The Magic Circle

After a terrible car accident, Mary Armstrong speaks to an unknown narrator only through her diary. In its pages, readers are given the chance to enter the titular Magic Circle: the unnerving and wavering psyche of a woman whose life is plagued by generational abuse and trauma. Wrapped in mystery and transgression, the story is framed through epistolary entries from Mary, accompanied by the narrator’s observations and interpretations, which could offer thoughtful discussion for those who are familar with the topics of the divine, sexuality, and linguistics.

Often shocking, Mary’s search for spiritual and academic rationalizations for a childhood immersed in a political world of high expectations, secrecy, and hypocrisy, juxtaposed with her own abuse, will engage readers as they pull together the threads of her life. However, the story becomes bogged down in one-sided theoretical and psychological discussions that the narrator rarely questions, preventing readers from truly understanding Mary or her family members. Visual art accompanies each chapter (stylized as a “canon”) in an attempt to clarify Mary’s state of mind at the time of each entry. Yet this art may leave many skeptical of its authenticity, as it appears AI-generated with no context or information provided to suggest otherwise.

Readers drawn to dark, heady interrogations of trauma and faith will find plenty to analyze, but the high-concept, often indirect approach to its provocative subject matter may have little appeal to general audiences.