Review: Mister Magic by Kiersten White

Kiersten White’s debut adult novel, Hide, was a masterpiece of millennial rage. I was therefore very excited when Mister Magic was announced. Its premise suggested all kinds of possibilities for adults dealing with weird childhoods, in a way many people my age are working through to a lesser extent, and I really hoped White would go to town on this subject material. I wasn’t disappointed!

Mister Magic follows reclusive Val as she rejoins the cast of a cancelled children’s TV show to record a reunion podcast. Val has spent the years since she left the show hiding away on a ranch, completely off-grid, and can’t even remember her time on the show. As she learns more from her fellow cast, who are also strangely hazy on the details, it becomes apparent that there was something very special about Mister Magic.

I can’t be the only one who remembers some weird stuff in children’s TV — including guinea pigs with tails, what was that about, David the Gnome? Where White really hones her harpoon on this one is in the tendency for adults to utilise children’s entertainment media to impose and pass on their own ideological hang-ups. Mister Magic included delightful songs about how to smile even when you don’t feel like it, and to cover up and be modest if you’re a girl. The show purports to create ‘perfect’ children — that is, children who make an easy life for their parents. But as we get to know the adult cast members, we see that this has a severe knock-on effect and leads to a lot of expensive therapy! White’s book is about breaking the chain of settling adult expectations on children, and making that small shift to letting people of whatever age just be themselves.

At this point, it feels like this wouldn’t be a Kiersten White book if that didn’t come with a flavour of weird, and in that respect Mister Magic doesn’t disappoint either. The reader is treated to various interviews and records relating to the cult TV show, which seems to have something of a Mandela Effect about it, all of which add to the questions about what exactly this show is and how it operates. The final reveal and showdown are very satisfying, but also come with a hard emotional punch to the gut.

Mister Magic is a great, weird, painful book with a laser focus on its message, but without being preachy. It speaks to what we might think is a very particular experience, but when that I suspect will speak to many of us thirty- and forty-somethings. If you enjoyed Hide, you will LOVE Mister Magic.

Mister Magic by Kiersten White is out on the 1st August, 2023, and can be pre-ordered here.

With thanks to the publishers and Netgalley.co.uk for providing an e-advanced review copy.