{"id":42,"date":"2010-01-12T12:22:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-03T18:15:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T23:15:54","slug":"magic_and_misery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/magic_and_misery\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic and Misery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marino, Peter. Magic and Misery.<\/em> New York: Holiday House, 2009. hardcover. 293p. $17.95. ISBN: 9780823421336.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Peter Marino’s Magic and Misery<\/em> covers numerous aspects of teenage life: first love; class consciousness; bullying; parents\/step-parents; friendships; being gay; being straight; and even prom. And at the center of all of these angsty topics are TJ and Pan. When they first meet, TJ develops an enormous crush on “golden boy” Pan; consequently, when he comes out, she’s both embarrassed and hurt. But she also realizes that she wants Pan in her life regardless, and they soon settle into a true friendship.<\/p>\n

Then TJ begins dating Casper, a sweet, smart football player, and this time it’s Pan who must adjust to the changing dynamics of his friendship with TJ. But it’s not easy for Pan, and he makes that clear to both TJ and Casper. Though Pan seems irrational at times, his reasons behind his actions are due to his fear of forced isolation. If TJ loves someone more than him, what will that mean for his lonely existence?<\/p>\n

Marino beautifully captures the oftentimes complicated, always romantic relationship between straight girls and their gay boyfriends. He’s written likable and realistic characters who have none of the pretentious posing often found when an author tries too hard to illustrate “modern teens.” Rather, Marino’s characters\u2014adults and teens alike\u2014are funny, flawed, well-meaning, kind, selfish, real<\/em> people.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> This book contains an alarming gay bashing, and the publisher’s 14+ age restriction is appropriate. Magic and Misery<\/em> is highly recommended. This delightful, thoughtful book belongs in all libraries that have young adult patrons.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by, Tracy Nectoux<\/strong>
\nQuality Control and Metadata Specialist,
\nIllinois Newspaper Project
\nUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marino, Peter. Magic and Misery. New York: Holiday House, 2009. hardcover. 293p. $17.95. ISBN: 9780823421336. Peter Marino’s Magic and Misery covers numerous aspects of teenage life: first love; class consciousness; bullying; parents\/step-parents; friendships; being gay; being straight; and even prom. And at the center of all of these angsty topics are TJ and Pan. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}