Mister Magic by Kiersten White

Bibliographic Information:

Title: Mister Magic

Author: Kiersten White

ISBN: 9780593359266

Publisher: Del Rey

Copyright Date: 2023

Format/Genre: Hardcover; Horror

Awards and Honors: None

Reading Level/Interest Level: Written and marketed to adults, but this is a book the YA audience will enjoy.

Plot Summary: Val is a 38-year-old woman living on a ranch in Idaho with her father and the woman who owns the ranch named Gloria. Back when she was a kid, Val was on a hit children’s tv show called “Mister Magic.” There was a tragic accident that Val cannot remember, but that’s when her father scuttled her away to Idaho and has essentially shielded her from the world since then. They don’t have a television and she is allowed very little contact with the outside world. “Mister Magic” still has a cult following of fans though, and there is a podcast that wants to interview all of the former kids (now adults) who were on the show. Three of the other five kids that were on the show find out where Val is and take her down to the deserts of Utah, where another one of the kids (now adults) is waiting for them. When they arrive at a strange, mysterious house, really weird things start to happen to them, and Val doesn’t want anything to do with it. She wants to leave, but before she can leave she needs to try to go visit her mother in a nearby town – Val was told by her father that her mother had passed away long ago. When Val goes to visit her, weird things go down in that town, and, I’m not going to tell you any more or I’ll spoil it!

Author Background: Kiersten White has written books for all ages of readers, and she has won many awards for them, including the Bram Stoker Award for best horror. Her books have been published in over twenty territories, and her novel HIDE is currently in development with Universal Television and Peacock (About Me, n.d.).

Critical Evaluation: This book was written for adults, and adults will certainly feel a bit nostalgic about the concept of a TV show like “Mister Magic” being on the air – I don’t think show like that are on much anymore. But kids will get sucked into this one too, as the (now adult) children are reliving their past lives on the show. This book also makes quite a statement about organized religion, specifically religions like Mormonism, as the author says in her acknowledgements that she was raised Mormon, and as a now former-Mormon, her upbringing played a large part in this book.

Creative Use for a Library Program: Another book to add to my “Spooky Season” reading contest. I could also include it in my selection of books related to Such Lovely Skin in my previous blog post. For fun, I would show the teens some of the old-time children shows that used to be on when I was a kid. They will most likely find them all odd and ridiculous!

Speed-Round Book Talk: Val is a 38-year-old that was on a kids tv show when she was a child. Something bad happened on that show though – the rumor is that someone died. Now, there is a push to get the show back on the air. The other castmates from the show are all rallying down where the show was originally filmed, and they scoop up Val at the ranch in Idaho where she now lives to head down to Utah. When they get there though, it’s all bad man. All bad.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: This book has a few things that someone might challenge on – racism, homomisia, child abuse, alcohol consumption, and the death of a child. Those are fairly easy to knock away. My fear is that folks might lack onto how this book portrays religion. It doesn’t specifically call out Mormonism, but the parallels between the religion in the book, and Mormonism, are not insignificant. If challenged on this, I would show the challenger the author’s afterword where she acknowledges why this book was written the way it was, but I would emphasize that this book is fiction, and it’s one author’s thoughts. First amendment stuff, right? Then give them a copy of our collection development policy.

Reason for Inclusion: I wish I could remember the person’s name, but in my INFO 265 class this semester we had one of my professor’s former students on a Zoom meeting and she gave us a list of all kinds of great creepy, spooky books – and this was one of them. I knew I had to check this one out from her description. Lisa – If you’re reading this, can you please send me that students Insta handle so I can connect with her? I think our taste in books is quite similar!