Growing up a kid in the 70's I watched all of the children's shows because they were wholesome and taught us valuable and important "life lessons". My favorites were Captain Kangaroo, The Electric Company, The Magic Garden, Zoom and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. This book takes those shows and comes at them from a darker and creepier perspective.

Mister Magic was a children's show that suddenly ended, under mysterious circumstances, in the early 1990's. Thirty years later, the last cast is brought together under the guise of a "reunion podcast" to possibly restart the show. One of the 6 members has no memory of her time on the show, but has a feeling she was somehow to blame for the show ending. She agrees to go to the reunion to attempt to get the answers (and hopefully the truth) that have alluded her over the past 30 years. What she finds is lost friends, hope and love, but also something sinister lurking in the shadows.

Totally loved this book. Can't recommend it enough. Also highly recommend the author's previous book, "Hide".

Mister Magic was unsettling, made me paranoid of everything happening, and had me gripped from page 1.

There is cult-like behavior, gaslighting, trauma, horror, secrets, and the reader is being pulled on different directions the whole time.

It did not go the way I thought it might go upon starting the book, but I’m happy with where it landed.

Thanks NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy!

This was a really slow burn creepy read. The pacing and the format of the story was really interesting. The author made it feel immersive with the inclusion of “research” and online discussions and articles about the show Mister Magic. I also appreciated the mystery aspects of the story and how we as readers learned more at the same time the main character started discovering about her mysterious past. This wasn’t just a spooky thriller the story also addresses toxic relationships with parents, within communities, and with religion. I think the author did a great job balancing these heavy topics within a magical but realistic setting. I think this would be great read if you’re a fan of creepy stories or enjoyed Kiersten White’s other book Hide. I also highly recommend reading the acknowledgments at the end it really brought the whole story into a new perspective.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Mister Magic! I loved Hide so when I saw the new one I knew I needed this one! Kiersten White is now an auto-buy author! I loved Mister Magic while reading it, but I loved it even more after reading the acknowledgments and realizing how personal this story is to her. I devoured this book and was sad when I had to take breaks in order to do adult responsibilities. Mister Magic was such a page turner with this underlying horror effect that was perfectly creepy where you wanted to know what happens next but also you were kind of afraid to find out. The religious undertone was very well done where it wasn’t the main focus or even a big focus for the reader unless you really thought deeper about the words in which you were reading. My favorite part of the book was reading about the childhood imagination and how fun and creative kids can be and remembering what that was like. I’m a parent now and it was a lovely reminder to let kids be kids and experience life and to never try and dull their shine. Also to never force them to be something that they’re not or try and make them be ‘easier’ kids aka not be a kid at all. The kids, the magic, the cult, all of it was wonderfully written. Thank you so much for the copy of Mister Magic! All the stars! Highly recommend!

What if Pennywise was the embodiment of organized religion?

I didn't think I could love a book more than White's HIDE, but MISTER MAGIC is just absolutely incredible. Beautifully constructed, masterfully plotted, creepy as hell, but with *things to say*. This is what horror is supposed to be. A way to look sideways at the things that hurt too much to look at directly. MISTER MAGIC is Stephen King's IT, creepypastas about shows that never existed, and religious trauma is an absolutely sparkle-flavored package. Plus the "monster" is a cape with hands! A CAPE WITH HANDS. Why isn't that the cover?

10/10 a perfect read

Mister Magic was once a super popular children’s show, but no one can remember many specifics about it. Lots of people remember watching it, lots of people swear it started as a radio broadcast, and lots of people claim something tragic happened to bring it all to an end…and maybe that tragedy occurred on the air. But no recordings exist, and there’s hardly any information online about it (outside of Reddit forums), so plenty of people feel like maybe it was just this mass hallucination.

Now 30 years have passed since the final episode, and someone is gathering the cast for a reunion podcast, because of course. Val has spent the last 30 years living on a ranch with her father, and she actually has no memory of being on the show. She knows she and her father were on the run from something (or someone?), but she’s spent literally her entire life on this ranch. When some of the cast show up to her father’s funeral to bring her to the reunion, she’s confused, but jumps at the chance to figure out what happened to her as a child - her memories begin at age 8. The boys - Marcus, Javi, and Isaac, take her out to the Utah desert, just outside an eerily perfect town called Bliss, to a super creepy 6-story house, where their parents allegedly lived while the show was filming. The podcast is being recorded there (in the basement, with a mysterious host who just always seems to be around). The house itself seems sentient, and it gives everyone the collective creeps. For her part, Val is less interested in the actual reunion and more in connecting with her roots in town, but it soon becomes clear that there’s something strange going on. And in fact there was *always* something strange about the whole experience.

One of the issues I had was that even though these characters are all pushing 40, they read as MUCH younger. I guess there's an argument for stunted maturity and childhood trauma, but I kept being surprised when I remembered everyone’s ages. The other thing that bugged me is that it took 30 years for them to start questioning the whole experience? I suppose the allegory is that sometimes we look back on these experiences with adult eyes and see them for what they truly are…but it just seems to have taken a LONG time to come about. Most of the characters besides Val have children - I feel like that would have unlocked something.

It mostly held my interest, and I did want to see how it would all wrap up, but it was definitely a miss for me.

I really enjoyed Hide so was happy to get a NetGalley of White's latest book.
This story left me feeling paranoid and weirded out! Good job!!
Read if you a fan of hidden secrets, mystery, friendships.

I just reviewed Mister Magic by Kiersten White. #MisterMagic #NetGalley

This was an unexpected favorite for me. I always enjoy the plot line of youthful secrets coming out at a reunion, but what happened in the Circle of Friends was beyond my imagination. Kiersten White's timing is perfect, blending suspense and background at a solid pace moving towards the unpredictable end.

This was a DNF for me. It was confusing. The characters were supposed to be adults but felt very childish. While I did skim and read the note by the author at the end, I still have so many questions that I feel wouldn’t have been answered if I did finish.

I’m still thinking about the ending of this book and probably will be for a while. In the best way.
It’s not the kind of book you spoil, so I’ll try my best to review it without giving anything away.
This is the second book I’ve read by Kiersten White, with Hide being one of my top 5 books of 2022 (in fact, if you felt similarly about Hide then you don’t need to keep reading, you’ll like this book). Mister Magic is most likely going to be a top book of 2023 for me and now I’ve found myself going through her previous works to add some to my list. White writes main characters in such a compelling way so that even when I can’t relate to them, I’m rooting for them and feel like I’m with them every step of the way.

We all have memories of our favorite TV show growing up. I still sing the words to the cleanup song from Barney. But what if your favorite show seemed to disappear? People remember Mister Magic, they know the songs and the plot lines. But why can’t they find old episodes or even photos from the show? Who was Mister Magic and why did the show suddenly end? And why do a few people remember it ending horribly, as if on live tv - when it wasn’t live?

I flew through this one and was not disappointed. Every time I thought I had it figured out, White threw in another twist. I’ll be thinking about this book whenever I recall the shows I grew up with, or sing songs from those shows, and I look forward to White’s next book.

This was outright freaky. Like hair on the back of your neck standing up freaky. I’ve seen comparisons to old school horror movies like IT, and after just finishing that recently, I can say yes, absolutely yes. This was good.

I am not really a big horror fan, but I absolutely loved this novel and I think my students (who are horror fans) would love it as well. The set up of the novel is very useful to talk about the importance of memory and family and friendship. There are wonderful themes for discussion, but there is also so much to be said the how creepy the setting becomes and the slowly building sense of dread and tension.
While I enjoyed Kiersten White's first adult horror novel, I find this novel even better and can't wait to recommend it to all the horror fans - adults and students - that I know!

<I>First, a thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.</I>

Let me start by saying I am a HUGE Kiersten White fan. I absolutely adored The Conqueror Saga and gobbled that up. I also really loved <I>Hide</I> and enjoyed my first time reading her foray into a “modern” setting.

I feel like <I>Mister Magic</I> had so much potential, but really just fell flat after reading the aforementioned books White has also written. I understand some of the themes/topics of this book were very personally near and dear to White’s heart, but to me that almost lead to a lackluster story getting pushed through to make a statement.

There were moments that really sparkled in this book for me - I am definitely a sucker for creepy atmospheric horror. But I feel like it just couldn’t come to together at the end.

I will continue to read White’s books and eagerly await new releases; I wouldn’t say this book was bad or that k regret reading it, but it was definitely my least favorite of her works that I have read so far.

I wanted to love this one but it was just a bit slow for my taste and I was losing interest in it. Sadly this is a DNF for me.

The concept of the book had so much potential, and the cover and title were intriguing, but unfortunately, it just didn't quite hit the mark for me. The cosmic horror mystery didn't work for me. The constant cliffhangers in every chapter left me feeling more annoyed than intrigued, and the characters lacked development and felt like they blended into one. The book did pick up towards the end, but by then, I had already lost interest.

Similarly, while I usually enjoy trippy horror, this one left me feeling confused and unsure of what was going on. The characters felt absurd and like caricatures, which made it difficult for me to connect with the story. Overall, while I can appreciate the unique style and vision of the author, this book just wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm a little torn about Mister Magic--I absolutely loved the concept and found the main character and found the themes very compelling. The atmosphere was fantastic and well-drawn and the writing was excellent. But ultimately I felt like I wanted a little more out of the story.

I didn't mind the fantastical freefall at the conclusion of the story, but I wanted a little more information revealed as we built up to that. I think it was a matter of the pacing. I felt the conflict was a bit repetitive and info was withheld simply to extend the story--even if the characters didn't entirely get what was happening, I needed a little more.

I was really drawn to the description of this book about former stars of a children's tv program coming back together to figure out why the show ended. Lots of people remembered the show Mister Magic but everything about it has been scrubbed from existence. No recordings. Nothing on the internet. Only people's memories and comments on message boards like Reddit. The first 75% of the book had me flipping pages on my Kindle trying to figure out what would happen next. Unfortunately the last 25% unfolded in a confusing way and several times I wasn't sure what was actually happening. The author's note at the conclusion explains the allegory that I missed in my reading of the book. I enjoyed a lot of this book but in the end was disappointed.

If you’ve caught yourself in hours-long rabbit holes over childhood memories and the Mandela Effect, then Mister Magic is the book for you. It’s about the reunion for a show that, as far as anyone can find real proof of, never actually happened. This book had me glued to it from very early on, the pacing and the plot were so perfect that “one more chapter” meant nothing. I was still reading it an hour later. I tend to like things with more fleshed out characters, but in this case that probably would have slowed things down and this wouldn’t have been something that I got through in a single sitting.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this early.

Every time a Kiersten White book gets released, the synopsis instantly grabs my attention and I either preorder or request an ARC and I feel like I am always a bit disappointed in the end. For that reason, I am going to assume that Kiersten White is not the author for me, and I am going to take a break from picking up her books. Due to the personal nature for the author regarding Mister Magic and how cathartic it was for her to write this book, I feel really awful for not enjoying this one and I am struggling writing a negative review for something that clearly helped her grow. So, with that being said, this book was weird, I didn't like it at all; however, I am not going to publish this review to Goodreads because I don't want my negative opinion to lower the books rating or sway others not to grab this if it sounds interesting to them.

This was a highly anticipated read for me, as Hide was one of my favorite books last year (and of all time, now), and it certainly didn't disappoint! The cursed kid's tv show trope is one of my favorites, and using it to explore religious trauma was truly inspired. I loved every single character and read this in one sitting because I just couldn't put it down.