F*cking Magic

by Clementine Morrigan

496 pages, Paperback

Published July 20, 2025

About the author

Clementine Morrigan is a writer. She is the writer behind the zines Love Without Emergency, Fuck the Police Means We Don't Act Like Cops to Each Other, Fucking Crazy, and Fucking Girls. She also wrote the books Sexting, Fucking Magic, Trauma Magic, You Can't Own the Fucking Stars, The Size of a Bird, and Rupture. She has been writing and publishing for more than 20 years and has many more projects on the way. They are also a podcaster as one half of the podcast Fucking Cancelled and they're the creator of the popular Trauma Informed Polyamory workshop. They also teach other online workshops like Bisexual Girls with Baggage and Disorganized Attachment Is a Fucking Trip. She is an ecosocialist, an anarchist, an abolitionist, an opposer of cancel culture, a trauma educator, a sex educator, a person living with complex ptsd, a sober alcoholic, a polyamorous bisexual dyke, and a proud dog mom to Clover “the dog” Morrigan.

Reviews

[tupsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've followed Clementine for a number of years online and have read a fair bit of her essays and zines in the past. As a fellow survivor of complex trauma, I've found myself drawn to her writing, especially how she's able to find words to describe incredibly complex things. Despite this background, F*cking Magic blew me away.

I knew in advance that the book consists of a number of zines. As with the other zines I've read from Clementine, these consist of fairly brief "articles", generally just a few pages long. This gives a very clear and straightforward structure to reading, and also made it very easy to stop and jump back in as needed. Kudos also to the publishers for leaving in the original covers for the zines - this helped both with understanding the progression of time between zines and felt like a very nice homage to the original format of these texts.

What struck me most was how honest and forward Clementine's writing felt. A lot of the articles felt like getting to take a look at a personal journal, and having the privilege to witness moments of breakthrough, of learning, of understanding. There were several points during my reading where I needed to stop, take a moment and reread because of how the text spoke to me. I sent a few quotes to my partner, who concurred that "it's almost as if you had written this". Feeling less alone with my healing and growth is an incredibly powerful experience.

I would recommend Fucking Magic especially to other survivors, but honestly to anyone who would like to deepen their understanding of the people who surround them. While there is no clear-cut narrative to the book, as a whole it nonetheless tells the story of an incredibly brave person who has decided to put her life back together on her own terms. It provides perspective both on the sorry state of the resources that are made available to trauma survivors, and the means we resort to when nothing else is available to us. In addition, it makes it very clear that healing is not a linear process and temporary setbacks are not the end of the path.

Thank you, Clementine, for putting your work out there despite all of the pushback you have received over the years. Thank you to the publishers for finally giving Clementine's work the platform it deserves.

I received an advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily, and my opinion is fully my own.

[Santi S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

F*cking Magic by Clementine Morrigan is an ode to returning to yourself, over and over again. No matter how painful it is, no matter how directionless it feels, no matter how many shattered pieces of yourself you have to retrieve from the rubble. Reading it gives the experience of flipping through a personal diary. Each page induces raw visceral emotion where the lump in your throat wants you to stop reading, but the sucker punch to your gut keeps you turning pages to stay with Clementine through every step of this wild journey. I am there with her on the swing set crying, on the bedroom floor curled up in fear, in the comfort of chosen family, in inebriated rage at the parents that failed her, in immense hunger for a new kind of love following sobriety. I am her pen gliding with urgency, writing words that cannot be left unsaid.

This book compiles Clementine’s collection of her pervious works that undeniably fit together in a way that is authentically her: DIY, queer, punk, feminist and radical story-telling. The language is frank and unfiltered, trusting the reader with every detail, while sparking curiosity for what could be revealed next in its non linear style of writing.

Clementine Morrigan’s new work is for survivors of every kind, for raging bisexuals, the grief-stricken and complex trauma survivors, the polyamorous and the poly-curious, and the queers. It’s for writers and the soon-to-be writers, the self-proclaimed misfits, dreamers and fearful romantics, and for anyone living in between. This incredible piece of work is for the strong willed or the faint of heart, for all who dare to come face to face with all the cruelties in the world and the ways that we break, and for those that still can recognise that amid all this pain, there is hope, and there is a whole lot of F*cking Magic.

[Andrea M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

F*cking Magic is one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time. I needed to take my time with the essays, because they brought up so much for me internally as someone with my own experience as a survivor, as a leftist & magician, and as someone who has been a somatic practitioner supporting folks on their journeys for many years. And taking one's time, and making space for what's arising is something that Clementine Morrigan demonstrates over and over here, whether she is remembering & sharing how she has gone about renegotiating past abuse, betrayal, & addiction experiences, or fully landing in her own experience of joy, pleasure & aliveness. Sex is front & center. This compendium of zines moved parts within my psyche, and I could feel the space this writing has made for me and others. Place, nature & ritual ground many of the short essays, which I hesitate to call 'personal' essays. They are first person, and very close in to life. They feel like the experience of living theory shared in regular language, and through the unfolding of a snapshot or series of scenes & reflections. They are an expression of selfhood. They demand trauma work shape political action. Some of the essays sear with truth & brilliant critique, while others open like a dewy flower and draw you in. This book is clearly a magical working for full embodiment, authenticity & connection. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Biduche]

Fucking magic writing!

I can feel myself move and change, I can feel my perspective shift and change as I read Clementine Morrigan’s powerful writing. I feel comforted by the words that name the unnamable, speak the forbidden, the unspeakable. Reading this made me realize that a fun/wild life that fits me/people with trauma, after surviving unbelievable pain, is possible. Magic is just waiting to be felt. and I feel it in her words. It is also incredibly accurate writing for the times that we live in today. NOW is the perfect moment to be reading and writing about all of these subjects, about what it’s like living in this fucked up world and how to deal with it. How to feel it all, the bad stuff & the pain but also how to make room and be welcoming to all the good things and all the joy to come. Fucking magic makes me want to write again, to sing again, to live my life fully. I’m a huge fan of Clementine’s unperfect / speaking with the heart literature. Her writing is so authentic, it resonates deep in my bones every single time I read some of her work. This is some incredibly important writing on the subject of recovery and on all the things that can’t always be said inside a therapist’s office.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Brandiwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leading with sincerity, Clementine Morrigan excels at opening a portal into her world, taking the reader on a painfully realistic and poetic voyage through the complexities of healing. Each zine selection allows for bearing witness to a wide spectrum of her experience with intimate moments waxing and waning between aching, contentment, and euphoria. I am amazed by Clementine’s audacity to do the work that many neglect; first, speaking with fervor and candor about specific traumas many others keep buried, and in Fucking Magic, honoring the importance and validity of sharing details of process that others on the path to joy and fullness often withhold or fail to document, let alone share. I feel like this is a complex trauma survivor's field guide to becoming self-attuned.

As a society we often prioritize focus on publicly celebrating the achievements of famous people or those with capitalistic success, but Clementine offers a celebration of the full, magnificent power of radical self-transformation without all the glitz. She exemplifies unflinching integrity and grit, and Fucking Magic does a fucking magical job illustrating how authenticity and tenacity can change lives and ultimately impact culture. We are all better for having this work in the world — thank you, Clementine Morrigan.

[Wallea Eaglehawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of what was originally 12 zines, F*cking Magic traces the story of Clementine’s becoming. From her experience of incest growing up, to alcoholism and intimate partner violence, all the way through to sobriety, reclaiming her love of music, and discovering polyamory and bisexuality. Clementine doesn’t shy away from the hard topics; she leans into them and crafts an achingly beautiful vignette of her world. Yet in doing so, she elevates her deeply personal and private experiences to something more universally understood. She pulls apart her life and within each moment finds a thread that resonates deeply with the reader.

I don’t think she was sitting at her desk, wondering how to make a straight person see themselves in scissoring by any means. Rather, it’s a testament to Clementine’s style of writing—what she chooses to reveal and conceal, how she turns phrases, how she transmutes her pain into art. How her art becomes a salve for a wound we perhaps didn’t know we were carrying to start with. Woven throughout it all, the ups and downs, the endless cycle of becoming and coming undone, is a love story. One that is about Clementine’s great love for herself, her commitment to trying, her ability to articulate and understand her depths. And also one that is about her partner Jay, a true modern-day love that is strong, unflinching, and liberating.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

F*cking Magic gutted me. Clementine Morrigan writes with the kind of clarity and ferocity that only comes from someone who’s walked through the fire and kept going. She metabolizes her trauma by tracing its shape through the body, through sex, through sobriety, through love, and lets us watch as she stitches something sacred from the wreckage. This is survivor writing in its most alive and unflinching form. It's permission to tell the whole truth, even the seemingly unspeakable parts. The books reminds us that healing is not about being clean or good—it’s about staying with ourselves through the mess. A holy, devastating, necessary book.

[Ruby Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I collected a couple of the F*cking Magic zines years ago, and was very excited for this book. I was not let down. Clementine's writing reaches you in a way that even if your experiences are not the same, you still feel so fucking seen. The unfiltered truth is inspiring and liberating. The writing is eloquent yet raw. It makes you feel not only okay but capable of facing your own demons. Reading it is an emotional journey in the best way. Clementine's bravery and determination to survive despite everything is such a beautiful gift. This book is a reminder that people are complex and deserving of love not in spite of but because of that. While it is not an emotionally easy read, it's easy to pick up and set down as you need to, without loosing the flow of it. Highly, highly recommend EVERYONE read this.

I received an advanced review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. I am also immediately purchasing a copy because it's something every trauma survivor needs on their shelves.