I’m a Gay Wizard by V. S. Santoni left me with a lot of mixed feelings. It has it’s pros and cons, leading me to rate it three out of five stars.

Johnny and his friend Alison perform a magical ritual to summon the Cintamani. Something goes wrong and they are whisked off to the Marduk Institute, a school for wizards-in-training where they are told they’ll be able to hone their powers. Yet nothing is as it seems and the two friends have to learn whom to trust as they navigate a new world filled with monsters, magic, and mayhem.

First of all, I love the cover. It’s exploding with color, proclaiming in bold text the title of the story. I’m a Gay Wizard promises readers a tale filled with queer magicians, and it does not disappoint. The entire cast of characters is queer and diverse, starting with Johnny—a gay Latino protagonist—and his friend, Alison—a trans girl. This type of representation is important to have, showing diverse kids and young adults that they’re not alone.

The characters all had different backgrounds, some coming from loving families and others from abusive households, shaping their personalities and their reactions to the different situations portrayed in the story. The romances were all queer, although none of them really seemed like a good pairing in my opinion, causing me to not really care what ended up to the couples. Some of the character reactions also didn’t make sense to me, such as one character being incredibly secretive about being gay, only to not care a few pages later, announcing it to literally everybody. I’m glad he was comfortable enough to take pride in it, but it seemed unnatural and rushed for that character to achieve that level of comfort so soon.

Some parts were difficult to understand due to the writing, and I found it hard to engage in the beginning. However the plot picked up in the end, making the last half a fast read for me.

The plot was fast paced and somewhat interesting, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how this book reminded me of other stories that I’ve read. Wizarding school, the stuck up lineage wizards, and ventures to the town next to the school reminded me of Harry Potter. Other plot points reminded me of middle grade books I read back in my early teens about dimensions and magic. So for me, the plot didn’t seem to be fully original, and I wished there was more worldbuilding and details on how the magic worked and what the limitations were.

Overall, it’s a great book if you’re looking for queer representation and diverse characters and not much else. I found it lacking in originality, pacing, and characterization: making it not the book for me. It is an explosion of color from the cover to the characters, and I only wish it had been more memorable.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
🌟 Some people are born for greatness kid, the rest of us are just born 🌟
I'm A Gay Wizard following Johnny and his best friend Alison as they struggle to come to terms with what casting one simple spell does to their lives. After casting one spell they are both whisked away to the institute and thus begin to learn about the spell as well as magic and wizards.

For me this book felt like a cross between Harry Potter and Shadowhunters whilst throwing in some Dr Strange vibes, and I did enjoy the book once I got into it, it just took me some time, although I'm not sure if that was me, or the book.

There were a number of times the book had me laughing at comments made, and the banter/awkwardness between Johnny and Hunter, as well as Alison's sarcastic behaviour and Blake in general, I actually think Blake is my favourite character. What I also liked is the fact that the main character is from the LGBT community and the way the relationship with his boyfriend develops and it is so refreshing for them both to be supported when they "come out" and it is taken as completely normal (which it is may I add) and a "coming out ceremony" unnecessary. However the book does include a horrific scene in which Johnny and Alison are attacked for being "weird" and you discover that Hunters father is a mean SOB who beats Hunter for discovering his sexual orientation, as horrible as these scenes are they added to the authenticity of the book in regards to how people are treated in the real world.

However there are some negative points of this book for me, I feel it could still do with some editing as there are a number of times I came across the line <editorial break> and the format of the eBook is a little haywire and could probably be adjusted. Additionally for me the timings for the chapter titles felt short, as we were reading chapters labelled "a week after extraction" and I feel like the books time scales could be extended, especially in regards to Johnny's use of magic, the fact he was able to put a wall up in his mind instantly kind of made it feel a little easy, especially when its compared to other magical books in which students take a long time to develop the use of their magic.

Overall I rate this book a 3.5

This book read like the author picked a few elements from his favourite books. He has some good ideas but he could not put them into words. Especially the world building is poorly done. Most of all I missed explenations: how does the magic work? Why don't they teach magic? What is about the school? The magic has all in all no real system and is hard to imagine. The relationship between the characters is way better portrayed. There is a lot of pontential and I liked how everything evolved. But all in all it is a kind of disappointing story. The focus is on "gay" instead of "wizard".

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Wattpad Books in exchange for an honest review.

This books is a whole ton of fun. I wasn't really sure what to expect from I'm a Gay Wizard given that it is a Wattpad book and I couldn't really remember the plot when I started reading it. This is the story of Johnny and his friend Alison, two young people who are kidnapped by an institute when it's revealed they can do magic. Their powers mean that they must now attend school at this institute, although the plot focuses more on the shadowy goings-on of this world. There is also a lot of teen romance and tons of representation in here (gay Latinx main character with a trans best friend).

One of this book's greatest strengths is its creativity. To be honest, I was kind of expecting a Harry Potter rip-off but this has nothing in common with that series at all. The institute is not a fun magical school but a place of imprisonment, and the bulk of the magic system focuses on the use of a dream world. The characters are also pretty good. Some of the side characters suffer from being a little one-dimensional but Johnny was very likeable and I was rooting for him.

Sadly, I could not make it all the way through this book. This is more down to my own personal tastes than any real criticism. This book introduces a LOT of new terms that exist in this magical world and I just couldn't keep track of any of them. At the halfway point I realised I wasn't following it very well and so I just skim-read the rest. I'm not a fan of fantasy books that have lots of new terms or really convoluted plots, and sadly this one was just a bit too much.

If you can read books with those elements though, then I'm a Gay Wizard could be a good book to check out. It is definitely Young Adult and some of the elements (especially at the start) betray its origins as a Wattpad book. There are a couple of high school cliches and other small details which maybe should have been ironed out in the editing process. Overall though, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and it definitely deserves kudos for having such creativity and representation in it.

Overall Rating: 3/5

When I requested, I’m a gay Wizard by V. S. Santoni I was expecting a fun, fantastical read filled with glitter and rainbows. Unfortunately, what I got was something so far from that it wasn’t even funny.
I am an open-minded guy. I have been exposed to a myriad of different things throughout my life and I consider myself to be quite tolerant and easy going. This book triggered me, and badly too.

All my life I have been called gay, I’ve been called faggot, I’ve had paint thrown at me because of it, I have been called poofter, pillow biter, Nancy boy and most recently ‘The ass lisper’….yes. That’s right. All these derogatory names I’ve build up a resistance to, but then, I stumbled across this book which I thought was going to be a bit of light-hearted fun. There was a scene where the main character and his female friend were bashed and many, many instances of the main character being called a faggot. This really put me off reading the book, and yes, I know, I am aware, that this kind of thing happens in REAL life all the time, but it’s not something I want to read about.

I read up to this part of the book and unfortunately, I had to put it down. Due to my past experiences and things which have occurred in my personal life I chose not to continue with this book.
This book had the potential to be light hearted and fun, but for me it was unfortunately triggering and not the book for me.

It's not fair of me to rate this book, because I didn't finish it, so I'm giving it two stars for the potential it might have in the rest of the story.

I was really excited about the premise of this. A gay main character and a trans best friend who become wizards? Sign me up! However, while this was a good idea in theory, the execution of it fell kind of flat. The main character, Johnny, is gay and doesn't believe in magic. And ... that's pretty much all I know about him. He doesn't have any interests. He doesn't have any goals. I had no real reason to care about him. I kept waiting for him to give me something, to tell me what he wants so he can have a motive to drive the plot, but nothing showed up. His best friend, Alison, was a more interesting character, but even she wasn't enough to keep me interested in this story. I thought once they got to the institute, things would pick up. However, there was way too much telling instead of showing and I found myself skipping over paragraphs of details. At one point, I thought there would be an escape plan. I was ready for the plot to finally start. But nope, Johnny is more of a character who lets life happen to him. Both he and Alison fell into the routine of this institute/prison for wizards and they fell fast, as if they hadn't just been kidnapped and forced to live there until they became adults.

The pacing of the whole story is disjointed. Scenes are sometimes too quick and the transitions between them can be strange. The narrative jumps around in time as well and is often hard to keep track of. I will say, however, that I appreciated the scene where Alison was attacked. It made me uncomfortable the way it should have – because that's a real issue among the trans community and things like that should be brought to life. Ultimately, though, this story wasn't for me and I gave up 23% of the way in.

This was a fun read! I was cheering for the main couple throughout and I loved Allison a little bit too much, haha. It wasn't a five star read, and I had originally intended to read it in June (which didn't happen), but it was fun to read!

A bit random, rushed, and what was that ending?? I need answers, and more info. A little bit more insight would've been appreciated. It felt like it lacked something; the characters weren't really developed. I liked the story, I want to read a sequel if it comes out, but I want more clarity and development.
The book was cute, the magic system interesting, the twists surprising, the characters had potential. I enjoyed it. But more, a little bit more would elevate the book to 4 stars!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

There were parts of this book I enjoyed, and parts I did not, but overall, I found it easy to read and interesting.

My favorite part of this book was the friendship between Johnny and Alison. They had their own, tiny little family, and adored each other. Their scenes remain my favorite and I love all this history and backstory that has them bonded and all of their interactions are heartwarming, in one way or another.

Johnny was the kind of character I got more information from the people around him about him than I did in his own narrative. He was hard to get a feel for as a protagonist and not very interesting, especially compared to Alison.

The love story between him and Hunter was very rushed but they had excellent chemistry and I thought they were very sweet together.

The pacing went from rushed, so I was completely confused with the plot or dragged on, so I was wondering when anything relevant would happen.

This was one of my least favorite magic school books, not because I hated the school, but because we never really got a feel for the school. Or any kind of education on how magic worked. The magic in the book was hard to follow. It felt unimportant.

The queer rep was great!!! I didn't love the parts with homophobia and transphobia, but they were some of the realest parts. Johnny never felt like the Gay Friend (tm) and Alison never felt like she was trans for the Angst. There were other minor queer characters as well, and I loved seeing it be mentioned casually as well throughout the story.

To sum up, I think this book should have either been longer or fewer story lines.

Thanks NetGalley and V.S. Santoni for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to enjoy I'm a Gay Wizard more than I did. I liked it, but I wasn't anywhere near in love with it.

I was initially attracted to this book by the cover and the title. The cover is super colourful, the title makes a pretty clear statement and hey, if it's a book about wizards then you know I am in.

What I was expecting from this novel was completely the opposite of what I got. This isn’t some twist on Harry Potter but with gay, latinx characters, it isn’t a fun and magical world where you learn spells, enjoy your time with your magical friends, and get to play super fun made up sports on broomsticks. The wizarding 'school' here is essentially a prison, and the whole thing to me felt like a really deep metaphor about what it might feel like to be 'in the closet'. Intentional or not, from that perspective, it's pretty powerful. Other than that, the fantastical world we are in is horrifying, but feels a little confused and disjointed. It certainly invites more questions than answers, and it's what I struggled with the most when trying to connect to this book completely.

The characters for me, although I liked them, didn’t see much development, and a lot of it felt fairly obvious, with some relationships feeling more real than others. When alone with their thoughts, I felt their pain and empathised with them, but for me it just needed a bit more. Maybe we will see that as the series goes on.

There was one part that did take me wholly by surprise and I was shocked and exclaiming wtf out loud! But then a couple chapters later I kind of took all of those feelings back again and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Overall I would give this 3 stars, for a debut I thought it was pretty good, with so much potential for the future!

One of my favorite things about Harry Potter fandom is how the community has made the Harry Potter world its own, writing fanfic that's far more diverse and rich than canon. I am delighted that we're starting to see echoes of that in other published fiction, though obviously there's still a lot of room for growth.

IAGZ adds some much needed representation to the magical school genre. Johnny is a gay, Latinx teenager. His best friend Alison is trans. They go on a dark, magical adventure, and that's awesome. This might be exactly the book that someone needs.

I take significant issue with the rest of the book though.

The characters progress along the plot without challenging how they're being shepherded. For example, Johnny and Alison seem to barely talk the miracle of being able to float a sheet of paper. Johnny hardly challenges Alison about trying a mysterious magic spell from a book given to her by a creepy cat-eyed lady. Johnny agrees to rush the magical fraternity with Hunter. Linh and Johnny are like, "Sure, okay," when the librarian gives them a ridiculous, dangerous task before he'll help them. This happens again and again, and it was such a frustrating read that left me feeling railroaded.

The magic system has some real promise but felt underdeveloped. Later in the book, one of the characters explains to Johnny that there are two ways to cast magic: the inferior and more dangerous version that most first-generation wizards use, and the superior method used by legacy wizards. The first entails just imagining what you want to happen. The second involves very precise gestures, like manipulating the gears and pulleys of reality. Most of the magic we see in the novel falls into the first category, which ends up being problematic because it feels like there aren't any rules to whatever magic is in place. When there's no system, it's hard to emphasize with characters when they do "hard" magic or think of a creative magical solution to a problem. I think the distinction about the two magic systems came too late, and there was too little engagement with what it means to have these two systems-- the socio-political ramifications, how much more dangerous the first system is, how the non-legacy students don't seem to be TAUGHT the second system… there's a lot of potential for a really intriguing set-up, and it felt like it didn't get addressed.

Similarly, the entire magical world has some neat elements (particularly some language from Hindu/Buddhist traditions, which is underexplored in Western fantasy novels), but we get so little. Sometimes I can tell that a writer has a really thoughtfully developed world and selectively chooses what to share with their audience, and this imparts a sense of richness. In this case, I don't feel like the author really spent the time to think about the complications of, say, having the legacy and non-legacy wizards on the same campus, why "Smiths" exist to prevent students from leaving campus and what their true motivations might be, why it was determined a particular event needs to happen every 30 years and how such a system develops, what relatively easy access to the cintamani means, and so on.

I want representation, but I also want it to be paired with a strong plot and rich world-building.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2910454185

I really liked some of the elements of this book. Gay main character that wasn't all camp? Check. Magic and mystery? Check. New twist on magic and classism? YES! However, there were a few issues that I couldn't get past with this story. The plot was strong but needs a bit of polish.
The book starts with the young Juan "Johnny" Diaz and his best friend, Alison. Alison and Johnny attempt a spell that triggers a chain of events that changes their lives forever. Real magic ultimately sets them on a path that leads from being kidnapped to wizard school, exploring a dream world, and fighting monsters that cross. between. There is a little action, a little romance, a little school drama and a lot of clichés.
What I couldn't pass over was the conspicuous use of characters and ideas from other fiction works. A life-size caterpillar smoking a pipe in the dream world? Oof. There was no quippy line that gave a quick nod to the original story. Is that a minor detail? Yes. However, it happened a few times too many to make me comfortable.
Overall this story was fun. There were some novel plot lines that I think make this a book worth reading. Nonetheless, getting another good once over from an editor might not be the worst idea.

3.5 🌟🌟🌟

Ok so it took me a little while to get into this book. I think I was forcing myself to keep reading up until around 20%,. Then I got hooked.

I liked the plot of the story however, I feel that a lot of things were rushed. The relationship between Johnny and Hunter.. I mean they kissed once, Hunter is still in the closet at this point and yet a few pages later he’s declaring that he wants to be Johnny’s boyfriend. Still I’m not gonna complain too much here because I loved hunter and Johnny 😍
The ending I felt was also rushed. I loved the twist that was thrown in at the end, the curse! But I feel like from the time they find Gasper to the last page just tried to cram waaay to much into it.

I loved most of the characters.. Johnny, Hunter and Blake mainly. For some reason I didn’t like Alison at all, I don’t know if this is to do with me or maybe the way she was written.. but to me she was just a bit of a bitch. And pretty boring tbh. I feel like her only purpose in the book was forcing Johnny to cast the spell at the start which lands them at the institute.

Overall I did actually really enjoy this book!

This is a fun read! The writing can be clunky and purple in places, with a lot of teen references that felt were very forced, and I found that the opening section was deeply confusing to the point I nearly put it down, but once the book got going, it was a really enjoyable ride.

The opening of the book is strange and I felt, quite poorly managed, as each chapter jumps about in the timeline, but only identified the times by their relation to another event which had yet to be explained (one hour before extraction, etc). Without a frame of reference for what 'extraction' was, I struggled to line thing up. I also really disliked the backstory chapters that showed violence against the trans character - I felt this was not needed at all other than to provide a reason for her to try witchcraft, but that reason could easily have been something (anything!) else that didn't rely on a transphobic attack. It just felt gratuitous - you're telling me that a witchy queer goth girl wouldn't just try witchcraft for the heck of it?

I did very nearly give up on this book, but I'm glad I persevered because once the characters had arrived at magic school, the story took off. Honestly, you could cut everything before the MC wakes up at magic school, and lose absolutely nothing from this story, but gain some safer, fluffier rep for queer kids. Anyway, once we get past that bit, gone are the extremely try-hard "hello fellow youths" references to pop culture, and hello to evil organisations, dreamworlds, rushing a wizard frat, and a burgeoning relationship.

The characters are stronger than the plot, which is interesting. The main character, Johnny, is a Latinx boy who is gay, and his best friend, Alison, is a trans girl who was honestly one of the best trans characters I've read, because apart from that one flashback chapter, exactly 0 of her problems revolve around her being trans. She's a very positive character and one I think it's good for teens to see - she's confident, friendly, loving, and powerful, and both Johnny and their new friends accept her wholeheartedly. She gets a cute romance, too. However, with the violence against her, I would hesitate to recommend this to my trans friends, which is a real, real shame. We also have Hunter, a sports-loving farm boy, whom Johnny can't seem to stop thinking about, and that romance is very cute too. As I say, the plot is really secondary to watching these characters interact - it's exciting, but it's also fluffy and nice, and we need more rep like this.

Three out of five stars, but if this was reworked to remove/improve the beginning, it would be four or five!

OK, so I wasn't completely sure what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised that this book didn't rely on some of the wizarding tropes that exist out there. Sure, the main character gets sucked inside a wizarding world and ends up attending a wizarding academy, but this place is no Hogwarts.

The reading was delightful and kept me guessing what would happen next. In this regards, it's similar to another famous wizarding series. In many respects, the central character's sexuality is almost a backdrop rather than the focus of the story itself. One of my biggest critiques of a lot of LGBTQIA literature is that coming of age stories are all angst and coming out and no story. Instead, the characters in this book deal with coming out and their sexualities and gender identity, but those issues are hung on the backdrop of the crazy wizarding world the characters are sucked into. For this reason, I'm really glad this book is getting published and will hopefully be read by a lot of people.

As a note, I did get the opportunity to read this book prior to publication. However, the opinions of this review are 100% mine and were not affected by the publisher or author in any way.

First! The good stuff! This book was a lot of fun to read. The friendly/snarky banter between the characters gave me life and made me laugh out loud more than once.

Santoni has come up with a clever concept: in this world, the first time you use magic sparks a terrifying event. Anyone with magical ability is abducted and taken to an institute under the guise of being trained and protected. But, the reader finds out early on that’s not really what is going on. Basically, Johnny is abducted and incarcerated. The life he was taken from is basically wiped out: his family won’t remember him, and it will be as if he never existed.

The idea of young people being taken from their homes for something beyond their control and incarcerated rang a little bit true in light of what has been going on in the US recently.

There is a diverse group of characters in this novel. Johnny is a young gay Latinx teen with stretched earlobes, a fierce heart and a penchant for hilarious thoughts. I loved this own-voices character. He was authentic and funny, charming and bumbling. It was a joy to read about Johnny falling in love for the first time, and finding his way to courage in a crazy world.

Johnny’s best friend Ali is a trans woman. This character suffers the harsh cruelty of life with strength and dignity. I adored her friendship with Johnny and their devotion to one another.

Santoni has some great building blocks at the beginning of this novel. This is a magical world where magic is scientifically based (not unlike the world created by Victoria Lee in the Fever King). What I wanted to see explored more thoroughly was the unique clockwork structure of magic and how it was almost machinery-like. I felt as though I didn’t really get enough information to understand it as well as I wanted to.

The magical powers were a bit confusing to me. It was a random spell that ignited the latent abilities in Ali and Johnny and then there was really nothing further written in the novel about how the young Wizards learned how to do more magic… they just … did. That was a bit unsatisfying given how much of a great idea the clockwork magical world was.

There were a lot of pop culture references scattered throughout which I think may date the book prematurely. There were some times during the book when it felt a little bit like fanfiction to me. That won’t bother some people, but that always pulls me out of a story no matter how good it is.

All in all, this was a fun read with some really likable characters. It’s got a Gay wizard, monsters, epic battles, and a love story! What more could you want in a summer read? I will look forward to reading more by this author.

I really wanted to love this book. I loved the idea of the story and that the main character was LGBTQ, and Latino. The story follows our main character Johnny and his best friend Alison as they are taken to an Institute where wizards are trained, or so they are told. It is basically a prison, however, and they spend much of their time trying to find a way out. The romance was cute, although I think maybe should have been a little more flushed out.

My real problem with this book was the pacing and writing style. The plot seemed a little bit uneven to me, and I did have trouble with the format. These things could very well be changed in the final version, however, so this may be a moot point. The pacing seemed off to me as well. Some parts were rushed, and others seemed to drag out unnecessarily. I also thought that the amount of descriptions throughout the book made it more difficult to follow the plot. Often I wasn’t sure what was true and what was exaggerated, because they were used so often. All in all though, it was a cute, fast read!

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my
own.

I get weak for gay wizards, so of course I had to read this. So cute. Easy to read and to follow and just generally engaging. The relationship between Hunter and Johnny is sweet. Hunter + Johnny= All the heart eye emojis! But my overall feeling is that I wanted more. More Hunter and Johnny, more backstory, more about Allison and Blake, more about the school, more more more. But I did think this was very entertaining and cute and exciting.

While this was fun, sort of Hogworts done black ops, I think they could have come up with a better title. Not sure why the MC's sexuality needed title mention. Enjoyable young adult fare for beach reading.

I’m a Gay Wizard - there’s so much about this book I liked and some things I didn’t love. I gave it a 3/5 stars. While I appreciate the queerness and the visibility of a trans person - there was some thinks lacking in character development for me. The world building was a little iffy but I could overlook that. However, I will offer up a trigger warning for the gay hate crime that appears early on in the story. I’m not upset about that, because queer people do experience these types of situations. All in all - more character development would have helped tremendously.