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A review by earth_to_mars
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Mister Magic ened up being my last book of 2024 and what a better way to end the year than an allegory for Mormon indoctrination and healing from religious trauma?
This is the first and only book (as of writing this) I've read in tandem with the audio book version (more on that in the audio book review).
We follow Val/Valentine, who has blocked all of her childhood memories, as she's reunited with the other kids (now adults) from the mysterious -- and seemingly not real -- children's program, Mister Magic. Doing reunion interviews of a show with no physical recording, Valentine slowly starts to uncover why exactly she's repressed all of her childhood, opening the door to answer the question: Who (or what) is Mister Magic?
First off, I loved the characters. Javi, Marcus, Jenny, Val and Isaac feel like real adults who all deal with seperate problems that comes with being an adult with trauma that hasn't been unpacked yet. To my pleansant surprise, all of them are queer. Val, Isaac and Javi are bisexual, Marcus is gay, and the there's scene that leads me to believe Jenny is a lesbian struggling with comphet. It was really nice that all of it was played so naturally, treated as normal between friends. Truly a breath of fresh air and one of my favorite things about the book.
The plot and it's build up is slow, but I feel that's the nature of being in the horror genre and I found myself constantly wanting to read more and more. To find out the mystery along side this circle of friends. The online posts was, in my opinion, a really nice addition as it feels realisitic that people would be trying to online sleuth their way into solving the question of a show that's seemingly disappeared from history, with a figure that was never really shown on screen.
I resonate deeply with the circle of friends, having grown up going to a church that (for lack of a better term) had a very backwards way of thinking. Any questions against the status quo of the Bible was met with disdain and passive aggressive answers. Anything to get a child to stop digging for answers the Bible got wrong/never had. I had to unlearn a lot of harmful things taught to me as a child. I continue to heal from the internalized hatred over my identity and shame around intimacy that was repeated over and over and over again. I, like Val, can barely remember my time there save for one or two events that stood out to me growing up.
This book is important to me in that way.
That being said, I wish the ending didn't take a supernatural turn. I understand why it did and it was foreshadowed from the beginning, but I felt that the allegory would stand stronger without it.
Overall, strong book. Definitely reminiscent of the 90s nostalgia of old kid's television with a mix of classic creepypastas (Candle Cove, 1999 aka Mr. Bear's Cellar, and Where the Bad Kids Go). Definitely would recommend for people starting to get into adult horror and like the 90s aesthetic/classic creepypasta.
This is the first and only book (as of writing this) I've read in tandem with the audio book version (more on that in the audio book review).
We follow Val/Valentine, who has blocked all of her childhood memories, as she's reunited with the other kids (now adults) from the mysterious -- and seemingly not real -- children's program, Mister Magic. Doing reunion interviews of a show with no physical recording, Valentine slowly starts to uncover why exactly she's repressed all of her childhood, opening the door to answer the question: Who (or what) is Mister Magic?
First off, I loved the characters. Javi, Marcus, Jenny, Val and Isaac feel like real adults who all deal with seperate problems that comes with being an adult with trauma that hasn't been unpacked yet. To my pleansant surprise, all of them are queer. Val, Isaac and Javi are bisexual, Marcus is gay, and the there's scene that leads me to believe Jenny is a lesbian struggling with comphet. It was really nice that all of it was played so naturally, treated as normal between friends. Truly a breath of fresh air and one of my favorite things about the book.
The plot and it's build up is slow, but I feel that's the nature of being in the horror genre and I found myself constantly wanting to read more and more. To find out the mystery along side this circle of friends. The online posts was, in my opinion, a really nice addition as it feels realisitic that people would be trying to online sleuth their way into solving the question of a show that's seemingly disappeared from history, with a figure that was never really shown on screen.
I resonate deeply with the circle of friends, having grown up going to a church that (for lack of a better term) had a very backwards way of thinking. Any questions against the status quo of the Bible was met with disdain and passive aggressive answers. Anything to get a child to stop digging for answers the Bible got wrong/never had. I had to unlearn a lot of harmful things taught to me as a child. I continue to heal from the internalized hatred over my identity and shame around intimacy that was repeated over and over and over again. I, like Val, can barely remember my time there save for one or two events that stood out to me growing up.
This book is important to me in that way.
That being said, I wish the ending didn't take a supernatural turn. I understand why it did and it was foreshadowed from the beginning, but I felt that the allegory would stand stronger without it.
Overall, strong book. Definitely reminiscent of the 90s nostalgia of old kid's television with a mix of classic creepypastas (Candle Cove, 1999 aka Mr. Bear's Cellar, and Where the Bad Kids Go). Definitely would recommend for people starting to get into adult horror and like the 90s aesthetic/classic creepypasta.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Biphobia, Child death, Homophobia, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury
Religious Cult Themes