The Magician - Rebecca Serle - ★★.½

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AUTHOR: Rebecca Serle
GENRE: Short Story
PUBLICATION DATE: April 27, 2023
RATING: 2.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A short story about a mother and daughter ready to begin the next phase of their lives. Interesting from start to end, but it never feels mind-blowing. End result: meh. A one-time read.

Plot Preview:
Charlie’s mom Sandra is a successful magician who has been entertaining audiences for decades. Her special act is when she levitates in air, with no one able to understand how she defies gravity. After all these years in New York, Sandra has now approached Charlie with a bombshell: she is moving to Santa Fe. The timing couldn’t have been worse, as Charlie herself is expecting, and the house where she lives with her husband is still not done with renovations.
The story comes to us in Charlie’s first-person perspective.


This is the first standalone story in the 'Good Intentions’ series, described on Amazon as “a riveting collection of stories about the instincts, fears, and fierce love inherent in motherhood.”

There are many good things about this story. The plot is steady from start to end. The characters are also interesting, what with one magician who has her secrets, one daughter who is apprehensive about the future , one husband who stays calm even in times of stress, and one contractor who seems to be least bothered about his commitments. The plot progression is good, and while there is no settled ending, it is still a decent one.

Despite all this, I was not that impressed.

The story leaves unanswered many things related to characters and their decisions in the past and the present. So somehow, there’s a feeling of incompleteness even after the story is complete. I wish that at least Sandra’s secret to “flying” successfully had been revealed, but like a true magician, she doesn’t spill the beans on her technique. As she was a first-time to-be-grandma, I was surprised how she chose the sixth month of her daughter’s pregnancy to leave the city she had been in all her life. Granted, she has the right to her own life, but surely there should have been some expression of regret for not being there for such a momentous occasion – the birth of her first grandchild.

All in all, this is a decent tale, but not impactful. It had tremendous promise, but it just didn’t meet the potential.

Works for a one-time read. At just 25 pages, it won’t take much of your time, and it won’t even stay in your head for a long time.

This standalone story is a part of the ‘Good Intentions’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

Kudos to the cover artist!  This entire story series has stunning cover art.

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