeth Hand is about a college student stumbling upon a magic course while attending university. While it is about the college experience, it is a '90s book that blends the urban fantasy and horror genres as they were done at the time of writing, with all the sex and violence that implies.
Kind of has the archetypal domineering male romance that OP doesn't want though. I was shocked when I saw the love interest's age on a fan wiki, because he's coded so much older too.
Talia in the original Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey? Seconding Book of the Ancestor (though less magicy) and Black Magician's guild.
There is a bit of this in the Night Angel Trilogy, but the MC for much of the series is a male non magic user.
One of the characters who becomes more of an MC through the Lightbringer series is female, but is not really a top3 MC.
I have just started reading A Darker Shade of Sorcery (the Realmers book 1) and whilst I am not really enjoying it so far, one of the two MCs is female.
There are way more boy examples I can think of (Arinthian Line, other Valdemar books, Runes of Issalia, Frith Chronicles, Mage Errant, Arcane Ascension, Arclight Saga, Soul Force Saga, some of the Saga of Recluse books, Harry Potter of course ...)
... seems like quite a biased genre.
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Circle of magic? The Emelan series is four ten year olds in a magical school, although they have what is in universe strange magical abilities that show themselves through things like plants, thread, metal work, and weather
That’s the one! Although they have different titles depending where in the world you are. They can be hard to find in hard copy if you want them to match, but tbh I’m not one who needs to have a perfectly aesthetically pleasing bookshelf. I’ve are happily mismatched with VERY blended spines
If you do webcomics there's **Gunnerkrigg Court**. I haven't kept up with it the last few years and I know it's had polarizing plot developments but I really enjoyed it when I was reading it. Still ongoing, first page is here: https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1
Been reading it for years, and I use an RSS feed reader to keep up with it. I don't get on the forums or really discuss it with anyone. What was polarizing?
Check out the web serial [Pith](https://pithserial.com/2019/05/27/1-a-the-caterpillars-dilemma/). It's about two sort-of-females sort-of-attending a magic school. It's a very cool setup; I think you'd like it based on the examples you gave. It does not have overbearing romance. It's free to read, and there is quite a bit out. I'd recommend giving it a try for some chapters to see if you like it.
[Pale by Wildbow](https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/about/) has an arc set at a magical school. It's an ongoing webserial about 3 girls that are introduced to the magical world. I wouldn't call it slice of life but there's a lot of progression. Almost zero romance and none of it is overbearing.
Hmm maybe Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff, but it's an assassins academy that uses magic as one of many tools rather than a straight magic academy.
It's a web novel, but I finished [Void Domain](https://towercurator.wordpress.com/) recently, which meets your criteria. Basic premise is a female MC, who is the subject of some highly unethical experiments involving demon blood, attending a bottom of the barrel magic academy.
The Magicians Guild by Trudi Canavan! It's one of my favorites.
"The book tells the story of Sonea, a young girl from the slums, as she discovers her magical potential. When she hurls a stone through a magical barrier, accidentally injuring a magician behind it, Sonea finds herself on the run from the powerful Magicians' Guild. The magicians must find her before her uncontrolled and untrained powers kill her and destroy the city, as well as overcome Sonea's distrust and fear of the magicians and their Guild as they try to convince her to join their ranks."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magicians'_Guild
They're MG/YA, but Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch books feature this!
I also enthusiastically second the prior recommendation for Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.
Forging Hephaestus is kinda similar to your request.
'Gifted with metahuman powers in a world full of capes and villains, Tori Rivas kept away from the limelight, preferring to work as a thief in the shadows. But when she’s captured trying to rob a vault that belongs to a secret guild of villains, she’s offered a hard choice: prove she has what it takes to join them or be eliminated'
I am a massive fan of Sanderson, but I'm not sure if this fits OP's request. Besides the genre switch, only the first book in the series is focused on the learning / "academy" story stuff. And even in that case it's not the only thing going on, it's shares the focus.
I really enjoy the series and can't wait for the next book. And I hope OP considers it, but I don't want them to go in with false expectations.
It's true that it's only in the first book, but the focus on learning is big enough for it to definitely fit OP's request IMO.
Plus, OP listed Poppy War as an example, that series abandons the acadamy side of it even sooner than the Skyward series does.
Not a female MC but several of the main characters are female. The Deadly Class comics are pretty good and are about teenagers attending a school for future assassins.
Cradle has group learning for sure, but school only very briefly, true. Cradle is just so damn good I want everyone to read it.
I will add Mage Errant series in Cradle's place.
Maybe Master of Sorrows by Justin Travis Call? I haven't read it yet, but iirc there is a Academy of some sort. It's the first one in a series of 10?12? (I'm not sure and don't remember where I read this). The third one comes out beginning 2022. The premise sounded interesting: What if the chosen one becomes an evil god?
One of Marvel's current ongoing comic titles is **Strange Academy** wherein a buncha kids from various backgrounds are attending a school run by Dr. Strange and his friends - the POV character is a human girl. It's all part of an effort to ensure at least some magic users are trained well enough to survive in the somewhat volatile 616 universe.
This is the perfect moment for one of my favourite lesser known series. There’s an Australian author named Lynette Noni who has completed a five book with one short story addition series about the Akarnae school for gifted children.
The main character is a 16 year old girl who is sort of stolen from our universe by a sentient library and brought to Akarnae. The friendships are amazing, the romances are healthy slow burn, and the antagonist is an exiled evil elf prince who is enslaving gifted people in order to take over his home, and eventually the world.
Every sis Glen person that I know who has read this series has loved it
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*Hex Hall* by Rachel Hawkins
If you've read TMI, *Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy* by Cassandra Clare. It is an anthology, with short stories written by different authors, but is still a good congruent story.
Weird and twisted magical academy in *Vita Nostra*, straddling the line between the fantasy proper and weird fiction. Progression is painful and slice of life is... weird (sorry for overusing that word). Not everyone's cup of tea, but a great book nevertheless.
+1 Vita Nostra. Though it does get ‘mental gymnastics’ in the middle and you may not know what they are even learning but just go with it. I’ll also add Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence.
This looks great, thanks!
Vita Nostra is incredible!
The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Girls go to a magical academy where they learn to use weapons, magic and how to be assassin nuns. There aren’t really significant male love interests, it has a lot of skill progression and it’s is a very enjoyable read. The first book is Red Sister.
Great recommendation! Unfortunately already read and loved.
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He has three other trilogies...
Ninth House - Leah Bardugo's take on Dark Academia. The school itself isn't magic, but it has the whole secret society thing nailed down. Catherine House- this one is weird, and the magic/sci-fi/whatever the fuck is going on is not immediately apparent and the ending still leaves you with a lot of questions but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Legendborn- Modern day King Arthur tale, but told through the POV of a black college student. This one was a surprise hit for me. I devoured it in a day.
Ninth House was awesome. I loved how she described the magic in their world..
Ninth House is really good! The main character and dark feel remind me a bit of A Deadly Education. Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse books might work too, although there is some romance.
I've been enjoying Terry Pratchett's *Equal Rites*.
Thanks for the rec!
The next book after A Deadly Education just released! So good!
I was just about to suggest this one too! So great that I'm rereading it now.
I loved it so much.
*A College of Magics* by Caroline Stevermer is a fun alt-history fantasy of manners series, starring female MCs attending a magic school in the beginning of the 20th century. *Waking the Moon* by Elizabeth Hand is about a college student stumbling upon a magic course while attending university. While it is about the college experience, it is a '90s book that blends the urban fantasy and horror genres as they were done at the time of writing, with all the sex and violence that implies.
I love *A College of Magics*. Highly recommended. And *A Scholar of Magics*.
Trudi canavan, the black magician trilogy.
Kind of has the archetypal domineering male romance that OP doesn't want though. I was shocked when I saw the love interest's age on a fan wiki, because he's coded so much older too.
Love this series! I wish they had a female do the narration for the audiobook version however. Ended up reading the books instead of listening.
+1 This is one of my most longstanding fave series. The second book in the trilogy is my favourite of the three.
Talia in the original Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey? Seconding Book of the Ancestor (though less magicy) and Black Magician's guild. There is a bit of this in the Night Angel Trilogy, but the MC for much of the series is a male non magic user. One of the characters who becomes more of an MC through the Lightbringer series is female, but is not really a top3 MC. I have just started reading A Darker Shade of Sorcery (the Realmers book 1) and whilst I am not really enjoying it so far, one of the two MCs is female. There are way more boy examples I can think of (Arinthian Line, other Valdemar books, Runes of Issalia, Frith Chronicles, Mage Errant, Arcane Ascension, Arclight Saga, Soul Force Saga, some of the Saga of Recluse books, Harry Potter of course ...) ... seems like quite a biased genre.
r/Fantasy's [Author Appreciation series](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/wiki/authorappreciation) has posts for an author you mentioned * [Author Appreciation: **Mercedes Lackey**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/91hk3y/author_appreciation_mercedes_lackey/?utm_content=comments&utm_medium=user&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=u_lyrrael) from user u/lyrrael_ --- ^(I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my ~~master~~ creator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.)
Tamora Pierce's Circle of Life series.
Circle of magic? The Emelan series is four ten year olds in a magical school, although they have what is in universe strange magical abilities that show themselves through things like plants, thread, metal work, and weather
Yes, you're right. I remembered the title wrong. First book is called Sandy's book, if I recall right.
That’s the one! Although they have different titles depending where in the world you are. They can be hard to find in hard copy if you want them to match, but tbh I’m not one who needs to have a perfectly aesthetically pleasing bookshelf. I’ve are happily mismatched with VERY blended spines
If you do webcomics there's **Gunnerkrigg Court**. I haven't kept up with it the last few years and I know it's had polarizing plot developments but I really enjoyed it when I was reading it. Still ongoing, first page is here: https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1
Been reading it for years, and I use an RSS feed reader to keep up with it. I don't get on the forums or really discuss it with anyone. What was polarizing?
Check out the web serial [Pith](https://pithserial.com/2019/05/27/1-a-the-caterpillars-dilemma/). It's about two sort-of-females sort-of-attending a magic school. It's a very cool setup; I think you'd like it based on the examples you gave. It does not have overbearing romance. It's free to read, and there is quite a bit out. I'd recommend giving it a try for some chapters to see if you like it.
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Female personalities in male bodies (literally, because of mind transfer)
I Just finished Red Sister by Mark Lawrence and LOVED IT. And I have The Atlas Six on my TBR shelf and it’s exactly what you’re looking for too.
This series is fantastic!
[Pale by Wildbow](https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/about/) has an arc set at a magical school. It's an ongoing webserial about 3 girls that are introduced to the magical world. I wouldn't call it slice of life but there's a lot of progression. Almost zero romance and none of it is overbearing.
Hmm maybe Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff, but it's an assassins academy that uses magic as one of many tools rather than a straight magic academy.
Molly Harper's Sorcery and Society trilogy. It's not yet complete, but I enjoyed the first two books.
It's a web novel, but I finished [Void Domain](https://towercurator.wordpress.com/) recently, which meets your criteria. Basic premise is a female MC, who is the subject of some highly unethical experiments involving demon blood, attending a bottom of the barrel magic academy.
The Magicians Guild by Trudi Canavan! It's one of my favorites. "The book tells the story of Sonea, a young girl from the slums, as she discovers her magical potential. When she hurls a stone through a magical barrier, accidentally injuring a magician behind it, Sonea finds herself on the run from the powerful Magicians' Guild. The magicians must find her before her uncontrolled and untrained powers kill her and destroy the city, as well as overcome Sonea's distrust and fear of the magicians and their Guild as they try to convince her to join their ranks." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magicians'_Guild
Black Witch Chronicles by Laurie Forest
If webnovels are ok as well A practical guide to sorcery and Fates Parallel are free to read on Royal Road.
They're MG/YA, but Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch books feature this! I also enthusiastically second the prior recommendation for Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.
A Deadly Education’s sequel - The Last Graduate came out last month in case you didn’t know.
Forging Hephaestus is kinda similar to your request. 'Gifted with metahuman powers in a world full of capes and villains, Tori Rivas kept away from the limelight, preferring to work as a thief in the shadows. But when she’s captured trying to rob a vault that belongs to a secret guild of villains, she’s offered a hard choice: prove she has what it takes to join them or be eliminated'
If you also lean towards scifi there's Skyward by Brandon Sanderson and it's amazing, tough it has no magic.
I am a massive fan of Sanderson, but I'm not sure if this fits OP's request. Besides the genre switch, only the first book in the series is focused on the learning / "academy" story stuff. And even in that case it's not the only thing going on, it's shares the focus. I really enjoy the series and can't wait for the next book. And I hope OP considers it, but I don't want them to go in with false expectations.
It's true that it's only in the first book, but the focus on learning is big enough for it to definitely fit OP's request IMO. Plus, OP listed Poppy War as an example, that series abandons the acadamy side of it even sooner than the Skyward series does.
Not a female MC but several of the main characters are female. The Deadly Class comics are pretty good and are about teenagers attending a school for future assassins.
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.
Wheel of Time, Cradle, Arcane Ascension. Not just females, but the females in the academy settings are strong and great characters.
While Cradle is great it does not involve anyone going to a magic school in any relavant way.
Cradle has group learning for sure, but school only very briefly, true. Cradle is just so damn good I want everyone to read it. I will add Mage Errant series in Cradle's place.
OP did say they were interested in progression, so Cradle does hit that anyway.
Sabriel
Maybe Master of Sorrows by Justin Travis Call? I haven't read it yet, but iirc there is a Academy of some sort. It's the first one in a series of 10?12? (I'm not sure and don't remember where I read this). The third one comes out beginning 2022. The premise sounded interesting: What if the chosen one becomes an evil god?
One of Marvel's current ongoing comic titles is **Strange Academy** wherein a buncha kids from various backgrounds are attending a school run by Dr. Strange and his friends - the POV character is a human girl. It's all part of an effort to ensure at least some magic users are trained well enough to survive in the somewhat volatile 616 universe.
This is the perfect moment for one of my favourite lesser known series. There’s an Australian author named Lynette Noni who has completed a five book with one short story addition series about the Akarnae school for gifted children. The main character is a 16 year old girl who is sort of stolen from our universe by a sentient library and brought to Akarnae. The friendships are amazing, the romances are healthy slow burn, and the antagonist is an exiled evil elf prince who is enslaving gifted people in order to take over his home, and eventually the world. Every sis Glen person that I know who has read this series has loved it
Thanks, that looks great! But ummm… what’s a sis Glen?
A total auto correct fail! Every “single person”. Whoops
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff has lots of magical elements but is actually an assassin school. Trashy AF and incredibly fun.
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*Hex Hall* by Rachel Hawkins If you've read TMI, *Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy* by Cassandra Clare. It is an anthology, with short stories written by different authors, but is still a good congruent story.