The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

The Spellbinding Magic of You and Me (The Magicals' Alliance Book 3)
By Timoteo Tong
NineStar Press, 2025

I loved this for the most part. It’s YA, and somehow manages to be very romantic with nothing more than a kiss between 16-year-old boys. I liked that part especially, because it’s a neat trick to imbue romance into a basically sexless story—and yet, that resonated with my memories of being 16 and realizing I was gay.

This is Los Angeles (actually, Burbank for the most part); but the city we know is resting atop a dark hellish place called the Gloom, in which all sorts of dark creatures vie for power. Because it’s the third book of a series, and I’ve not seen the previous ones, the introductory prologue was confusing—although essential—in setting the stage for the underworld denizens who will keep cropping up, particularly Mau Rebetica, the evil being (immortal, apparently) who embodies rage and vengeance and wants to rule the Gloom. This section was, for me, confusing, because I didn’t know the back story. It also introduces one of the most intriguing aspects of this created world: the old language which, I’m guessing is somewhat related to the Sicilian dialect that several of the main characters speak.

Knowing that there is a supernatural story here, the narrative settles down into the relatively quiet summer holiday of Santangelo Delomary Worthington LoGeffo. He is the main protagonist. Like so many teenaged boys in these stories, he has lost his mother. His mother was from a very rich, very Republican family; while his father is Sicilian born, is covered with tattoos, and runs a hugely popular pizza parlor in Burbank. His father grieves and spends a lot of time at the pizza parlor, while Santy hangs around the family’s somewhat shabby Victorian mansion in Burbank. His only real friends are his husky, Che Growlvara, and his cousins, Meena and Lil Shan (twin children of his father’s gay brother and his Chinese-American husband).

Oh, and they’re all magical. Santy thinks he has a lot of power, and there’s his imaginary golden sword that he sees in his dreams. Well, all that gets explained.

It all gets more complicated when Joshua Tang reappears, after years of absence, in the house across the street. Joshua, known as Neeky, was Santy’s best friend until Santy’s mother died and they had a falling out.

You can see where the emotional punch will come. You can also see that this is a book that is not based on a conventional, suburban white population. The author’s name alone should suggest that. Grandmother Worthington brings the haughty WASP ingredient to the mix, but even she turns out to be more nuanced than that.

The larger storyline revolves around Santy and Neeky discovering their magical powers, even as Santy’s father resists it and grieves angrily for his lost wife. The appearance of evil beings spices up the story, but it remains very specifically about Santy, his family, and his best friend Neeky.

It’s a story about love and loss and friendship and growing up and underworld magic trying to take over the earth. Oh.

I need to read book four.