Cover image from Goodreads.com
It’s been thirty years since the television show Mister Magic left the air under tragic circumstances. There are no recordings of the show and no record of any production company, directors, or actors, yet people remember watching the show avidly as children.
Val has spent thirty years in hiding with her dad. She didn’t attend school and barely left the farm where she and her dad lived. Instead, she worked with the farm’s owner, Gloria, and kept her life small.
When her dad dies, Gloria posts a message on social media about his passing. Old friends from Val’s childhood show up to the funeral and suddenly, Val has the opportunity to learn about a past she’s kept locked away from herself. Namely, that she and her friends were the last set of children on the show before it went off the air.
I was engrossed in this novel right away. The author writes horror well enough that I found myself glued to the pages to find out what was going on. I was strongly invested in Val learning about her past and what happened on the television show. However, at about the midpoint, I wasn’t as eager to pick the book up after putting it down. This was mostly because I was getting tired of Val not remembering things and her friends not answering her questions. I wanted to yell at Val to ask better questions and/or not let her friends change the subject.
The last fifth or so of the novel explains everything, but feels rushed. With the middle dragging out the question of what’s going on and the end supplying an answer that I couldn’t have guessed at, I felt a bit frustrated.
Overall though, the narrative voice was consistent and engaging enough for me to consider reading something else by this author.
Should Be Writing 