Andrew Eliopulos is a children's book writer and editor. Originally from Georgia, Andrew graduated from the University of Chicago and now lives with his husband in Brooklyn, New York. His debut novel, The Spider Ring, was a CBC Children's Choices Reading List Pick and a Grand Canyon Reader Award nominee. Andrew may or may not believe in magic. You can find him at www.andreweliopulos.com.
Sam doesn't know where he'd be without James and Delia. Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, he needs their friendship—and their time together in their school's magic club—to see him through graduation. But as soon as their senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James, who may or may not have a crush on a girl from his church. Delia wants to get into a hyper-competitive magic college, which makes casting spells with her friends look increasingly like a waste of time. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs. Never mind the cute new guy who wants to join their club—Sam hardly has time left to think about him. With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart—and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.
Sam loves his friends, his magic, and his plan for the future. As an out gay magicker in the small town of Friedman, Georgia, he faces a lot of adversity, and his happy, bright, and stubborn demeanor takes it all in stride. Sam is such a lovable character from the get-go, and I think everyone who was in high school can relate to him. He is the perfect main character through which the narrative of The Fascinators unfolds. Sam's character arc is one of the best I've read in younger YA in a while; he has expectations about senior year that are completely shattered after a series of summer and early fall events. Battling for his friends, he realizes, might not be what he wants, or what they want. This is pretty heartbreaking, considering that Sam has felt the safest with his friends and that his life in Friedman would be entirely different if he didn't have them. As his desire to fix things with his friends on a personal level take a backseat to saving them, Sam learns things about his friends as people that he'd blinded himself to out of loyalty. I personally love how Sam's story and his arc revolves around his uncovering information and feelings towards his friends, rather than being a romantic-centered story. We definitely need more books that focus in on friendship as a theme, and The Fascinators did not disappoint in that arena!
The themes of friendship within this story is what makes The Fascinators such a moving narrative. Sam has been best friends with Delia and James forever, but as senior year starts, there are fractures in the group. Delia is lying, James is putting them in danger, and Sam is doing everything in his power to bring their trio back to balance—until he realizes that that just might not be possible after all the individual choices Sam, Delia, and James have made. I think too much in publishing there are stories of friends who stay friends forever, which is great, but it's just not the reality of growing up. Eliopulos brings the reality to light in this book, shining light on what it looks like to grow apart from your friends, to hurt them and to be hurt by them. He examines how growing apart from your friends is a natural part of high school, and how strange and awkward making new friends can be. By the end of the novel, I was really satisfied with how Sam's relationships with Delia, James, and Denver evolved. In a way other books seem to struggle with, Eliopulos told the truth of what would have happened with these characters' relationships with the choices they made, even if the outcomes are hard to swallow.
It's super important to note that we have fabulous gay main character representation where the narrative does not revolve around being gay, however, the queer community plays an important role in this story. It was super awesome to see the nuances of being queer in the South, especially since the South in Eliopulos's fantasy world is essentially the American South of today. More than that, Eliopulos works hard for all kinds of inclusivity in this book, from pronouns to representation, that was refreshing and is necessary in publishing today. I was immediately drawn into Sam's world, and the ways in which the magic and queer communities overlaid one another. The magic system that Eliopulos creates is also super fun! There's no other way to describe it—because everyone has magic, and no one can take that away from you. It's just up to the individual to hone their skills and practice. What I wouldn't give to live in a world like that!
This book had a younger voice than I was expecting, especially for one slated as YA fantasy, but I found that at the end this was a strength for the book. The main characters are seniors in high school, but the voice of the book is slated towards a younger audience of high schoolers, probably around freshman and sophomores, or even middle schoolers. Because the main characters were seniors in high school, I expected the voice to be older and not as light as it was, however, this turned into a strength as its way of commenting on who should be invited into the audience of YA fantasy. Lots of YA fantasy these days is slated towards older readers, especially since those books do have a "darker" voice and heavier scenes and emotional loads. But that leaves out an entire audience of younger high schoolers. Andrew Eliopulos, by writing The Fascinators for a younger YA audience, gets to bring a whole new audience for YA fantasy, which I fully support. In the end, the voice does make the book more engaging, hilarious, and lighthearted even in the midst of all the heavy themes.
Andrew is also the author of The Spider Ring, and there is hope that The Fascinators might get a sequel (because we do have some openings for another story, if Eliopulos so chose!)...stay tuned for more author news from Andrew at his website, www.andreweliopulos.com.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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