There are no spoilers here (not really), so put the saran wrap and aluminum foil away. And if you are on a more health-conscious tip, put away the glass storage containers (generally me, but I do partake in the former).
I enjoyed the overall experience of this book. The ending, though a more than generous display of a happy ending, wasn’t my favorite. Sometimes people get below their just due, and sometimes people ‘get away with it’. Throughout the story, I wanted every evildoer and their enabler(s) to pay with interest, yesterday.
I will also say, take heed to the Prologue; every word is meant to prepare you for what you will read. If you proceed, don’t say Shanora didn’t warn you.
The friendship in this book was felt on a deep level; having people travel life’s often raggedy journey with you is a treasure, and I so appreciated how the author did it here. I saw two people show love-in-action, when the world was more cruel than kind to them (and sometimes, a real friend is the only thing that gets you through it).
Heed the prologue, and if you continue reading, I hope you enjoy the ride, because I did.
Now, in my last post, I said I was on an ‘autobiography surge’…well the surge was shorter than a cheap sugar rush. Life got serious, and a lot of things changed quickly. I didn’t read anything for several weeks. I tried to complete a book for the sake of providing consistent blog updates, but nah, this blog will be updated when I finish a book that I’ve read while actually living…and if I don’t, it won’t (this also prevents plotitude from becoming ‘work’ , and keeps it as a hobby). Ok, back to my latest read.
I should’ve known by now, especially after reading a couple of Freida’s books (pre-blog) how she gets down…she twists the story tighter than a stubborn HDMI cord.
Natalie and Dawn played tug of war with my emotions. A good bit of the dialogue is over email, and some of the emails had me in tears. The pivot in the story took place in a raggedy motel carrying a sandwich in a brown paper bag…oooWEEEE! Any liquid I would’ve had in my mouth while reading it would have flown out because I screamed.
The book will piss you off, have you rooting for someone to get their due punishment, and sometimes, have you telling the ‘justice bringer’ to slow the hell down with the antics.
I recommend this book; don’t pick a side too early.
There are spoilers galore….continue reading if you’re nosey.
This book was a mentally exhausting mess, and with the story being set during the pandemic, ooo wee.
Kelly, after a breakup, moves in with an old HS classmate Sabrina (whom Kelly’s been stalking on social media btw….red flag 1/1,000) and her husband Nathan. Kelly is blown away by their beautiful neighborhood and spacious home….think Park Place & Boardwalk.
Kelly spends her time navigating her breakup-ish after moving out of the home she and her ex-fiancé Mike shared, making sense of her new surroundings, all while managing her intuition (which she appropriately refers to as her ‘gremlin’).
Soon enough 2+1 = 3….and they start getting it IN (because what else is there to do cooped up in the house?).
Kelly’s gremlin gets whiffs of new information about the couple’s previous lover, and she starts digging all up in these folks business.
Now the hot tub scene….this is where I figured I had it…The three of them are hugging and kissing, touching…all of a sudden Nathan takes bobbin for apples too seriously and starts drowning Kelly
I tell Kelly:
“This is your sign girl… go and find Dianne The Busy Body and ask her to get you the HELL up out of Park Place.”
Does she listen to me?
Then out of the BLUE little miss absent from class shows up, and now I have some serious questions. Maybe Sabrina and Nathan aren’t who I thought they were?
Babygirl ends up dead….and I’m like, nah, they are….they definitely are.
After a quick session of ‘whodunit’, the trio decides to take a nap before going out at night to bury Beth like an easter egg.
While Sabrina and Nathan sleep, Kelly’s gremlin rages relentless, and she soon finds the murder weapon….she gets caught….she and Nathan get into it, and Nathan…boom…is gone.
Sabrina and Kelly then make up some ish to tell the detectives, and after a lazy investigation, both walk free. They decide to start over and move out of Park Place, and Kelly decides to go visit Mike for one last goodbye (because when all your wounds have healed, re-opening one makes the most sense).
This book also makes you realize that perspective is a helluva drug….because as previous parts of the story were being re-told I’m like ‘HOW DID THEY GET THIS FROM THAT!?
I won’t completely spoil the ending, but I will say, everyone needs to be locked up…every last one of them. And the deceased? Lock them up posthumously.
Overall, this was a good listen…A quote from Kelly sums it up well
I was 14 out of 15 minutes into my decision to return this book without finishing it. The more I listened to it, the more drawn out the story became (it was hard for me to follow… like the paintbrush strokes felt too vast). It took a while for me to get adjusted to what was happening.
Some of the early scenes reminded me of Stephen King’s ‘IT’(1986) when the adults, after somewhat moving on with their lives, were drawn back into a terrifying character from their childhood.
After some time, I was like, maybe there’s a spell on this book… like the same evil power that these kids in the book are fighting, one that’s making me listen to this longwinded book…the ‘magic’ is making me see it though.
It wasn’t until I got down to the last couple hours of the 10+ hour listen that I was HOOKED like a fish at Bass Pro shop; terrified yet fully invested (hmmm was it the magic again?).
The story of Mister Magic is thick with honest and eerily difficult layers of toxic programming that intersect across as many areas of life as you allow it to touch. Several of the themes the author referenced resonated with both adult and childhood me. While this book is loosely about kids and play, it’s definitely not a game.
And when the book shifted at the end from telling the story to TALKING TO ME! I lost it, and the side eye I gave to my surroundings would have you thinking I had a conspiratorial podcast on repeat.
While I initially thought I was right in doing an ‘early return’, I’m glad I was wrong. Give it a listen.
Plotitude 