Street Magic by Taylor S. Seese - NO

Street Magic by Taylor S. Seese, 358 pages. Austin Macauley Publishers, 2019. $14.

Language: R (93 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NO

AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW

Flynn, now in his late 20s, has always loved magic, which is why he is willing to live in an attic off the meager earnings he gets as an illusionist at the park. But when a mime starts winning an undeclared competition for his territory in the park, Flynn has to admit to himself that his passion has faded. Should Flynn continue following his dreams or finally settle down into something more practical?

The ideas that Seese presents are good and have lots of potential, but the way that they were executed made them difficult to enjoy. I think the biggest problem for me was how wordy the story is; Seese does a lot of telling and not enough showing. As Flynn’s monologues continued for pages, getting off topic -- to the point that other characters called him out on losing focus -- I found myself wondering how many more pages I had left (more than 200). Also, the technical aspect of writing got in the way as Seese chose to forgo the organization of chapters, or even page breaks, and used confusing dialogue notation that wasn’t consistent. By the time I made it to the end, I was mentally checked out. And, on top of everything, I was disappointed in the ending itself. I have a difficult time accepting the characters’ decisions in the last couple scenes because of the negative message it sends to readers. The mature content rating is for mentions of sex, and the violence rating is for blood and attempted suicide.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen