Mister Magic by Kiersten White

Review

It’s been a month and I still have so many complicated feelings about this book. To start off, I went in expecting to be of a similar style to Hide, which is one of my favorite books I’ve read in the last few months. This book is not a fast-paced horror thriller like that one was. It’s much slower-paced, and I would argue that it’s not really a psychological thriller or psychological horror either. So many reviews talk about how terrifying this book was, how it kept them up at night, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, and I don’t think I could’ve put this book’s purpose into words without the context of White’s dedication and author’s note. So much of this book and it’s purpose was pervading my mind, but just out of reach. Reading those sections added the missing puzzle piece to my understanding, but still so much of this book feels just as mysterious and out of reach as the power of Mister Magic.

While a majority of this book is framed around the mystery, who and what was Mister Magic, what has Val forgotten, why did she leave and how did everything fall apart, I felt the book was more about all of the insidious ways you can see Mister Magic and his beliefs worming into their lives: the catchy little kid songs that advocate some disturbing morals or how they still respond to Mister Magic’s touch as adults. Issac always tilts his face away, Marcus feels for a hand on his shoulder, Javi tilts his chin up, and Val is always scratching at her left hand. None of them realize it, but they still respond to his actions after all these years away from the show. There’s also some really interesting ideas surrounding doors and deals. Open doors are a way of reaching out for help, but you never know what you’re inviting in from the other side. Deals are also treated as an unbreakable promise that must be seen through to the end, regardless of what happens. While these ideas take on a more sinister meaning in the novel, they seem separate from all of the pervasive moral teachings that Mister Magic and the small-town Bliss perpetuates. The interviews are heart-wrenching, watching them all grasp at an idealized childhood that was more of a prison, locking away their identities and individualities until they became the “ideal child.” This is, after all, about families and communities who mold their children into perfect dolls, rather than people.

The explanation behind the show was disappointing in its execution. What the show and its host were are not the questions this book is truly concerned with, that would be more the damaging effects and reality of their childhood. However, given so much of the story is framed as a mystery, having it all info-dumped on us by Jenny was a very jarring experience. The pacing of the reveal is further exacerbated since the mystery is the main driving force for the plot and the audience. The ending sequences were also very hard to grasp because the show and its magic rely so heavily on imagination. Not on the reader’s imagination, but on the idea and conception of imagination itself. As such the ending and the stakes feel incredibly vague and distant. This book walks a fine line when it comes to being out of touch with reality. The abstract nature and distance throughout the book make it very hard to grasp the entire meaning of the book, which is why the author’s note was so helpful, but it shouldn’t have been necessary.

There are a few other things that I did really enjoy while reading this book that didn’t make it into my analysis. The titles and make-up of the chapters were a great touch. I started keeping track of the chapter pattern and realized about a third of the way through that some of the titles make up an old nursery rhyme, which fits in really well with the MIster Magic songs. I also thought White did a fantastic job with the mixed media sections. Some of these include podcast descriptions, Youtube comment sections, internet threads, emails, wikipedia pages, blogs, fanfiction, and transcripts. Often when an author tries to re-create internet interactions within the book, it comes off like someone’s parent who’s trying to “be hip with the kids.” You can tell they’re trying to mimic younger generations who grew up with the internet, but they lack understanding of how those interactions look or the language they use. White’s writing, however, felt authentic to the kind of activity and discourse I would find if Mister Magic truly existed. The other part I really enjoyed doesn’t have anything to do with this novel, but is more of an easter egg for fans. Since I loved Hide so much, I was thrilled to find all of the details connecting that world with Mister Magic! Some of it was throw-away lines about last names that could connect to the families in Asterion, or similarities between that Town and Bliss. However, there is also a cameo from Hide characters! This last bit of the review is just a small rant about the end of Hide and how White addresses it in this book.