I was not sure what to expect from this book, but the plot definitely had my interests piqued. Mister Magic, a long-running children's show, ended suddenly and tragically. Years later, the stars of the show gather together for a reunion gala and an opportunity to be interviewed for a podcast that hopes to reignite interest in a possible reboot. The strange thing is, there is no evidence of the show ever existing. No scripts, no video archives, no televised re-runs. The only proof the show ever existed lies in the memories of the children who watched at home, and the ones who starred in the show, now grown adults. The only exception is the protagonist, Val, who disappeared shortly after the last episode of the show was aired and who does not remember anything about the show and only has a vague feeling of familiarity when her former friends and co-stars seek her out to join them in this reunion. Val, desperate to escape from her problems at home and to possibly recover the memory of her lost childhood, joins the rest of the cast in Bliss, where something sinister lies in wait. I found this to be a fast read, yet a slow burn if that makes sense. I loved the character and scene building, which made this play out like a creepy movie in my head. The build-up of dread and eeriness made me feel like someone was watching me from the shadows and kept me up late at night. It's deliciously creepy, and I absolutely love that! Thanks to Del Rey Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I'm normally not much of a thriller person, but this concept was too interesting for me to turn down. And I found it to be eerie and well-written and greatly enjoyed reading this book! The pacing lagged a bit towards the end, but overall I found it to be engaging and creepy and a really enthralling read.

This was an eccentric horror story about a "magical" children's show. The now adult cast is brought together as they try to discern what really happened when they were on the show.

There is an underlying subtext about the the trauma experienced by children twisted to conform to the rigid expectations of zealots.

It captivated me immediately and kept me involved for most of the book. About 3/4 of the way through, the plot began to drag on to an unfulfilling conclusion,

Overall, the author is adept at creating a quirky world peopled with interesting characters.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for allowing me to read this ARC This is my honest review.

We all remember the shows we watched as kids, whether it was Howdy Doody, Sesame Street, Blues Clue's, or Bluey. Childhood shows and the lessons they taught stick with us. Mister Magic by Kiersten White is about one of these such shows but it's a bit of an urban legend. Everyone remembers it but no one has proof it existed, until rumors of a new podcast and show revival hit the internet.
Val doesn't watch television or read the internet. She doesn't even have a cell phone. She works on the ranch with her dad, who has hidden her from the world. Val has no memories before the ranch so when her dad dies, she feels lost. Until three strangers who feel familiar show up at the wake, and they know her and her past. They know she was a star on Mister Magic. Val runs off with them to discover what they know and how they know it.
Mister Magic is a story about innocence lost. It is a story about friendship and about abuse of trust. It tells of childhood exploitation and indoctrination. Mister Magic is also a story about choosing your own path and breaking free off expectations.
Kiersten White is an excellent storyteller. This story kept me on the edge of my seat. I was eager to solve Val's past and find the truth about the show. This is the second book by Kiersten White that I've read. I've looking forward to more.
Thank you to Netgalley and Del Ray Publishing for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

Mister Magic by Kiersten White is utterly wild. In the best way possible.
She can create the most unique stories.
The tension and suspense, the twists and turns were done so well here. She kept me flipping the pages.
Along with some very interesting characters.
The storyline was fantastic, eerie and atmospheric.
Kiersten White has written another amazing thriller here.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Random House, Ballantine & Del Rey for your generosity and approving this eARC!

A horror novel about a kid's show that involved magic? Yes please!
Over 30 years ago, Mister Magic was a popular kid's TV show about six friends and their magician-like mentor who taught them how bring out their inner gifts while also imparting on them manners and social graces that children watched reverently everyday. While there are Wikis and Reddits and fan pages, strangely enough, no one can fully agree on what the show was or why it abruptly ended. And there's no physical evidence - photos, video clips or recorded episodes anywhere. Was it all just an urban legend? A creepypasta? The Mandela effect? Or did the mysterious man in top hat and cape really teach valuable life lessons to the six friends? Modern day, a podcast is about to begin, and it plans to bring back the five remaining members of the friends circle - the sixth maybe died, maybe disappeared, but somehow ended the show, which may have had the set burn to the ground, or maybe didn't.
Val was one of the six until her father took away from the show shortly before its demise. He kept her off the grid living and working at a ranch in Idaho. But now he's died and her former friends have shown up at the funeral. They all remember Val, but she remembers nothing of her time before her father whisked her away. With no more ties to the ranch, she decides to go with her new/old friends to the reunion and beginnings of the new podcast in the small town of Bliss, Utah, near where the show was originally filmed. But when they arrive at the daunting house in the middle of nowhere where they supposedly lived while filming the show, it's obvious something's not right. And just who is this mysterious podcast interviewer in the basement of the six-story house? As Val's and the others settle in and memories begin to return, they soon discover their happy childhood TV show wasn't as happy as they remember.
This was an intensive and incredible story that reminded me a lot of early Stephen King and Peter Straub. The mystery builds steadily and unpredictably the longer the friends stay at the house. And elements of the plot are very analogous and critical of a certain religion native to Utah in which the story takes place. If this is the kind of story Kiersten White will be putting out henceforth, she has definitely found a new fan.

This book is the perfect mix of the first season of Channel Zero mixed with some Stranger Things vibes. Then throw in a cult like documentary and you get a perfect idea for this book. Which I hands down loved.

This book went places I never could expect and more. This is the first book by this author that I have read and I WILL BE READING MORE now.

It did take some time for things to start making sense, so keep reading but while I waited I was enjoying the ride and loved getting everything answered.

Great for readers into the paranormal! It's an extra bonus if you have nostalgia for shows that shaped your childhood.

I really, really loved this. Some bits are confusing, while others are very on-the-nose, and I'll have trouble describing this until I've processed it a bit more. I do think that falls in line with the book though. Trauma, and how it affects the brain, is so deeply complicated, sometimes contradictory. Religious trauma is a wild thing to unpack too, occasionally difficult to put into words, and White does so very well. It feels personal, and there are many passages that I will be screaming from the rooftops as soon as it is legally fine to do so. For now, I'll just say that the mood is: you took something from me, and I knew it was wrong but I had limited control, and now I'm taking it back.

Why do we gravitate towards things that hurt us, and how do we protect ourselves? When was the last time you felt truly alive? What would you do to feel that way again?

Put Nope, The Haunting of Hill House (series), and It into a blender with Barney and Zoom, with a dash of Stranger Things. If that sounds fun or interesting to you, I highly recommend this trip of a story.

It took me a bit to reflect on what I had just read to give a rating and review. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The premise sounded amazing and original. Then I read it. And I rounded it up from a 2 to 3 star once I read the authors note. I can respect and appreciate the meaning and personal story behind this book. The writing is good. But the last 20% didn’t do it for me. I was so confused lol. It didn’t end the way I felt I needed it to to give it a 4 star.

Kiersten White does it again with this book, it was what I wanted from the description. I loved the idea of cast of a tv show coming back to discover secrets of the show. It had what I had been looking for from previous books from the author. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and go through the supernatural thriller aspects of the book.

"It doesn’t seem abandoned, though. Like someone’s been staying in it, or at least maintaining it, all this time. Val stays where she is, keeping the kitchen between herself and the television. She wishes she could laugh about the weirdness of her fear, but it just makes her sad. She both misses and hates her dad. She’s so tired."

A whirlwind of confusion, horror, longing, and suspense. Those are the feelings you experience while reading Mister Magic. It’s a show you want to be a part of and one you can’t get far enough away from. It’s a story about rules and rule breaking, belonging and estrangement, confinement and escape, conformity and nonconformity. It’s a world where you can redefine the rules and make your own kind of magic. This was a highly original story, full of metaphors, based on the author’s own experiences with organized religion, tight-knit communities, and rules with little room for error. Mister Magic will pull you in and keep you in the dark until you’ve turned the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I do not know if this was written to be as timely as it currently is, but holy shit.

Kiersten White continues to deliver with the brand of weird, unhinged horror that I utterly adore. It is the perfect blend of terrifying and heart wrenching, playing on the memories of old shows long since gone off the air but somehow we all remember. And then it packs the punch of reconnected friends, old secrets, and changing the way the future is going to be shaped. Gosh, it's all kinds of brilliant.

I'm still not quite sure what to make of this. It had that dreamlike quality, making it eerie and not quite knowing what was real and what wasn't. I loved the general idea of this and it made me think of the Mandela Effect as well as a Syfy show I watched years ago based on an old, creepy children's show called Candle Cove. I devoured this but it lost me towards the ending. It reached a point where it was just too much and too drawn out. However, I still enjoyed it for the most part and love the creepy feeling this author brings out in her writing and I look forward to reading her future work. Three and a Half Stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kiersten White & Random House Publishing - Ballantine for an advance copy of Mister Magic in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

Kiersten White jumped onto my radar last year with Hide, which I absolutely LOVED. I saw Mister Magic on a friend's Amazon Wishlist and didn't even notice that it was Kiersten's book. I saw the cover & was in love. If you follow my reviews, you know I'm huge on covers. I immediately clicked to read the synopsis and thought "This sounds like the same author as Hide." It just had that "feel" - I glanced at the author and was grinning from ear-to-ear and literally DYING to get my hands on this book immediately.

This story focuses on 6 friends (Val, Isaac, Javi, Marcus, Jenny & Kitty) who were on a children's program called Mister Magic as kids. The show was magical and wonderful until the day that it wasn't. It is not 30 years later and a reunion is being planned for the cast. The public was in love with the show, but there is no one to contact, no studio, not even any video floating around the internet from the show. It seems as though it never existed at all. The cast gathers for this reunion and are trying to figure out what really happened on that terrible last day and why it happened.

This book had such an eerie feel from the very first page - literally. I love eerie. And it keeps that eerie feel the entire way through all the way to the very last page. Eerie is the only way I can describe it. I was enthralled and didn't want it to end, which leaves me already anxiously awaiting Kiersten's next novel and this one doesn't even release until August!

Also, I NEVER read the Acknowledgements at the end. Literally, never, not once. I guess because of that feeling of wanting it to keep going, I read the Acknowledgements on this one and let me tell you, if you don't read Acknowledgements normally, do it for this one. It made the book even better to get that additional insight from the author. I would love to quote the last sentence of her Acknowledgement here, but I won't because I feel it might tip you off a little bit and could be a potential spoiler.

This book was 500 Stars phenomenal and I highly recommend!!!! VERY HIGHLY recommend. I could keep praising Kiersten White & this book indefinitely, so I'll end it here. Get this book!

eARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher for reviewing purposes!

Most of us internet people are familiar with the creepypastas on Reddit of the “forbidden” episodes of children’s shows where people get hurt or the wholesome main character does something awful and they showed it on tv anyway and people remember seeing it at 3am but there’s no record of that episode but everyone in the comments vaguely remembers it. This is a take on that premise-it’s a whole show that people remember but there’s no record of it and no way to watch old episodes. Our main character, Val, starred in the show as a child but has no memory of her experience. A podcast reunites her with her old friends and cast mates and we get to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes…
This does have similar vibes to the author’s previous book, Hide, which I also loved, and I don’t want to give too much away in the review, but she gives us much more than an expanded creepypasta and I enjoyed it a lot.

While I didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Hide, this was still a solid, fast paced read. There are a few lingering questions I have (I don't quite get the motive of Mister Magic... But maybe I just needed to not think about it too hard), but the ENDING! What a beautiful way to wrap up this one. Whew. I look forward to White's next release.

I always keep it honest and I have to say, I didn’t really like this book. I usually like trippy horror like this but it had me completely confused and I’m still not sure exactly what was going on, lots of things didn’t make any sense at all, and certain things were completely skipped over, and the characters were written very YA even though they’re all pushing 40. A+ for the unique premise but I was certain this was going to be a 1-star read until about the 80% mark when things actually started being revealed.

The author’s note at the end confirmed that it was an allegory for events that White herself experienced, and you can feel that it was a personal and cathartic book for her. I sat with my thoughts for a day after finishing this to fully form a review and I think I’ll settle on a 3-star. although it didn’t work for me personally it’s obvious that this is an important book for White and a topic that I don’t see much of in fiction.

I’m impressed with myself that I guessed that this book was a commentary on Mormonism and Mormon culture even before I read the acknowledgments. There is also a subtle commentary on the trouble youth/teen industry which I thought would be explained more but was left

I really liked the book and loved the commentary, it made it more entertaining for me, almost like a puzzle and it helped me work out some of the supernatural issues and believe them more

Mister Magic is one of my most-anticipated reads of 2023. Kiersten White’s previous novel, Hide, was an unexpected fun horror gem last year, and elevated White to my “will read their new work without question” list.

There’s something about weird TV shows that may or may not exist that just immediately resonates with me. Recent examples include Sarah Pinsker’s short story, Two Truths and a Lie, and the incredible creepypasta Candle Cove. I think it may be because of my age; I was essentially raised by television, so it’s the closest I will get to a believable deity. Anyway, I digress.

Mister Magic is the host of an old kid’s TV show, which was canceled after a tragic on-set accident. But the show doesn’t seem to exist outside of the memories of the viewers, and the child stars of the show. However, nostalgia is strong, and a podcast is bringing together the last “circle of friends” who appeared on the show, for a trip down memory lane. Who was Mister Magic? Why did the show really end, and why did no footage of the show survive?

Surprising no one, I loved this book. I loved Val, our central character, who has absolutely no memory of her time on the show, but seems to be at the center of everything. I loved the dynamics between the circle of friends; their reunion felt incredibly authentic. The lore behind the show was incredible, and so creepy.

One word of warning, prepare yourself for some big emotions. I think this is probably the first time an author’s Acknowledgements have made my cry. To create something beautiful out of trauma is a true gift, and White really lays it all on the line.

Mister Magic is heartfelt horror at its finest. White is an incredible author. Pre-order like your future depends on it!