Review by Frank Plowright

Tabitha Laurie’s parents divorced when she was ten, and she has fond memories of a trip around that time with her father to Sommerland, a wonderful amusement park. Shy at first, she eventually found a voice to ask the prince and princess whether their love was permanent, and from that day her ambition was to work at Sommerland, preferably as a princess herself.

Auditions for the major roles are open to any employee, but Tabitha rapidly discovers the cynicism, bitching and complaints of those working at Sommerland, none of whom see it as a magical place to inspire the dreams of children. Except for James.

Considerable experience and success as a young adult novelist means Marissa Meyer adroitly introduces her cast and situation through Tabitha’s eyes, ensuring sympathy for her as she takes in the disillusionment of her fellow employees. At the same time she doesn’t spare readers from the restrictions applied to theme park staff, presumably sourced from disenchantment posted online by those who’ve worked at Disneyland and similar venues. However, We Could Be Magic isn’t intended to shatter dreams, just present the reality behind them, and Meyer’s extremely good at showing how Tabitha’s diligence and positivity can improve situations that aren’t ideal.

Artist Joelle Murray conveys the necessities via busy backgrounds and multiple characters, but sometimes the bursts of varied colours she applies are overwhelming. That lack of subtlety contrasts the nuance in presenting Tabitha herself, especially the unspoken restriction of her body shape not matching the idealisation of amusement park princesses.

While the opening chapters only seem to point in one direction as far as amusement parks go, Meyer and Murray distance themselves via a charm-packed chapter of James revealing the secrets of Sommerland to Tabitha and addressing rumours about the park and its owner. It’s utterly convincing in establishing a background.

That chapter introduces elements ensuring We Could Be Magic thereafter takes a relatively predictable general path, but with Meyer ensuring the stumbling blocks are unpredictable and unusual. It becomes a real page-turner all the way to the end. There’s never any doubt that Tabitha will get what she wants, but what that is may surprise.