The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Two Who Live On, (branches of the past and future, book 2 of 4)
by MN Bennett
Published by the author, 2023
Four stars

MN Bennett’s world of magic is both comfortably mundane and appalling. Appalling in a sort of good way. But I’ll explain. Set in an elite private secondary school in Chicago in the “present day” (not this world, mind you), our heroes are Dorian Frost, one of the teachers; and his sort-of-boyfriend, Milo Evergreen. This is only the second semester of the school year, and already Dorian has had to fight (with the help of both Milo and his students) against a murderous attack by a conspiracy of warlocks.

Ugh. Let’s set up a few facts: in this world, magic is everywhere and everyone has magic. Witches use magic for good (i.e. for normal things). Warlocks use magic selfishly for self-gain and don’t hesitate to harm others. But (and it’s a clever, bitter, irony here) only those who can afford to can actually use their magic. Because you need to have a license to cast spells; and to do that you need an education; and to use magic as a career you need to get into a guild. The world of magic is referred to as The Industry, and it is every bit as greedy and heartless as the corporate world of our own dear capitalist America.

Poor people can get scholarships into the elite academies, but only if they have exceptional skills. A very familiar sort of privilege rules society, except here it’s more related to one’s magical roots and branches than to race or ethnicity. The author provides a handy glossary (Codex) to explain all this.



So confusing. Oddly enough, one of the charms of MN Bennett’s book is that you have to paddle hard to keep up with this complicated and often violent world of magic in which Milo, Dorian, and Dorian’s first-year students all live. I was lost at first, but found myself becoming less and less puzzled as the story progressed and I began to understand what was going on. Sort of like Shakespeare.

Bennett has imagined a complex hierarchy of magic and how it all works, and he takes us every step of the way through the uses and abuses of this magic as Dorian tries to (1) teach his students, who are all hormone-soaked teenagers, and (2) keep tabs on his now-famous boyfriend, Enchanter Greenwood, one of the most powerful and successful defense witches in the Cerberus Guild.

Milo is like Superman, but he is also always trapped inside his own mind, calculating and foreseeing, attempting to keep every possible good outcome within his grasp. It is exhausting, both for our heroes and for us as readers.

A different sort of threat emerges in this book, one into which Dorian cannot help himself get drawn because of Milo’s deep involvement. There are parts of this story that read like a horror story, and the entire narrative is offered from Dorian’s point of view—except that his point of view is often from inside Milo’s brain. This is what happens when you are a hugely powerful clairvoyant and mind-reader. I’ll tell you, it did not make me want to have this as my superpower.

The finale is powerful and satisfying, but I warn you that the author throws in a final surprise that leads to a hugely annoying cliffhanger. Honestly, it sort of ruined the happy ending I thought we all deserved. But, of course, it made me anxious to read the next book in the series.

Consider yourself forewarned.