The story follows Valentine or “Val” and her journey into her past after the death of her father. She soon finds out that she was a cast member of a children’s program called Mister Magic that was cancelled after a tragic accident. This is news to her, as Val cannot remember anything before her and her father moved to the Ranch. In fact, there is no history about the show at all. Her former cast members Marcus, Jenny, Javi and Issac go along with her on her journey to remember, while also contributing to a podcast that is documenting the history of the elusive and mysterious Mister Magic show.

I found this story very interesting and it built suspense as the story unfolded in the first 100 pages or so. As the story continued, it was starting to seem like one of those stories where the monster is being built up to be an all-powerful entity. It was starting to become more clear that the villain wasn’t going to really be a person but more of a concept or metaphor for something else. I liked the book and it was a great metaphor for how adults project so much of their fear of change and fear of challenging traditional aspects of society onto children and stifle them from their own growth and self-expression at such a young age. Given the religious background of the author (the first couple of sentences of the acknowledgement section killed me) it makes sense.

THIS PART OF THE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS:

Every time a character referred to a jingle, it always pointed out whatever trauma they had as a kid. Marcus being the first interviewee immediately gave me that impression. He was known as the Visionary of the group, the one who had the most vivid, colorful imagination. I assumed the jingle made commentary on Marcus being Black and how he shouldn't stand out because of that. It wasn't until around halfway through the book it was revealed that Marcus wasn't just Black, he was also gay. Then his jingles made a lot more sense. It wasn't until Val and Jenny were talking about the jingles that were only taught to the girls involving modesty and being a “good girl” that I really started understanding what type of message the author was trying to tell. 

I really liked the messaging around Jenny. She’s the one character who knew about everything beforehand. She’s the one who not only stayed behind, but continued to push the messaging the show taught her and do what she was “supposed to do”. Even doing all of that, she still wasn’t happy. Val just represents the type of people who are willing to stand up and challenge traditions and not be afraid of change.

How do I feel about the ending? Not a big fan and I feel like Val choosing to stay as the new Mister Magic and teach the kids new lessons probably means something, but I just feel sad that she discovered she didn’t have to hide away her whole life and now she’ll still never get the chance like??? That’s super sad. She’s the one is strong enough to stand against the traditions and she can’t even live her life after all that loss.