Unfortunately I had to DNF this. I kept finding myself not paying attention for the majority of this and finally gave up on it around the half way point. I enjoy more fast paced stories.

While I felt like the ending left something to be desired, the "set design" of the novel is very interesting. Lots of creepy liminal spaces that really made me get invested in what the characters were going through. I also liked it a bit more than Kiersten White's other horror novel, "Hide," which felt a lot more YA than "Mister Magic." Prime analog horror fiction, well worth the read!

This read was a solid three stars for me. The first half of the book grabbed my attention, pulled me and and took me down the strangest rabbit hole in the best ways possible. I loved it! However, the second half felt as if it went is different directions that didn't entirely tie in together. I found my thoughts to be drifting off towards the end and had to push through to finish it. Overall, the creepiness was great, the plot was wonderful, and the writing was excellent. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC opportunity.

I just finished reading Mister Magic by Kiersten White, and I'm so excited to share my thoughts with you!

This book is a wild ride from start to finish. It's a dark supernatural thriller that follows the surviving cast members of a beloved children's TV show called Mister Magic, which ended in tragedy thirty years ago. The story picks up when these former cast members reunite at the remote desert filming compound, and things get seriously eerie from there1.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the way Kiersten White builds tension and suspense. There's this one scene where the characters are doing a podcast interview in the old filming house, and things start to get really creepy. The entity posing as the podcast host starts asking them questions that seem to know more than it should, and the atmosphere is so thick with unease, you can almost feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

The mix of nostalgia and horror is so unique, and it's perfect for anyone who loves a good mind-bending thriller. If you're into stories that blend the supernatural with a touch of childhood memories, Mister Magic is a must-read.

So, grab your copy and get ready for a spooky, thrilling adventure! 🎃📖

I was lured into this book by the colorful cover, the unique setting, and the horrors of what happened on The Magic Man set thirty years ago. It sounded like a scary read, but it was the most boring book I’ve ever read and should’ve DNF’ed it from the beginning like I originally wanted to.

The characters felt immature, the storyline dragged, and the twist wasn’t surprising. I tried reading her book Hide years ago, but ended up DNF’ing it for mostly the same reasons.

Overall, I was really intrigued to see how this ended....and then the ending went right over my head. If it wasn't for the author's note at the end explaining the why behind this book I would have been totally clueless. After reading it I can understand why she wrote the book the way she did but it definitely was not my favorite out of the author's books.

🎧 MISTER MAGIC by Kiersten White
Genre: thriller
3.5 stars

💭: this was slightly underwhelming for me but felt like it had a lot of potential. I feel like I’ve read a lot of these childhood-star-revisits-traumatic-past tropes and this didn’t do a whole lot differently??

Full review and links to social will be posted as soon as possible.

I'd like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thoughts: Heavy on magical realism, but an interesting metaphor for faith and moral code. I struggled a bit with the amount of magical realism because the author got rather "wordy" at times, losing me in some of the redundancy and magic. And I almost wish I had read the acknowledgements first because, while the book mentions Brigham Young and Utah in general, the connection to Mormonism might not necessarily be apparent to readers unfamiliar with the religion unless they read White's background beforehand. Once I read the acknowledgements, though, I had a new appreciation for this book and what it must have taken for her to write it. On its own, it is an interesting story about the magic of childhood, but I definitely thought Mister Magic himself was going to be a more nefarious character. I'm also a big horror fan, though, so my imagination may have gotten away from me, and I had also just watched Mr. Crockett on Hulu, so I was comparing apples to oranges here. Still a good story with a creepy plot that shines a spotlight on who makes the moral code children are taught to follow, and what it means to be "good" or "bad".

**Thank you, Netgalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

I will not be giving feedback on this title at this time. Unfortunately, I did not finish this book because it was not my taste.

Mister Magic has an inventive premise but the monotonous pacing and fumbled reveals make this much more miss than hit. White’s novel follows the characters of a popular but mysterious children’s show decades after it goes off the air. Unfortunately, the characters are flat and the lingering trauma is blunt and lacks nuance. The show itself is the strongest element of the novel, but if we had to endure one more description of what people thought they remembered, I would have gone crazy. This could have worked if it was tightly paced novella. I do not recommend this book at all.

After thoroughly enjoying this author's other horror books I was so excited to dive into this one. Even though I have a child, children's shows tend to freak me out, so I went into this with high expectations expecting to be scared. And boy was I wrong. I did enjoy the very beginning and honestly thought this could be a 4 or 5 stars. But I very, very quickly lost interest in the story, despite it only taking me a couple of hours to read. I understand the underlying meaning to it all with the kids being brainwashed and all of their messed up lives but I wanted more scary, not fantastical.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for the gifted copy for my honest review.

A children's show that inspires a cult like following, a pending podcast promising a potential revival, the mysterious disappearance of one, or maybe two, of the show's child actors....
An away you go into the peculiar world that is Mister Magic.

Val has no memory of her childhood before she and her father wound up living on Gloria's ranch. Hiding from .. what? She never asked and now that her father has passed, she can't. But her childhood friends and co-stars of the Mister Magic show happen to find her at her father's funeral and whisk her away to the very start of it all and now Val can get the answers to questions she never knew she should be asking.

Part mystery, part supernatural... Mister Magic intrigued me... exactly where was this story taking me?
Overall, very interesting premise, but it was hard to connect with all the characters individually. They kept making silly mistakes that one would have expected more from a YA cast, but maybe they were stuck in their traumatized youth. Their overall foolishness was saved by the fascinating mystery of Mister Magic that I enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC, all opinions are my own. Onto the review.

I cried at the end of this book. Closed my e-reader and literally sobbed.

Mister Magic is about a woman who’s father died recently and the lies and darkness that lurks in a past she can’t remember. But it comes back to her in the form of a few other people she apparently did a television show with as a child back in the 90’s.

This book deals with abuse, how people foist responsibilities on those who shouldn’t be responsible so they can be comfortable. How they’re willing to destroy innocence for control over others.

And even I picked up on the Mormonism in this one.

I don’t think I can adequately say how amazing this book was. Writing, character, everything was amazing. It was haunting, scary, angering, just amazing. I loved it.

And the ending of this book, it grabbed me right by the heart and wouldn’t let go. It had a message that I needed to hear. If you’ve been a victim of abuse, whether religious or physical, it will speak to you. And I needed it.

Please buy this book. 5 stars. All the stars

This. Book. Was. Insane! And I mean that in the absolute best way, because I literally did not want to stop reading. Perfect for spooky season!

I was given an arc of this last year and i had so much going on i didnt get to it. So now im going through my back list ARCs of this and last year. I went into this thinking i wasnt gonna like it because i didnt like the authors book hide. But i was actually surprised i enjoyed it. I like the supernatural aspect of this novel. I didnt really care fot any of the characters. But it had me wanting to know what's next

You must read Kiersten White’s author’s note to fully appreciate "Mister Magic."

Because the book isn’t really about the reunion of a group of child stars from a beloved TV program who are determined to uncover the secrets behind the tragedy that ended the show. I mean – it is, but it isn’t. That’s happening on the surface – yes – but running beneath it is a more personal story to White, one based on her own trauma.

I’ll leave it at that and say no more, because I do think it’s more impactful for the reader to finish the book and then be surprised by White’s note afterward. It puts a different spin on the story, allowing it to hit in another way.

Though be prepared for a slow burn read. The novel is classified as horror, which it is, but it’s more psychological horror than anything else, often veering into the realm of the surreal and the abstract. White takes her time to build the story and, as it progresses, does an excellent job of creating a simultaneous sense of bewilderment and dread in the reader.

I really liked "Mister Magic." Looking back, I’ll admit White is at times too loud with some of her messaging. But for the most part, she makes her points with a subtlety I found to be effective.


My sincerest appreciation to Kiersten White, Del Rey, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

My feelings on this book were kind of a rollercoaster.

I went from absolutely in love- the beginning hooked me, I was wildly interested in Val's missing memories and the the mystery of this show that's all but disappeared, and these strange men that popped up and yet somehow felt very familiar to Val.

Then I started losing steam around 45% nothing was really happening- yes the characters were all acting strange and the podcast interviews were creepy, but we were learning absolutely NOTHING. I was frustrated that no one would tell Val *ANYTHING* it was absolutely absurd. Next thing I know I'm picking up culty vibes and to be quite honest after reading her book, "Hide" I just felt like oh, here we go again.

I stuck with it and the pace started picking up and it piqued my interest again in the last third- but I was really annoyed and disappointed with the direction the story had gone. The pacing, the direction of the story, the decisions of the protagonist and all those around her were absolutely ABSURD half of the time. I just can't fathom how some of these things happened- like posting the fathers obituary/funeral details online?! come on.

It wasn't until I got to the acknowledgments and learned that I was correct in my assumption, Kiersten White was Mormon, and yes she did leave the religion and this work of fiction was a way of processing some of those feelings, that my brain filtered through the whole book with a new lens and I realized that, as a metaphor this book was actually really kind of beautiful.

Things I really enjoyed:
The cuts to the Internet forums/blogs
The imagination of the Mister Magic world
The farm
The ending

Things I didn't:
The pacing was off
The absolute refusal of literally everyone to tell Val anything at all- Which if she'd had ANY DETAILS AT ALL would have helped literally everyone?!
Val's instant feelings for a man that she honestly didn't know.
All of the characters repeatedly making the most bizarre choices. No adult would act this way.

I was so taken in by this quick paced horror thrill ride. I couldn't believe how transfixed I was by this dark and twisty book. It immediately draws you in and the author never quite let's you go. The book was an uncomfortable examination of how our childhood shows shape our values and morals that are ingrained on us in our youth. The author's own personal history with her religion and how it shaped her own childhood and impacted her adulthood influenced the themes of the book.

Mister Magic had such a compelling premise. It was very readable and held my attention through out. I did find that the ending was a little underdeveloped, but I still enjoyed it. I thought the religion/cult metaphor was really well done as well.