Wizard for Hire
Obert Skye, Shadow Mountain Publishing (MARCH) Hardcover $17.99 (400pp), 978-1-62972-412-6
Wizard for Hire’s irresistible pages celebrate the irrepressible magic of being authentic and unique.
Incidental misfits and intrepid survivors gather for a singularly important quest in Obert Skye’s Wizard for Hire, a captivating novel that straddles the line between fantasy and reality.
Ozzy’s family moves from New York to the deep Oregon woods when he is seven. The peace of their new life is shattered, though, when men descend on their cabin and spirit Ozzy’s parents away. For the next seven years, Ozzy survives in seclusion, subsisting on the family’s stock of canned goods and his parents’ stores of literature. He grows into a young man who may be at odds with the world’s expectations but whose honesty, sincerity, and imagination hold undeniable appeal.
When he is fourteen, a chance encounter with a beautiful girl—sigi—on a nearby beach moves Ozzy to reenter the world. He does so with the help of his father’s droll mechanical bird, Clark, and Labyrinth—also known as Rin—a fasttalking, breakfast-loving maybe-wizard whom he hires from a local ad.
Skye’s pages rollick with charm and exciting encounters. Phrasing plays entrancingly with truisms; of Sigi, Ozzy reflects that he is “more or less in awe of her. Who was he kidding—he couldn’t be more.” Characterizations tackle the casual racism of small-town America with frank sensitivity.
The story’s twists hold at their fore one important thought: the truest kind of magic may come from honoring our individuality. Indeed, the villains whom Ozzy, Clark, Sigi, and Rin find themselves battling have one vile goal in mind: control, uniformity, and the erasure of chance.
“The world is filled with so many souls and each one of us has a catalog of stories to tell,” marvels Rin to his teenage accomplices. That sense of wonder permeates Wizard for Hire’s irresistible pages, which celebrate the irrepressible magic of being authentic and unique. exceptional approach to the world. He is frank in discussing the things he may be missing out on but still approaches all challenges with determination. His storytelling leaves his cerebral palsy unnamed for the first hundred pages; he prefers to frame himself, first and foremost, as a swimmer, friend, and loving son.
Jack has a harder time working through his challenges, ending up in isolation where Ryan chooses popular company. Ryan’s decision to invite his classmate along on a trip to a local Comic Con—with Cody, who isn’t so sure that he wants a gay friend—opens the door to a wider celebration of the unique challenges that make teens who they are, with costumed networks helping Jack toward coming out, and a beautiful young woman, Clare, catching Ryan’s eye.
The novel’s conclusions may be a little too pat, and worrisome figures prove remarkably easy to persuade. This is less a work to turn to for realism than it is an encouraging story about what’s possible if teens choose to accept the people around them. Regarded in that light, its happier turns are easy to embrace, and its feel-good atmosphere is well worth diving into.