I should have loved this. After all, it's about Black queer AF magical girls - it aims to break every tradition, convention and expectation in terms of rep in the genre - and for the most part, it's charming and well written. Included in the novel are illustrations of each of the four magical girls of magnifiqueNOIR (plus their mentor who's a former magical girl) by different, prominent artists, and their bios, and one-page comic panels, furthering its adorable, independently-made charm. Each magical girls' place on the LBGTQ+ spectrum is reflected in their colour schemes; in their hair and fabulously fashionable outfits.
'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical''s geeky heart is in the right place.Sadly, there is one problem. Wait--more accurately, it's the first problem: The confusedly-placed flashbacks at the beginning, which become too long and overstay their welcome, and which also create a nonlinear style of storytelling that doesn't continue or flow well with the rest of the book. Add in the inconsistencies between the flashbacks, and what happens and what is said between the past and the present day scenes, inadvertently giving the impression of an unreliable narrative device, and I was having a jarring reading experience. The "This is how I got here"/superhero origin flashback scenes should not leave me scratching my head and flipping back pages, to see if I'd missed something, only to find I hadn't; there are contradictory and nonsensical details and dialogue, in need of proofreading.
Other flaws include: Some of the characters, as well realised and well developed as they are, had their sudden selfish arsehole moments that made me want to tear my hair out. Or some other (or the same, actually) characters are just arseholes and are never called out on it. It annoys me.
While I'm on the point of inconsistencies and characters, one of the magical girls of magnifiqueNOIR
(always in bold in the book) once refers to an ordinary civilian character as one of the most important people in her life (page 152)... when she'd only met him three times by then (that we know of), and each time very briefly. And the last time she met him he was screaming at her and being suddenly and frighteningly hysterical - an out-of-character moment that is never remarked on again. WTF?
There's also the changing of POVs being given new characters later on in the book, which might have been okay and acceptable if we'd met and gotten to know these people a bit more earlier on.
The monsters that the magical girls fight are generic, often slimy and oozing things that are easily and quickly defeated. Some fights even happen off-page - they are skipped over; not helping the impression that the monsters are an afterthought and nonthreat overall. Nothing about their origins, what they are, where they come from, and why they are attacking this specific (nameless) city now, after a generation ago, is explained. The origins of magnifiqueNOIR's existence and powers are not revealed, either. I've heard everything will be clarified in the sequel, though. I guess I'll have to take the blurb's and book reviewers' word for it. A lot of info is left out, to be explained and explored in the sequel, in fact.
Aaaaannnnd to point out another inconsistency, although this time it's due to a miscommunication between writer and artist, one of the comic panels (Page 161) has one of the girls fighting a female-in-appearance monster that is designed to look like a spider with horns on her head, but in the prose, in that same chapter, the monster is not described as anything like that - she's just a hideous, leaky, pimply, pus-filled mess of a creature ('pus' is incorrectly spelled as 'puss' every time it is mentioned in the book). It's a shame because a lady arachnoid, a giant black widow spider, sounds like an awesome monster for the magical girls to battle.
The chapters get increasingly, overly long, to boot. There are many typos - more editing and proofreading was needed - but then again, these days I've seen more typos in books from renowned publishing houses; this isn't only a problem in self-published works.
Yet, in spite of these flaws...
'magnifiqueNOIR Book One' is a geek girl's dream, and is full of heart and style. It is brimming with pop culture references, especially those of the video game and anime communities, and most of them are charming and cute instead of annoying and forced. It's like a better, feminist, more-loving-and-enthusiastic version of 'Ready Player One'. However, a few of the references, and the political and social climate of 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One', like in the attitudes towards queer people existing (wow are a lot of the older generation bafflingly ignorant and irritating), do give away that it came out in 2017.
How sad is it that nowadays I consider 2017 to be a long time ago? These last several years have been long, heavy, exhausting, regressive, worrying, dreary and deeply depressing, haven't they?
Oh look, positivity! And 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' is bursting with glittery, explosive positivity.
There's the wonderful inclusivity, the memorable, bright, literally colourful characters, and baking and cupcakes, and 8-bit pixels, as well as magical girl awesomeness! The magnifiqueNOIR girls' names are Galactic Purple, Cosmic Green, Radical Rainbow, and Prism Pink (who appears much later on and whose identity is a mystery)! They're great, vibrant, kaleidoscopic, magical Black queer heroines!
Maybe it would have been better if the whole thing had been a comic book instead of a prose novel.
I wish it could have been a bit more careful and thoughtful in its editing and characterisations and character consistencies (not to mention how it handles its flashbacks at the start).
But the passion, the commitment, the love for the characters, it's on every page. I don't know, maybe my love for the magical girl genre and diverse representation is clouding my judgement, but I think I might like 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' after all, when it is far from a masterpiece.
I've decided I will keep it. It's cool, cute and charming. And totally unlike anything you'll find in your average bookshop.
'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' - A fangirl-made, western Magical GirlTM hidden gem.
Add this to the list of (legit) Magical GirlTM books I read and enjoyed in 2024. Others on the list are 'A Magical Girl Retires', 'Hovergirls', 'Flavor Girls', 'Save Yourself!', 'Sleepless Domain', 'Magic Girls: Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess', and 'Winx Club' and 'W.I.T.C.H.' stuff.
Final Score: 3/5
There's also the changing of POVs being given new characters later on in the book, which might have been okay and acceptable if we'd met and gotten to know these people a bit more earlier on.
The monsters that the magical girls fight are generic, often slimy and oozing things that are easily and quickly defeated. Some fights even happen off-page - they are skipped over; not helping the impression that the monsters are an afterthought and nonthreat overall. Nothing about their origins, what they are, where they come from, and why they are attacking this specific (nameless) city now, after a generation ago, is explained. The origins of magnifiqueNOIR's existence and powers are not revealed, either. I've heard everything will be clarified in the sequel, though. I guess I'll have to take the blurb's and book reviewers' word for it. A lot of info is left out, to be explained and explored in the sequel, in fact.
Aaaaannnnd to point out another inconsistency, although this time it's due to a miscommunication between writer and artist, one of the comic panels (Page 161) has one of the girls fighting a female-in-appearance monster that is designed to look like a spider with horns on her head, but in the prose, in that same chapter, the monster is not described as anything like that - she's just a hideous, leaky, pimply, pus-filled mess of a creature ('pus' is incorrectly spelled as 'puss' every time it is mentioned in the book). It's a shame because a lady arachnoid, a giant black widow spider, sounds like an awesome monster for the magical girls to battle.
The chapters get increasingly, overly long, to boot. There are many typos - more editing and proofreading was needed - but then again, these days I've seen more typos in books from renowned publishing houses; this isn't only a problem in self-published works.
Yet, in spite of these flaws...
'magnifiqueNOIR Book One' is a geek girl's dream, and is full of heart and style. It is brimming with pop culture references, especially those of the video game and anime communities, and most of them are charming and cute instead of annoying and forced. It's like a better, feminist, more-loving-and-enthusiastic version of 'Ready Player One'. However, a few of the references, and the political and social climate of 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One', like in the attitudes towards queer people existing (wow are a lot of the older generation bafflingly ignorant and irritating), do give away that it came out in 2017.
How sad is it that nowadays I consider 2017 to be a long time ago? These last several years have been long, heavy, exhausting, regressive, worrying, dreary and deeply depressing, haven't they?
Oh look, positivity! And 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' is bursting with glittery, explosive positivity.
There's the wonderful inclusivity, the memorable, bright, literally colourful characters, and baking and cupcakes, and 8-bit pixels, as well as magical girl awesomeness! The magnifiqueNOIR girls' names are Galactic Purple, Cosmic Green, Radical Rainbow, and Prism Pink (who appears much later on and whose identity is a mystery)! They're great, vibrant, kaleidoscopic, magical Black queer heroines!
Maybe it would have been better if the whole thing had been a comic book instead of a prose novel.
I wish it could have been a bit more careful and thoughtful in its editing and characterisations and character consistencies (not to mention how it handles its flashbacks at the start).
But the passion, the commitment, the love for the characters, it's on every page. I don't know, maybe my love for the magical girl genre and diverse representation is clouding my judgement, but I think I might like 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' after all, when it is far from a masterpiece.
I've decided I will keep it. It's cool, cute and charming. And totally unlike anything you'll find in your average bookshop.
'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' - A fangirl-made, western Magical GirlTM hidden gem.
Add this to the list of (legit) Magical GirlTM books I read and enjoyed in 2024. Others on the list are 'A Magical Girl Retires', 'Hovergirls', 'Flavor Girls', 'Save Yourself!', 'Sleepless Domain', 'Magic Girls: Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess', and 'Winx Club' and 'W.I.T.C.H.' stuff.
Final Score: 3/5
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