Magic and Misery~ Peter Marino Review

Enjoyment: ★★★★

Plot: ★★★☆

Characters: ★★★

Setting: ★★★

Overall: ★★★☆

TJ adores her gay best friend, Pan. He is a golden boy-gorgeous, witty, and sophisticated, so different from the redneck troglodyte teenage boys in her blue-collar town. TJ and Pan are inseparable until Casper, the thoughtful football player in their English class, enters the picture. Convinced she would never have a real boyfriend, TJ is thrilled when Casper asks her out. But their romance jeopardizes her relationship with Pan, which becomes strained and unpredictable. Trenchant wit and unflinching honesty distinguish this unforgettable story in which magic and misery weave through true friendship and first love.

The story behind how TJ and Pan become friends is interesting if not a little clique. That is were the book jumps into: how TJ and Pan first met. The book is very real to life and despite my lack of experiences in small towns I could see this happening. The book is copy written in 2009, which is very recent, and I am glad to say that I some of the things that happen in the book do not happen everywhere.

TJ and Pan are your average everyday friends and there is nothing really out of the ordinary about them. Personally the setting plus them is what made the book into anything. Because any other setting that the author had put this pair into would have made them inconsequential. The only thing that made this book interesting at all was the fact that almost everyone in town happened to know everyone, everything, and have huge cases of homophobia. The fact that it had the clique of small towns being closed-minded bigots helped quite a bit for moving the book along. TJ becomes Casper's girlfriend very sudden and they begin sleeping with each other shortly after. You could almost miss it if you blinked too soon. However even though the book was very close to real life I found it a very enjoyable read with the setting carrying most of the weight.