Mister Magic by Kiersten White

Mister Magic by Kiersten White

My Rating: ★

I received a copy from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine - Del Rey through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been 30 years since the fun and creative kid’s show, Mister Magic, ended. Not a single episode has survived, and no one knows who ran the show, but everyone remembers the final cast known as the Circle of Friends. Now that the cast is reuniting for a special podcast, long-time fans are excited. Everyone but the Circle of Friends, a group of jaded adults who have been living with the horrors that their time on the show has left them with. Who exactly was Mister Magic, and why are they terrified of saying his name?

We follow Val, a woman with no memory about her life before she started living with her dad on Gloria’s property. She’s extremely sheltered and has spent her life living by her dad’s obscure rules meant to keep her safe. The only problem is that Val is convinced that he’s really keeping the world safe from her, but she can’t remember why. It’s just a feeling she has. After her dad dies, it turns out that her dad hid a lot from her and she’s now furious because they could’ve been living an entirely different life.

Of course, this meant that Val tries to avoid a Mister Magic reunion while also trying to get as much information about her past as she can. We get to meet the rest of the surviving cast members, only we never truly get to know any of them. Their roles in life are the same as their basic purpose on the show. Every time we get a glimpse of who they are beneath the surface, Val jumps back because they are suspicious in some way. However, she knows they were all close friends and that she can trust them. It’s just a feeling.

Honestly, I wasn’t feeling this book. There’s a lack of depth and character growth for the characters, which hinders the story as we get deeper into the story. It was also presented as a mystery, horror, and thriller novel. The mystery was there for sure, but I personally wouldn’t call this a horror or thriller. If anything, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop only for it to never happen. Sure, there were some light horror elements, but not enough to make the story fall under horror for me. Plus, there was a weird almost romance that was just beyond out of place and lacked chemistry of any kind. It was strange and felt predatory, though I’m still on the fence about whether or not this relationship was meant to be taken that way.

It also seemed like there was a huge piece of missing information all book long. I kept feeling like I was missing something while knowing that whatever that may be wasn’t actually shared at any point in time. When I got to the author’s note at the end of the book, I finally knew what that piece of missing information was. It turns out that this was a fictional representation of the author’s childhood religious trauma and lifelong healing journey. The book makes so much more sense once one knows this, which is why I wish there was an introduction that talked about this.

I wish I liked this book more; I really do. However, it was just confusing at times, lacked character depth, and even what little character growth that occurred was framed very strangely. I’m still not entirely sure what this book was trying to be, but it’s ultimately a fantasy mystery that was very disjointed at times. If you plan on reading this book, I highly recommend reading the author’s note at the end before starting so that you don’t also feel like a big chunk of information that’s integral to the story accidentally got left out as you read.