Source: DRC via NetGalley (Random House Publishing Group – Ballentine, Del Rey) in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: August 8, 2023
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase Link: Amazon

Other books by this author:
The Conqueror’s Saga (YA)
And I Darken
Now I Rise
Bright We Burn
YA Horror
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
Wretched Waterpark (Sinister Summer #1)
YA Fantasy
The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1)
Adult Horror
Hide

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**THERE ARE MINOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW** I tried to get around them but they are integral to understanding this book.

Why did I choose to read this book?

I was very excited for Kiersten’s adult debut Hide, and when that didn’t quite land in my heart I wrote it off as a first try and readied myself for her next book. When Mister Magic was announced, I was ready for some real adult horror

What is this book about?

I thought the book was going to be about a tv show that haunts/eats children and hypnotizes people who watch into loving and demanding that the show continues. This book is actually about how we force children into the box that we believe they should fit in instead of treating them like individual people and allowing them to grow into their true selves. Be quiet, be modest, speak when you’re spoken to, be clean, etc. – you know the childhood rhymes.

What is notable about this story?

This is a parable about the dangers of cults that masquerade as religions, specifically the Mormon church and its off-shoots. The idea that adults choose a path and then any kids they have are also trapped in that system without consent or knowledge, and that indoctrination creates a cycle that is very difficult to break. Something that people may not think about as much is that even when this system is harmful, after breaking free people feel the loss of the system as a kind of withdrawal and should have support to adjust. The TV show Mister Magic is the manifestation of how these ideals have seeped into society via our communication and entertainment, and the book serves as a warning about how we prevent children from being children simply to adhere to a golden set of rules.

Kiersten speaks about this in her acknowledgements, that she used to be Mormon but she isn’t anymore. it takes a lot to admit and speak publicly about this kind of departure (see also: Scientology), so it is admirable that she chose to fictionalize the conditions she probably had to endure, and then speak about them factually.

Was anything not so great?

Story-wise the only thing I would say is the same thing I said about her adult debut Hide: the characters don’t mean anything to me. When you’re pushing a message through so fast and basing it on characters who have a past that we never see or experience, the character development and reader investment is going to lag behind. The past that this group of characters experienced is revealed in flashbacks towards the end of the book, far past where we could have developed connections that would have in turn created tension in the plot. If I don’t care about the characters, then I’m not going to be invested in what is happening to them. You can’t just throw 6 people in a weird location and call it horror. You have to make me like them first so when the horror starts, I’m scared FOR them because I want them to be okay! And this book does not do that very well. I do not understand how the same person that wrote The Conqueror’s Saga, a trilogy that has 3 of the most compelling characters I have ever read about, could have written these two adult books. It’s like it’s a completely different person.

I have to be honest and say that this was another swing and a miss for me. I wasn’t scared at any point. It had the skeleton of horror but it was never fleshed out. I can’t think if a nicer way to say this, so I’m sorry, but it felt like this was a therapy assignment that White completed to process her feelings about escaping that life and the Mister Magic show was her way of saying she would be changing the message and offering a new path to other people in her same situation. THIS IS TOTALLY FINE AND I LOVE IT…

BUT

I return to the same exact issue I had with her novel Hide. I did not get what I was promised. This was a beautiful story and if it had been marketed as a thriller/mystery type story I would have been just as hyped and devoured it for what it was. Stop selling her adult books like they are Stephen King or Alma Katsu and sell them based on what they are. This is not horror. I bought it because you told me it was horror. I’m not mad at the story, I’m mad at the marketing team and the publisher for setting my expectations up for one thing and then handing me something else. This isn’t Kiersten’s fault. She wrote a good book!

What’s the verdict?

Three stars on Goodreads. This is a solid story with a good message. It was fine. Get it at your local library.