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A review by charkinzie
I'm a Gay Wizard by V.S. Santoni
3.0
First! The good stuff! This book was a lot of fun to read. The friendly/snarky banter between the characters gave me life and made me laugh out loud more than once.
Santoni has come up with a clever concept: in this world, the first time you use magic sparks a terrifying event. Anyone with magical ability is abducted and taken to an institute under the guise of being trained and protected. But, the reader finds out early on that’s not really what is going on. Basically, Johnny is abducted and incarcerated. The life he was taken from is basically wiped out: his family won’t remember him, and it will be as if he never existed.
The idea of young people being taken from their homes for something beyond their control and incarcerated rang a little bit true in light of what has been going on in the US recently.
There is a diverse group of characters in this novel. Johnny is a young gay Latinx teen with stretched earlobes, a fierce heart and a penchant for hilarious thoughts. I loved this own-voices character. He was authentic and funny, charming and bumbling. It was a joy to read about Johnny falling in love for the first time, and finding his way to courage in a crazy world.
Johnny’s best friend Ali is a trans woman. This character suffers the harsh cruelty of life with strength and dignity. I adored her friendship with Johnny and their devotion to one another.
Santoni has some great building blocks at the beginning of this novel. This is a magical world where magic is scientifically based (not unlike the world created by Victoria Lee in the Fever King). What I wanted to see explored more thoroughly was the unique clockwork structure of magic and how it was almost machinery-like. I felt as though I didn’t really get enough information to understand it as well as I wanted to.
The magical powers were a bit confusing to me. It was a random spell that ignited the latent abilities in Ali and Johnny and then there was really nothing further written in the novel about how the young Wizards learned how to do more magic… they just … did. That was a bit unsatisfying given how much of a great idea the clockwork magical world was.
There were a lot of pop culture references scattered throughout which I think may date the book prematurely. There were some times during the book when it felt a little bit like fanfiction to me. That won’t bother some people, but that always pulls me out of a story no matter how good it is.
All in all, this was a fun read with some really likable characters. It’s got a Gay wizard, monsters, epic battles, and a love story! What more could you want in a summer read? I will look forward to reading more by this author.
Santoni has come up with a clever concept: in this world, the first time you use magic sparks a terrifying event. Anyone with magical ability is abducted and taken to an institute under the guise of being trained and protected. But, the reader finds out early on that’s not really what is going on. Basically, Johnny is abducted and incarcerated. The life he was taken from is basically wiped out: his family won’t remember him, and it will be as if he never existed.
The idea of young people being taken from their homes for something beyond their control and incarcerated rang a little bit true in light of what has been going on in the US recently.
There is a diverse group of characters in this novel. Johnny is a young gay Latinx teen with stretched earlobes, a fierce heart and a penchant for hilarious thoughts. I loved this own-voices character. He was authentic and funny, charming and bumbling. It was a joy to read about Johnny falling in love for the first time, and finding his way to courage in a crazy world.
Johnny’s best friend Ali is a trans woman. This character suffers the harsh cruelty of life with strength and dignity. I adored her friendship with Johnny and their devotion to one another.
Santoni has some great building blocks at the beginning of this novel. This is a magical world where magic is scientifically based (not unlike the world created by Victoria Lee in the Fever King). What I wanted to see explored more thoroughly was the unique clockwork structure of magic and how it was almost machinery-like. I felt as though I didn’t really get enough information to understand it as well as I wanted to.
The magical powers were a bit confusing to me. It was a random spell that ignited the latent abilities in Ali and Johnny and then there was really nothing further written in the novel about how the young Wizards learned how to do more magic… they just … did. That was a bit unsatisfying given how much of a great idea the clockwork magical world was.
There were a lot of pop culture references scattered throughout which I think may date the book prematurely. There were some times during the book when it felt a little bit like fanfiction to me. That won’t bother some people, but that always pulls me out of a story no matter how good it is.
All in all, this was a fun read with some really likable characters. It’s got a Gay wizard, monsters, epic battles, and a love story! What more could you want in a summer read? I will look forward to reading more by this author.