Fatal Magic

by Janice Harrell

Angry at her boyfriend because of his recklessness, Blythe is intrigued by they mysterious new boy in town, Harry, who lives in the creepy Croger mansion with his magician father.

Genres: Young Adult, Thriller

119 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

Reviews

[Erica Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew I was in for a ride when the story promised magicians, a big old creepy mansion that looks like something out of The Addams Family, and exotic cats as pets.

Some thoughts:

- Loved our snarky protag who works at a parapsychology lab. Her job comes up a lot but they talk about it like it’s nbd?? I thought it was strange how it wasn’t a bigger part of the story. That could’ve been really interesting to explore; throw in a few dangerous ~illusions to really up the stakes. But all we get is her love interest doing a cute little magic act instead.

- The synopsis on the back of the cover made it seem like it was going to be a trapped-in-a-house-by-a-crazy-killer type of thing, and it wasn’t. At all. I really wanted to see more of this weird magician’s house!

- Actually I wanted to see more magic stuff too. Boo

I did like the writing and story overall, even if a bit predictable.

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Low on magic, high on vicious tigers.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, but I was glad it was short, the font was so tiny it was hard to read 😂 Not the worst of these 90's YA horror stories though.

* Blythe and her boyfriend Quentin are leaving a party, he says he's okay to drive, she questions him, but they drive anyway. There's heavy rain and a car pulls out in front of them. Quentin hits it, and while he and Blythe are okay, the female passenger of the car they hit will never walk again.
* Blythe doesn't feel the same about Quentin anymore, and she fancies this new boy Harry, so she breaks up with Quentin and starts going out with Harry. Quentin is not happy about this at all.
* Harry's dad is a magician, they live in a giant house with an even bigger fence, and have 2 snow tigers that they have raised from kittens.
* One day Blythe is at the house when she notices that one of the tigers is pulling a human hand from behind a bush. She screams and runs behind the bush to find that the hand belongs to Quentin, and he is dead.
* Quentin's cause of death is accidental as he has a fractured skull and they guess that he was climbing over the fence and fell.
* Blythe doesn't believe it because Quentin was scared of heights. She goes to Harry's house to look for clues and finds that one of the upstairs windows has a new pane of glass.
* Harry confronts her and confesses that he killed Quentin because Quentin killed his sister who was the passenger in the car he hit, who committed suicide when she could no longer be a dancer.
* Blythe drives off and Harry and his father chase her. Her car leaks oil though, and Harry's car skids and goes off the road and into the quarry killing both of them.

[Nattie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's short and to the point. There's some odd stuff going on over at the Croger mansion, and if I had been Blythe, I wouldn't have been on the property more than once.
The summary on the back of the book is either written by somebody who didn't read it, or is misleading on purpose. Blythe never hurt anyone so the then unknown person declaring that she will pay for the hurt she caused is way off in space.
Very suspenseful tale, though I wish I hadn't had to read the awful car crash descriptions.

[Adrian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This may be the most predictable horror novel I have ever read. And I have read some terrible horror novels.

[Jackie ❤️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this was fairly predictable and a slow burn.