I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

I requested and received this ebook ARC from NetGalley.

I liked the peeks behind the scene of the how and why of the world's making, it's mythology, and I believe that means there's more to come. Johnny and Alison are the outcasts in their school - and they're wizards (yes, a term that apparently applies to genders, although that's never stated).

Primarily this novel reminded me of the Matrix and Magicians (TV show/book, recalling Harry Potter and Narnia) it's school halls are named with gods/goddesses like Apollo, Ares, Odin, Plutus and Zeus (but apparently these gods are wizards, in fact everyone has potential for magic use), but the power origins and makers are called Asuras, Devas and Maras which are a different world myth entirely. I would have preferred the origin story as it were to have been smoothed out better, it certainly doesn't run as well as the timeline written after every chapter, or the explanation for the world and the dream Everywhen.

All wizards (who are not of the Legacy of Lineage, parents having been wizards) are abducted, the memories of friends and family taken, erased. As if that's not nightmare enough, wizards aren't very progressive - and they're all being held prisoner at the Institute -it's join or be a "Defector".

What's more, in Johnny's dreams is the terrifying Sandman following, hunting, him. Luckily, Johnny isn't facing all this alone, he has Alison and Blake and Hunter -who he's falling in love with.

And Linh, who he seeks to uncover school secrets with to join the Defectors and gain his freedom before it's too late and either the Sandman or the school "Smiths" get him.

There's a few open ended questions - what happens with Linh and the Defectors, what connects Luther to Melchior and Alwina? How did a unicorn die...?

I have say tell one of the weirdest things happened while reading a fellatio scene in this book. I was at work on lunch (I often read on my phone) when one of my coworkers sits down to have their break (there's only one table in a smallish room so that's not unusual) anyway a bit of time passes- coworker kind of laughs at his phone, I look up, and he tells me he's reading a joke about this guy sending a dick pic to a man despite the man telling him like three times he's not a woman and not being believed. I am reading gay fellatio and he's sympathizing with "a poor dick-pic guy being scarred for life".

liked the concept but the writing wasn’t my cup of tea. sadly DNF :((( maybe i’ll try again some day

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

The idea of the book is interesting, the execution nit so much. There’s a lot of homophobic slurs in the beginning, bullying and fat shaming just to named a few issues. The writing was not that great and the story felt like a let down.

*ARC received from Netgalley in return for an honest review* 

Sadly, I have tried multiple times to get into this book and yet every time I just can't get very far. My main issue is that it seems to meander with out much idea of where the plot should be heading. This book has such an interesting premise that I am really sad I just couldn't get into it.

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!

I struggled to get into this book. There can be a lot to building a magical world and while I'm obsessed with the title, as I want more queer literature front and center, and there are great opportunities for speculative fiction to turn our cultural ideas of gender and sexuality on it's head, this book left me less than impressed. I struggled to really connect with the characters and I felt that the writing could do with another couple rounds of editing in order to strengthen it up to a place where I would really recommend it strongly. But for those looking for a queer fantasy book with some fun plotlines in it, I will definitely suggest it as an option.

*I received a free, digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I’m struggling with rating this book because I wanted to love it but, unfortunately, it fell flat to me. The premise, starring a gay, Latinx wizard, sounded incredibly awesome but the execuation was lacking. 
I’m a Gay Wizard promises magic, intrigue, monsters, and the fight of a lifetime as Johnny and Ali, two best friends, are whisked away to a magical school hidden from the world. Of course there are love interests and hidden plots pushing our main characters to make choices to save themselves and others, but it all seemed quite convoluted. 
On the surface, I would describe I’m a Gay Wizard as Harry Potter and The Magicians mixed with a dash of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland but I didn’t feel the same sense of magic from this book as those three. With a title including the word “wizard”, I’d expect more magic from our characters but they just seem to know how to do things without any training. “Just visualize what you want! Magic is easy!” is the mantra and that became incredibly boring throughout. 
On top of this lack of magical world building, the pacing and suspense wasn’t as in depth as I’d like. More world building and character development would push this book up my list but the narrative seemed to switch from one magical fight to another without much growth or addition to my views of this fictional setting. 
Despite my misgivings, I will say that this book had some amazing humor. The characters joked and cajoled each other throughout and I found those moments to be endearing. Overall, though, I was a bit let down so I’m giving this debut novel 2 out of 5 Awesome Austin Points. I want this to read less like a first copy of something on Wattpad and more like a full-fledged wizarding world with characters that grow and learn rather than just happen to get lucky.

There is not enough LGBTQ representation in YA fantasy (especially when compared with contemporary offerings), so I was BEYOND excited to get an ARC of this one.  And because my students love Wattpad, I figured I needed to read it ASAP.

There are some great things about this one, for sure: diverse characters, witty dialogue, a unique look at magic, some cool magical creatures.  However, I feel like the contemporary pieces of the story (romance, bullying, family issues) and the mundane "magic" school (students actually don't do magic...they go to normal classes and live in normal dorms and are basically prisoners) detracted from the overall fantasy feel of the story.  And strangely enough, with the lack of magic comes an overabundance of magical story lines...like...TOO many. Weird school with "legacy" magicians and an area where wizards are reportedly experimented on, a between-dreams world where you can go spend time but also could get stuck in, a creepy Sandman monster hunting our protagonist, a resistance group working against the school, a DIFFERENT resistance group working against them...it was just a lot.  

So overall it was an interesting premise with some definite high points, but overall a kind of mushed-together story that needs a lot more editing and fleshing out.

This is the story of Johnny and Alison, best friends and high school kids in Chicago. Johnny is gay, and Alison is a trans woman, and school life is not super great for either of them. Alison loves dabbling in magic, and Johnny mostly goes along with whatever she's doing, but doesn't really believe in magic... until they're actually doing magic! They cause an earthquake in Chicago though, which gets the attention of a magical organization who pull them from their lives into a world of magic and monsters. Shenanigans ensue!

Full disclosure: I DNFed this book, and it's not because I didn't like it. I think this book has a ton of promise but within the first 10% there was at least one continuity error (a levitated piece of paper that became a feather at some point further up the line), and included a scene involving 4 huge high school wrestler dudes getting out of a Miata with every intention of beating the hell out of these kids.... which is... just hilariously not a thing. I currently own a Miata (it's great!), but let me tell you, it's hard enough getting 2 people of average size in one. I'm hoping the irony of it being considered one of the gayest cars ever was deliberate, but hooo boy it is not holding 4 dudes, ever. Well, unless it is the TARDIS inside. ^_^

So, as you can imagine, my visualizing this clown car of high school jocks right before a rather serious scene of horribleness between human beings... I was just thrown right off. Adding a continuity error after that and that was just where I called it. I didn't want to be disappointed with it again, basically. 

I would absolutely love to read this book after it gets a good round of professional edits for things like this. I would 10000% buy this novel for my queer high-school age niece who would *love* this book. I guarantee she would adorrrrre it. This is a book with a great premise, and a couple of likable main characters, that I think would really be fantastic after a little editing TLC!

Also that cover is *gorgeous* - and all of the high fives I could ever give for a Scott Pilgrim reference!

😬 this didn’t do it for me. I had a feeling seeing the title and synopsis that either it was going to be the most perfect book, or else horrible, and for me it just was horrible. 

I could totally see people liking it, but I didn’t like the magic/world. This could’ve easily been a queer contemporary set in a boarding school and completely omitted the magic/monster and the story wouldn’t have changed all that much.

Perfect for fans of worlds like Harry Potter or Carry On, 'Im a Gay Wizard' is a unique and diverse look at the magical school genre. It's a breath of fresh air in YA, a genre that is predominantly white and straight.

I recommend this book to any YA romance fan.

When I saw the cover and the description I was excited to read it but in the end didn't like that much as I thought.
I liked the idea of the Institute and the rebels, how the children can't even use magic inside the Institute and it's a school for magic. However, I didn't like the characters, sure they are a good representation for LGBTQ but didn't appeal much. 
I always like when magic is involved but this magic was weird, didn't sound magic at all. Found some parts confusing and somethings seemed off.
Yet was easy too read and something different.

TW: homophobia and transphobia (and related bullying and violence)

"I'm a Gay Wizard" is a really fun book and definitely something that YA (and fiction in general) needs more of-- people not being white, cis, and hetero and that being an integral part of the story but not the main plot point. Johnny is very much not straight and there are issues in the book relating to him being gay but the plot of the book is that he and his friend Alison (mtf) have accidentally become wizards. After doing one spell Johnny and Alison are kidnapped and taken to a school for people for wizards and navigate what it means to be a wizard. Them being gay and transgender respectively is a part of who they are and how they handle the world, but the book takes such care to make sure that while the ideas of gender and sexuality are always present, the characters and their lives have other issues. Alison is mentioned as trans *after* the fact that she dresses all in black and I think that's marvellous as she is written as a stereotypical quirky female best friend-- the being trans does not change the fact that she is both quirky and female.

The wizardry in this book is quite fascinating as it relies on knowing math and science and not an ability to speak Latin or other arcane phrases. As the story develops Alison and Johnny get love interests and have to deal with their conflicting feelings about staying for said love interests and leaving a place that a dangerous class system and mind-wiped everyone they love. 

My one issue with this book is that sometimes the writing can be a bit off. There is a lot of characters saying exactly what they mean which limits some nuance in the writing and makes the beginning of the book less enticing than the rest of it as it is a bit on the nose. The same can be said for the end of the book in that it seemed a bit abrupt and rushed. The ideas were there but the execution of them could have used an extra few pages.

Overall, "I'm a Gay Wizard" was such a fun book and it is so great to see better representation in YA! I look forward to seeing what else VS Santoni brings to the writing world in future!

The plot itself had good potential: teens dabbling in magic until an Academy steals them away never to return to their former lives. Unfortunately I put it down for the day and then never wanted to pick it back up again. I've never liked books with huge amounts of high school angst and I also thought the characters were fairly immature. 

Teen audiences would enjoy this though

I could not get past the first couple chapters. The writing style just didn’t mesh for me personally. I won’t rate this on goodreads as I was unable to finish.

3]
I would not say I enjoyed this book, but at the same time, I did not not enjoy it. The book honestly made no sense, but I found that it was really easier to read  and I did want to continue reading it. There is no plot, AT ALL. I thought the last book I had read had no plot, but compared to this one, it had the most intricate storyline ever. The characters were also, meh. But I never found myself not liking the book, which is weird, but probably has to do with how short the book is since it wasn't long enough to make me feel like I was wasting my time.

Great great concept. Bad execution. This was a cover, title, and description grab for me. I was super excited to read it. Unfortunately I had to DNF it because I could not get into the writing style or the bullying of the main character. 

Thank you Netgalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can't but compare any book featuring a magic school to Harry Potter. Sorry, it's just how my brain works. But I quickly realized bot books have very little in common. Instead of "yay, magic school" it's "oh no, magic school", since it's clear from the beginning that the people at the school are not the good guys. I really liked the MC, wish we could've seen a bit more of his best friend Alison. Curious to see what happens next.

DNF. I tried four times over the space of a month and I simply could not get into this book, much to my disappointment, because LGBTQ fantasy is right up my alley. I thought the non-chronological beginning was interesting; it built tension by showing something critical was ahead (ex: "two days to extraction" - we know "extraction" is coming, we know it's significant enough to create a split in Johnny's life - "before extraction" and "after extraction" - and we know Johnny doesn't know what's coming). But the writing just never grabbed me and I quickly lost interest after the extraction happened because the school setting seemed so exhaustingly convoluted. I'm glad this book exists but it wasn't for me.