This is honestly my new favorite book by Kiersten. I'm utterly obsessed with this. It almost gives me Smile Time vibes from the tv show Angel (Buffy spinoff) just without the puppets. I could not put this book down and I binged it in 1 day.

This book really shows the power of friendships and love and sacrifices we make for them. The character growth was beautifully written and it was interesting to see how each person transformed by the end of the book

The whole ideal of Mr Magic and the way Kiersten executed him and what he really was, I felt was done in a fresh way and I didn't really see the full plot developing until it was in front of me.

If you want a fun book with unique magic, friendships, and slight horror esq vibes then this book is for you.

I loved Hide, so when I saw I was approved for this book, I was extremely happy. Just like Hide, Mister Magic did not disappoint. I loved that this book was a supernatural thriller. I couldn’t put this book down and almost read it in one day. I loved how Kiersten keeps the reader guessing till the very end and you have no clue what’s about to happen, I don’t want to give anything away. So, Kiersten White is an insta-buy author for me. Her writing keeps getting better and better. I’m excited to read more of her terrifying and fun books. Thank you Kiersten White, NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Del Rey for this awesome arc!

Does anybody remember the show “Zoom” from the 90’s? That’s what Mister Magic reminded me of (obviously not as sinister).
Wow I really enjoyed this book!! I thought this was such a fresh take on a thriller. I loved the ever present feeling of something being so off. This one was a little on the confusing side at times & I had to re-read some bits to make sure I got what was happening. I also loved the different format at the end of the chapters & how the chapters were all titled as one big rhyme. It definitely gave the book a little extra something. Overall really well done!

I received a free copy of Mister Magic from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

Man, what a ride. This book is perfect for any child of the 80s-90s with allusions to Out of the Box type shows and poltergeist, it thrills and leaves you reeling.

Mister Magic is one of those rare books where you find yourself thinking, damn I wish I wrote that. It is beautiful and haunting and unputdownable. Highly recommend but just not before bed.

I seriously could not put this book down! I read it all in one sitting. It’s captivating, spooky, and has such a powerful story. Mister Magic is a show that everyone seems to remember but there’s no evidence that it ever existed. It’s like the Mandala Effect on steroids. There’s a mystery that keeps the reader wanting more and more. I simply was hooked from the first few lines.
One of the core themes of the book is how society strives to make children conform instead of letting them grow up to be who they want to be. The message in this thriller/horror book made it so much more than your average book. This made me love it even more. There’s even cult vibes.
I’m not sure if It was just the formatting of the online ARC but it was hard to read portions of the “online text” because it would get jumbled or be cut between two pages. I liked some of those inserts but some felt unnecessary. That’s my only critique of the book. Otherwise, it’s one of my top reads of 2023.

Please everyone go pick up this book when it comes out! You won’t be disappointed!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book for free and give my honest feedback and review.

I’ve always lived by the line in STAND BY ME that you never have better friends than when you’re 12. MISTER MAGIC embodies this idea in a general sense, and I’m all for it.

MISTER MAGIC is so many things. I initially requested a NetGalley Arc because one of my favorite GoodReads reviewers said the novel has Creepypasta vibes, which it does. But this novel is so much more than its creepiness. It’s a story about childhood, how we romanticize the past while also trying to break free of the traumas inflicted upon us, the unreliability of memory and how others remember things differently, corruption in religion, and the twisted attempt to mold children into what we want them to be, rather than who they are.

Anyone who loved ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? in the 90s will appreciate this book. It’s MR ROGERS meets ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK, but I’m not exactly sure you can really compare it to anything out there right now. I loved everything about this book. It’s a truly refreshing idea and take on so many different elements of being a 90s kid, and child in general.

When Val’s dad dies and her childhood friends come looking for her, they open the door to her repressed memories from a childhood tv show.

30 years have passed since the friend saw each other and they’ve been missing a piece of themselves ever since. This imaginative read is a sinister take on childhood tv shows with a sprinkling of internet obsession thrown in.

If you like reading about friend groups, eccentric plots, and tv shows with a cult-like following, this one is for you!

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a personal book! Kids on a TV show that everyone remembers but is totally undocumented meet up years later I’m a creepy Utah desert town for a reunion. Only Val has no memory of her former friends or being on the show. But “Mister Magic”remembers her and needs her to bring the show back to life to help teach children how to behave. Cult town is very Stepfordish. The whole novel had building tension and was totally creepy. Page turner.
Lots of author trauma in here- was not surprised to find out in the afterward that she is a former Mormon.

Mister Magic: Aug.8th, 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

If you like: CreepyPasta, Season one of Channel Zero, NOPE- you’ll love this.

Mister Magic is a children’s show that has no information nor any content about- until now.

A podcast has promised to bring light information as to what exactly happened to the show right from the mouths of the last few kids that were on it 30 years ago, but will they get to the bottom of the truth? Or is there something else that’s pulling the strings?

This was one of my most anticipated thriller/horror books of the year and it did NOT disappoint at all! I’ve heard of this author and her work, but I haven’t gotten to read much and let me tell you this was SUCH a good intro.

I will admit I found myself going back and reading some paragraphs and pages since there was a LOT going on sometimes, but I realize that all the events that seemed to be unimportant at the time really ended up wrapping everything together in a seamless way and ending.

This book has themes of loss, love, and feeling like you’re never good enough when in reality- you are. This book was full of moments where I felt like I was the main character Val- I knew her, I felt her struggles and it really made the book feel so real to me. Not only is this a thriller with twists and turns, but there’s elements of existentialism that was effective in portraying what exactly happened to cause Mister Magic to end, and what exactly is going on.

My only real complaint is the way that the characters conclude what’s going on. I feel like it was a roundabout way to come to said conclusion with a lot of repetitiveness that didn’t seem to need to be there. Other than that, I really REALLY enjoyed this book honestly!!!

Thank you NetGalley/Random House for the eBook ARC! 🫶🏻

Still got it. Just as good as Hide. Had me scared at moments and unable to put it down. Definitely a fun time worth picking up to lose track of A few hours with. Finished in one sitting and was unable to stop going.

This is the second book I have read from Kiersten White and it won’t be the last! I have thoroughly enjoyed every book I have read from this author and will gladly read anything else they write! This story was amazingly creepy and well written. I would highly recommend this amazing book to all lovers of the creepy.

After reading the synopsis of this book, I was immediately hooked. In the similar scope of recent media such as <i> Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Nope, </i> and the <i> Welcome Home </i> ARG, this book latches onto the idea that our seemingly nostalgic childhood shows, movies and media may be more than they seem and Kiersten White does well to make her novel stand out in front.

After Val is reunited with a group of childhood friends who starred on the show <i> Mister Magic, </i> she is plunged into uncovering repressed memories while trying to come to terms with who she is now as an adult versus what everyone was telling her or implying about her personality as a child. You journey alongside Val as she uncovers the true horror of her past and how she comes to terms with everything.

The story grabs onto the ready quickly and while there are may elements of existential thought and narrative, White does well to make sure the language isn't too clunky or that it doesn't pull you from the story. The eerie feelings and horror elements are sprinkled in so it's not a constant fear fest and perfect for people who enjoy "lite-horror".

I also honestly didn't expect the ending to punch me in the gut with feelings and #MisterMagic definitely caters to those who revel in nostalgia. It is a surprisingly quick read and eerie/haunting enough to pick up and read during the upcoming spooky season.


*Thank you to NetGalley Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Del Rey for proiving me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 4/5 stars

read if you like:
♡ creepy-pasta
♡ abstract, existentialist horror

➸ reading kiersten white’s new horror novel mister magic feels so jarringly anachronistic - as if you are once again bleary-eyed in the dead of night, scrolling through creepy-pasta and trying not to stare too hard at the shadows around you which may or may not be resolving into monstrous forms. it’s a nostalgic throwback to when the creepier corners of the internet came into the light with those chain-emails promising your violent evisceration if you didn’t forward them onto x amount of people. mister magic is dizzyingly psychedelic and the plot is a two-way mirror designed to throw you off the scent of what’s really going on. your eyes will glance off the true face of the story until the final hour in a way which is not unlike the nature of childhood memory and nostalgia. in here, nostalgia and memory itself are nothing more than a pernicious sleight of hand.

➸ when production abruptly stopped on kids’ tv programme mister magic and everything about it was wiped from existence, its cult-like followers refused to let go of it. what's perhaps more even more unsettling is how no one remembers the show the same or with much detail - that is if they somehow happen to remember it at all. now, 30 years later, its child stars are brought back together for a reunion podcast where all is not what it seems.

➸ i’ve always been of the opinion that, in many cases, for a writer - or really any artist - their most personal work is their magnum opus. white’s latest work follows this precedent. an examination of religious trauma and cult communities, it is not a condemnation of mormonism for those who are aware of white's religious history and therefore leery of any religion shaming. this novel is an exercise in catharsis and it yields an intimate glimpse at white’s own experience as a child growing up beneath the stifling fist of indoctrination. her suitability for telling this particular story is beyond dispute.

➸ white ingeniously plays up this conjuration of old-school internet by strewing transcripts from cultish fan forums. these online conspiracy theorists attempt to cling onto their memories of mister magic whilst being embattled by this bizarre mandela effect which made it possible for that once cult-classic show to have been reduced to a slippery-eel of a memory. this ambiguity is extended to the events of the novel itself, needling you with a sense of skin-crawling wrongness and snarling your comprehension of whatever is on the page.

➸ personally, my only serious issue with how this novel unfolded lies in the dialogue. it rings far too juvenile and ya for what is purportedly a group of people pushing 40. you can technically defend this point by saying it’s very much in-line with the characters’ stunted emotional growth but i’d be reluctant to suspend my belief for that. ultimately it almost came off a little as if they were mouthpieces for teenagers. despite this, the rest of the novel is brilliant enough to dazzle you away from dwelling on that shortcoming for very long.

➸ conclusion :
prepare to be bug-eyed with mister magic in a remarkable and trippy pop-culture merry-go-round which refuses to let you off this thrilling ride or give you a chance to figure out what’s going on until it suits white in her author’s notes.

thank you netgalley for the arc !

I ended up, not quite enjoying this book. I had high hopes for it, and I have read book by the author before, so I hoped to enjoy this one. I will check out more from this author in the future, however.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Catchy songs? A circle of friends? What could possibly go wrong? Buckle up because a lot can!

This was a weird one. Weird good. This book was really eerie, so much so I would have weird dreams if I read before bed but I needed to know so bad what was happening that I continued to read before bed. Probably doesn’t help that I sleep with a sound machine… that sounds like static from a tv! In my opinion it was definitely one of those books that had a little bit of a slow build up but not in a bad way. I had all these ideas in my head where the story was going to go but wasn’t entirely prepared for the ending. It was a little bittersweet, to be honest.

Upon reading other reviews & seeing people talking about the religion aspect of it, it made more sense for me once I read the Acknowledgment by the author.

This author has been on my radar for a while & Im glad I finally read something by her. It definitely won’t be my last!

The first half was engrossing and engaging, the second half quickly veered off the rails into an incoherent mess. If I had kept reading at that point without first looking at some of the reviews, I would have had to DNF this one at about the 60% mark as things got progressively more vague and clunky from that point forward. But since the reviews tipped me off that this is actually an allegory about religious trauma and that the ex-Mormon author wrote this specifically to work through her experience of leaving the church, I felt compelled to stick with it until the end to see how she wove everything together. I don't think the author actually did a good job of that, but I'm definitely not in the target audience of people recovering from childhood religious indoctrination. If you're in that group, especially if you're ex-Mormon or ex-fundie, this might be appealing to you. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I got approved for this arc yesterday (thank you NetGalley!) and I wasn't expecting to read in a day but I did.

This book is fantastic.

It is a religious deconstruction talk wrapped up in a horror story that makes you claw at everything, it felt one of those blankets that has silk at the edges that tricks you in the dark with softness while the rest of your body is scratching.. There is such an overwhelming feeling of essential dread that is so terrifying in what is more or less a bloodless and goreless book but don't let that fool you, this book will swallow you whole in the best way possible.

My only note: this book uses fake reddit posts in between chapters to move the story along, however the string of letters made to look like a thread that's been replied to/reblogged so much is very hard to read on kindle, it way look interesting art wise but it was awkward to have twist my reader to read it.

I can't wait to see booktook grab hold of this one because Mister Magic brings new meaning to the phrase "cult classic."

First off, many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book as an ARC!

This is my first time ARC reading in a few years, but I'm so happy I was accepted for it, because what a fun ride!

The atmosphere is gorgeously written, for starters. I swear I could hear the hum even after I finished reading! The plot had so many twists, and while I was a little confused from time to time, everything resolved in the end, so that's okay. I like a little mystery! Actually, there was a lot of mystery! It was a lot of fun! And the brief bit of body horror that I won't spoil is gnarly as hell and I absolutely loved it! The characters were fairly interesting, too! I enjoyed Javi's mischievousness and his reflexive dipping of his chin in response to Mister Magic touching him, and Marcus's entire backstory was heartbreaking and super relatable. The two of them were definitely my favorites. I also really loved the ending, especially the way it's addressed to the reader. It really felt like watching one of the childhood shows we all remember from the 90s.

On the less positive side, Val is kind of annoying as a main character. Yes, you feel guilty, we get it. She doesn't have to mention it every other page. It gets super old super fast. I'm also not a fan of the fact that the only other girl of the circle of friends, Jenny, is a raging bitch. Yes, she has her reasons and is more or less redeemed by the end, but it felt very woman vs woman, and I'm really, really not a fan of that. Isaac was also pretty boring, too. I get why that is, but would you believe I actually forgot about him when I was writing this review?

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

4.5 stars for Mister Magic!

This is such an amazing, creepy, imaginative and addictive read, that I had never had so much fun while cringing at the same time. Many remember the children’s show Mister Magic. There are urban legends, stories and testimonials by viewers who would swear that they saw it, even if what they remember doesn’t make any sense. Val has lived in a ranch in Idaho since she was little and can’t remember her childhood. During her father’s funeral, she finds three men who seem to know her. She also knows them too, but can’t remember them. The plot is hard to describe, especially if you don’t want any spoilers. All I’ll say is that the novel is fascinating and flawlessly written. The characters are supposed to be stereotypes and, yet, they are complex and three-dimensional. And Val? I shouldn’t have liked her as much as I did. She’s not a people-pleasing person, but she’s so compelling, that I was rooting for her. The author is very talented and she creates a world imbued in imagination and the magic of childhood. I loved it!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group Ballentine and NetGalley for the ARC of Mister Magic.

Let me start off by stating that this is out there. I mean, really wacky, off the walls stuff. I requested this book because for one the cover is amazing and two the synopsis sounded super intriguing.

I couldn't put it down for about the first half or so. I thought it was such an interesting concept and I was curious on what was going to happen next. The sprinkles of social media postings in between chapters was a cute little addition to keep the story going and well as the few jumps between characters.

The closer we got to the end, however, the more this book lost me. The last 10 chapters or so had a lot of flowery descriptions and abstract concepts and not a lot of movement happening in the story. There is a lot of talk of "darkness" that I found to be repetitive. They also harp a lot on the concept of how good of friends these people are, and yet they were on this show when they were like 7 and 8? I understand the whole magic thing can impact that feeling of friendship but I really had to suspend my belief on that. It also didn't make sense that this was a kids show in the first place?

Once I got to the Acknowledgements I realized this book was about religion and how the author decided to leave the Mormon church. I was surprised by this as there were no obvious signs to me that that is what it was about. Just wanted to add I respect the author for being vulnerable about her decision to leave the church and writing something fictional to represent that.

Overall, I liked it. I wish there would have been more substance to the final half of the book but I didn't hate it.