Mister Magic is a great second adult novel by Kiersten White. It is in a similar vein to her adult debut, Hide, but ratchets up the character development, the mystery, and the payoff. It’s a fast read, with depth. I appreciated her acknowledgments, as it helped to solidify her underlying themes. It’s a horror book about deconstructing what you were taught to believe as a child. White takes readers through questioning their childhood memories through adult lenses and revisiting what draws them back to the safety of their younger beliefs and ideas. Did you really like who you were as a child, or was that just what you were taught to believe?

The story revolves around a mysterious childhood show that people remember but can find no record of. The Reddit boards fill the pages with speculation, there’s word of a reboot, and the former childhood cast is brought together as adults. Questions swirl around what shut down the show so many years ago, and the main character questions why she can’t remember any of her childhood.

I enjoyed all aspects of it, especially the Mandela effect of it. I will be reading more of White’s work. It’s fast, it’s creepy, and it goes to interesting places.

This book had me hooked from the first chapter and I was absolutely entrantsed with it until the very end. I couldn't put it down! I read this one rainy day and it completely wept me away and into this story. So good!
I just reviewed Mister Magic by Kiersten White. #MisterMagic #NetGalley
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I totally judged a book by its cover on this one, because CMON!! 😍 but I’ve also been a fan of this author since reading and enjoying Hide last summer. It took less than two chapters into reading this one to know I was in for another wild story!

I loved how this book was formatted, with the inclusion of tweets, Reddit threads, and Wikipedia articles amidst your typical chapters, and I really felt like Mister Magic was a legitimate TV show. I loathed how naive and trusting Val was, especially given how little she remembered about her past and history with her other cast members.

This story was equal parts sinister as it was nostalgic vibes, and I really enjoyed every part of it! The characters / setting were exceptionally well written and I truly felt like I was watching a movie the entire time I spent reading this one.

This book was so creative and innovative. I liked the way it used fictional social media blogs and comments to explain the theories out there about Mister Magic. Curiosity became an uneasy thirst to know more, which then turned into awe inspired by the beautiful life lesson at the end of the book. Mister Magic is symbolic for any deity, and the message we get from the book is that rules (and the breaking of them) do not define us or our futures. We are individuals with our own identity and need not be defined (or confined) by societal expectations and norms. It so articulately shed light on how we all miss our childhoods, but really, we are all still children in adult bodies, and our lives are only "boring" if we allow our minds to categorize them that way.

Such a great read. Thank you for the ARC! #mistermagic #netgalley

I'm not a huge fan of unreliable narrators and this book depends on them. What I can say about it is that it certainly keeps you guessing. I was never really sure I had a handle on what was going on. It is definitely not what I expected for a supernatural thriller and I can respect that. Thank you so much for allowing me to review it prerelease.

Another book I loved from Kiersten White! Had everything I like in a book, creepy, atmospheric, thought provoking & can't put down. Fast paced but at the same time so much to take in & wonder why her dad kept her hidden, why she has no memory, why her dad lied about her mom. Also has some nostalgia back to being a kid. It all blended in so well.

Mister Magic is a supernatural thriller that presents horror in a different format - this book feels very abstract and conceptual.

It follows a group of former child stars that try to navigate and discover the tragic events that led to their show being canceled. I've heard many compare this book and its use of the Mandela Effect to movies like IT or the Berenstein Bears books.

This book was a thrilling and fun read and I enjoyed it! While it is not my favorite book ever, I enjoyed it more than her previous book.

I was thrilled to receive this advanced copy of Mister Magic, Kiersten White's follow up to her previous thriller HIDE. The cover and synopsis of Mister Magic grabbed me immediately and I thought it was a very cool concept and idea for the book. While I found the story to be engaging, it was not as thrilling as I had hoped and ultimately culminates in a classic "we have to go back" moment. There are some moments and ideas here that are scary or will make your skin crawl, and Mister Magic is overall a very well written novel, but it lacked the degree thrills, chills and mystery that I had hoped for. I will admit my expectations were high, so I still think this is a 4 star read, but I was hoping for another 5 stars! Nevertheless, I have enjoyed Kiersten White's work so far and can't wait to read what she puts out next.

I wish I understood what was actually happening in this book. I had no clue until the very end. And then I'm not even sure. The synopses of White's books are always so great, but then there is something missing from them and the plot that just doesn't do it for me and I don't end up loving it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Del Ray Publishing and the author for the advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The beautiful cover and premise are what drew me into this book. Our story revolves around a mysterious children’s show called Mister Magic, which promptly ended 3 decades ago after a tragic accident on set. The actors on the show have little to no recollection of the events leading up to this tragedy. Social media has been wiped completely clean, there are no police or medical records that acknowledge an accident and fans of the show start to wonder if they are hallucinating its very existence. The five final “friends” from the last season of the show are brought together in a remote desert location for a reunion podcast interview. Rumors are swirling that the show may be rebooted. Our MC, Val, uses this opportunity to try and get answers that will cure her from her insufferable amnesia. Who was Mister Magic and why can no one seem to identify him?

Let’s start with the pros. I loved the interspersed mixed media articles from blogs, emails or Reddit posts. I also loved the creepy, barren desert atmosphere. The commentary on purity culture and the belief that “obedience is love” was thought-provoking.

However, the pacing moved painfully slow. The plot dragged on and on as the carrot of reclaimed memories was dangled in front of us, daring us to keep reading. I wanted to give up many times but kept pushing on. The pacing did pick up about 75% into the book but by that point, I felt rather detached from the characters. I understand this book was written as an allegory for religious trauma and I applaud the author for having the courage to put that out there. And I also understand that trauma can cause people to become bland, blank shadows of their former selves. Perhaps that was the author’s intention; however, it did not allow me to bond with or care about the characters and their fates. I also did not really feel this belonged to the horror genre. There was maybe one scene that felt “horror”; the rest seemed more speculative fiction/mystery. The ending was very abstract and convoluted and it just lost me.

Although my individual reading experience was unsatisfying, I do believe there is value in the message.

2.5/5 stars

I read the eARC Mister Magic by Kiesten White. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

This is a book about adults that grew up playing and learning lessons on a TV show. This is about how adults try to reconcile their memories of growing up under a cult and their rosy vision of learning rules that seemed clear cut, and the reality of what happened to them because of it. Well, it’s not explicitly about the, but that's what I understood the metaphor to be from the beginning. What it’s literally about is these adults coming together to talk about their time in a TV show that abruptly ended. One that is like the creepypasta “Candle Cove” where adults remember watching the program, but there’s no information about it online besides speculation.

It starts with the death of Val’s father and the sudden reintroduction of these people she doesn’t remember. She has guilt about her time before, but it’s nebulous since her memories are gone. All she knows is she feels like she did something wrong. Because she remembers her father treating her with a lot of distance even as he warned her never to go anywhere, not even watch TV.

They say they know where her mother is, and so she goes with them, not to do the podcast, talking about her time with the TV show Mister Magic, because she doesn’t remember that. Instead, they take her to stay with them, with the one running things, Jenny, and a chance to meet her mother, who she thought was dead.

Soon things start happening. Turns out Val had a sister, Kitty, who died in the last episode. The one Val wasn’t on because her father had run away with her. It also turns out that Jenny, and maybe the whole town where the show was broadcast, blame Val for the show being canceled, and their lessons not reaching others. She meets her mother, she finds more questions as she looks for questions. And in all of it, she has the question. Was this show really as great as Jenny and the others remember? Or was it teaching “lessons” that only diminished them as people.

I loved the overall message of the story. I did think that it stretched things out a little too long. I was like “I know the conceit of the story, and I get having buildup, but this is just missing something to keep me really invested”. I knew there was a reason we weren’t seeing the character's parents (besides Val's mother and a few cameos later in the book) or their children. But I definitely felt their lack in the story to really bridge the gap between the generations.

I think one of the really interesting, is that the children from the show, all have children except for Val, and how they view their children, and how they think the show would have helped their children learn lessons that they were never able to, and be happier than there are now. This seems to contrast against the older generation that raised them who just wanted children to ‘behave’. Even going as far as to “dim” certain children so they didn’t “outshine” others.

As I said, I loved the overall messaging in the story, it’s just in the middle where it’s trying to keep the “mystery” going where I thought it was at it’s weakest. Still, that ending and the emotions it’s evokes definitely makes it worth a read!

The story focuses around a group of adults who as children were all on a very popular TV show. However, there is no record of this show ever existing - no video, no scripts, nothing on the internet. There's just talk on message boards and memories. Everyone can agree that the show Mister Magic existed, and then it was just gone. A whole generation grew up with this eccentric show as the center of their childhood until it mysteriously vanished from the airwaves. Any attempts to dig into the mystery of what happened are quickly removed from the internet like they never existed.
Many years later, the last six children appearing on Mister Magic are returning to make a podcast on their experiences. Val, the leader of the group as a kid (and our main character), remembers nothing about her childhood. As she reconnects with her decades-old friends, it is quite obvious that they are hiding something. As old childhood memories and horrors are dug up, the six adults quickly realize the podcast is a cover for something much more sinister.
I LOVED THIS BOOK! #NETGALLEY #MISTERMAGIC

Have you ever felt like your favorite childhood TV show was a fever dream?
Well, it might have been...
This book follows Val and four friends that after thirty years of a tragic accident they get together to talk about the show that no one seems to remember. Who is Mister Magic? Why can't anyone remember what happen the night Val disappear? No one seems to know what really happened that night and with no evidence of the show ever existing is even harder for the surviving cast members to know what really happened.

As a 90's baby this book made me feel like I lived through this whole story It really does feel like a fever dream as I was reading it. The way this book is written is pure perfection. I devour every page like my life depended on it. The plot twist was absolutely insane, I was not expecting any of that to happen I can not recommend this book enough! It's definitely in my top 5 favorites of the year!!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

4.5/5

This has been one of the strangest stories I’ve read in a while. It was so abstract and so creepy, like I couldn’t quite grasp the wrongness that was lurking within the words. It’s so hard to put into words how unnerved I felt reading it and yet I didn’t want to put the book down!

It really kept me guessing as to what was happening, how real were the horrors the characters faced? How much of it was a lie? How much did they lie to themselves? I did have a good idea before the end, and yet it still managed to surprise me. It was very well done, and it makes perfect sense when you read the final notes from the author at the end. It truly is a horror in many ways.

My only complaint was the too neatly tied up ending. I feel like there was a lot of room to show that not everything ends happily, even when you try really hard. But maybe it’s better this way.

Overall, I really enjoyed the weirdness and even though not everything was answered and there were strange choices along the way it was a great book!

Wow! What a creepy, wild ride this book is. The slow unfolding of the truth of who Mister Magic is is a thrilling experience.

Mister Magic, a 90's children's show where something goes tragically wrong. With a large online cult following, a reunion podcast with the final cast members is scheduled after 30 years of being off the air. The big questions; why is there no footage of the longest running children's show? Why did Val's dad hide her away on a ranch, and why can't she remember her time being on the show? All of these components are what make up the gripping horror/thriller Mister Magic by Kiersten White.
From the first chapter I felt just like the children who originally watched the show; drawn in and didn't want it to end. The descriptions were so well written that it was easy to picture the settings. Throughout the first half of the book I got creepy poltergeist vibes. The addition of the online discussions of the show added a nice comedic break. And, in the end, I was left feeling heartbroken and a bit sad. There are not many books out there that can take you from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, but this one did.
The underlying religious theme was not distracting, and actually think that it added to the storyline. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good horror/thriller to read. 4 out of 5 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

5 former cast mates are reunited by a twist of fate 30 years after an accident shut down production of the famous children's television show Mister Magic. With no video or evidence of the show ever existing memories are all the circle of friends have to piece together what happened so long ago.

This one was so bizarre and felt like a total fever dream. What I thought this book was and the direction it ended up going were so different. I am actually glad I didn't know too much I think the best way to go into this one is with little information and an open mind. It was creepy in all the right ways and I devoured it. I personally loved the call backs to all the shows us millennials grew up watching and getting my own dose of nostalgia alongside the characters. It was absolutely giving me Stranger Things, Black Mirror and Creepypasta vibes so if you're a fan this might just be the perfect read for you!


I definitely look forward to reading more from Kiersten White

Thank you NetGalley and Kiersten White for the Arc. I am voluntarily leaving this review.

Wow! This book packs a punch. Particularly if you have any type of fundy upbringing. I couldn't figure out why I identified so much with Val until I completed and sat with the story for a bit. The Imagery was spot on, and I found myself rereading passages to figure out just how Kiersten was able to craft such detailed pictures in my brain. If anyone options for the movie rights, I've already seen it in my head (wink).

While this book deals with death, it also deals with the fungible nature of existence as a whole. I easily related to the main characters, and I flew through this book in one day. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a well crafted story that deals with childhood horror, coming of age, revisiting monsters, and one heck of a satisfying ending.

The premise of MISTER MAGIC sounded very intriguing and while I mostly enjoyed the read, I felt as if the author pulled her punches and refrained from making this an actual horror novel. It's more ominous and eerie, mysterious, not scary.

The main character Val is 38 yo, living on a ranch she's never left, and can’t remember anything from her childhood but knows she's in hiding. She's approached at her father's funeral by three men who claim that they were all once actors on a children’s TV show called Mister Magic and that they are reuniting for a reunion podcast taping in rural Utah. She ends up accompanying them on this journey in hopes of reclaiming the memories she's lost. But for most of the novel, Val remains in the dark about what happened 30 years ago or even what's happening now, and frustratingly (at least for this reader), every instance where Val directly asks logical questions to her fellow former castmembers... no one ever bothers to answer her! I understand for the purposes of the story why the author wouldn't want to reveal too much information too early, but it's almost comical how the other characters seek to avoid explaining anything that's happening to Val – repeatedly claiming that they just don't want to influence what Val remembers for the sake of this podcast reunion recording... Umm, okay, but also a very convenient plot device.

Ultimately, I was intrigued enough about the mysterious show and town and "studio building" to keep reading, and enjoyed the suspense and tension and unease of whether Val and her castmembers would survive Mister Magic 2.0. But as crass as this sounds, I expected a higher body count and felt vaguely disappointed by how positive the novel ended up being. I think to this point, the author's postscript was very illuminating – about her reckoning with a Mormon upbringing and the "proper way to raise children" – but I almost wish that information had worked its way into the plot more transparently or the author had written a preface.

I read White's divisive novel HIDE last year and enjoyed myself. This year's MISTER MAGIC was a step above HIDE for me, in terms of execution. This novel felt like it had a more clear idea of what it wanted to be and it felt more personal. MISTER MAGIC kept me guessing at what was going to happen next; I really didn't know where it was heading.