History YMMV / HandbookForMortals

* ProtectionFromEditors: The book didn't appear to have much editing before being published, with several typos, grammatical errors and poorly-structured sentences.

** The cover is also plagiarized from an artist who didn't give approval. The artist in question was very unamused.

* {{Squick}}: The book leans a ''little'' too into the whole MistakenForRomance thing with Zade and Charles, considering Charles is her ''father''. This includes the big magic show sequence including Zade being kissed by a homunculus of her teenage father. Then there's the part where she goes into people's memories (because [[spoiler she got knocked out and wanted to know what happened]]) and somehow needs to spend time lovingly describing Dela's attractiveness and Charles looking down Dela's shirt.

** At the beginning, when Mac and Zade argue over whether Zade will explain her trick (what appears to be a free fall into an illusory pool of water) to him and the crew, Mac is clearly supposed to seem unreasonable and controlling. But here's the thing: everything Mac says about why Zade should give him the details is ''completely correct''. Leaving aside the fact that in real life Zade would have had to explain long before this point, and that any serious performer wouldn't bat an eyelash, Mac has no idea she's using actual magic. If he let a regular person run an illusion like that with zero help from the tech crew, she could break her neck, and it would be partially his fault--his conscience and his job are on the line here, but Zade is ''special'' and ''magical'', so he's supposed to be wrong.

* TheUntwist: In the last chapter, the writing tries to play coy about [[spoiler: who's getting married]], but it's not hard to figure out what's really going on, especially if readers have seen Film/{{Clueless}}.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Though marketed as a young adult book, all the characters are in their twenties or older, and in several places the text goes out of its way to mock teenagers. Why Sarem chose to market the book this way is a mystery, though it possibly has something to do with the fact that it's often easier to get attention as a first-time YA author than it is in adult genres.

** The novel's premise of a sheltered young woman who can secretly do real magic getting a job as a Las Vegas magician is potentially interesting. Unfortunately, the novel doesn't do much with this potential; it spends more time on a bland, cliched love triangle and the scenes involving magic and stage performances are mostly relegated to Zade showing off, with not much exploration of how magic works in this world or what goes on behind-the-scenes in stage magic acts. The novel never really explains why Zade was hidden away for most of her life, either; the novel at one point introduces a sinister group of magic users who try to attack her, but it's not explained who they are or what they want despite this adding more intrigue and stakes to the story (it's implied it's being SavedForTheSequel but it could've been used to improve the first book's plot, not to mention the sequel never happened so the plotline ultimately feels pointless).

* {{Squick}}: The book leans a ''little'' too into the whole MistakenForRomance thing with Zade and Charles, considering Charles is her ''father''. This includes the big magic show sequence including Zade being kissed by a homunculus of her teenage father. Then there's the part where she goes into people's memories (because [[spoiler: she got knocked out and wanted to know what happened]]) and somehow needs to spend time lovingly describing Dela's attractiveness and Charles looking down Dela's shirt.

** The author also started up Wesbsite/{{Twitter}} drama with Angela Thomas, the author of ''The Hate U Give'', for seemingly no reason other than there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity.

** The author also started up a twitter drama with Angela Thomas, the author of ''The Hate U Give'', for seemingly no reason other than there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity.

** A rumor ''also'' began that Sarem was the real identity of ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' author Tara Gilesbie. This led to another YA author, Rose Christo, claiming to be Gilesbie and denying any involvement with this book, which was eventually disproven.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The Carrot Top and Wayne Newton cameos. They add nothing to the story, the meeting is never mentioned again, and it ends up crossing into {{Narm}} territory since Zade treats it like she just met a Kardashian.

** A rumor ''also'' began that Sarem was the real identity of ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' author Creator/TaraGilesbie. This led to another YA author, Rose Christo, claiming to be Gilesbie and denying any involvement with this book, which was eventually disproven.

** A rumor ''also'' began that Sarem was the real identity of ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' author Tara Gilesbie. This led to another YA author, Rose Christo, claiming to be Gilesbie and denying any involvement with this book, which was eventually disproven.

* {{Narm}}:
** Quite a lot of it. Special mention goes to any scene where Zade or any other character tries to look "tough"; it reads like a thirteen-year-old's wish-fulfillment fantasy.
** Zade running into Carrot Top and Wayne Newton. The narration treats it like Zade just met some A-list celebrities when both fell into relative obscurity after the 1990s.
*** Zade treats the reveal that Carrot Top's real name is Scott Thompson as some super-obscure information. She's heard of Google, right?

* OvershadowedByControversy: It suddenly appeared at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers' List, knocking off the ''massively'' popular and acclaimed ''Literature/TheHateUGive'', despite few people having ever heard of it; this has led to accusations that Sarem had people buy up copies en masse just to get it there. Bookstores confirmed this happened, after several authors investigated. It was taken off the list shortly thereafter and Sarem later admitted to having committed fraud, albeit with the justification that it would "match her sales outside of stores". An examination of the sale numbers she claims indicates that this is a ''heavy'' exaggeration at best.

** A rumor also began that Sarem was the real identity of ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' author Tara Gilesbie. This led to another YA author, Rose Christo, claiming to be Gilesbie and denying any involvement with this book, which was eventually disproven.

*** Zade treats the reveal that Carrot Top's real name is Scott Thompson as some super-secret information. She's heard of Google, right?

** The girl working at the lemonade stand. Yes, she was being bratty, but Zade is the ''adult'' between them, and completely overreacted to something more other people would have just let go as soon as they left. But instead, Zade throws a fit, magically causes the pitcher to burst, protects everyone ''but'' the girl working the stand, letting her get drenched (and [[FridgeHorror likely cut by glass]]). The book treats it as a YouGoGirl moment.

* [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids What Do You Mean, it's YA?]]: Though marketed as a young adult book, all the characters are in their twenties or older, and in several places the text goes out of its way to mock teenagers. Why Sarem chose to market the book this way is a mystery, though it possibly has something to do with the fact that it's often easier to get attention as a first-time YA author than it is in adult genres.

* OvershadowedByControversy: It suddenly appeared at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers' List, knocking off the ''massively'' popular and acclaimed ''The Hate U Give'', despite few people having ever heard of it; this has led to accusations that Sarem had people buy up copies en masse just to get it there. Bookstores confirmed this happened, after several authors investigated. It was taken off the list shortly thereafter and Sarem later admitted to having committed fraud, albeit with the justification that it would "match her sales outside of stores". An examination of the sale numbers she claims indicates that this is a ''heavy'' exaggeration at best.

** Sofia. She's meant to come off as catty and mean, but Zade (who's never performed professionally before) basically steals her job as the lead performer and immediately gets special privileges such as not having to tell anyone about her illusion and thousands of dollars worth of makeup. Not to mention Sofia's boyfriend often ignores her, sometimes in favor of Zade (who she doesn't know is Charles's daughter)--most egregiously, when she has her fall, people pay attention to ''her'' for about five seconds, despite the fact her fall leaves her unconscious and not breathing, and literally five minutes later people are making jokes about how she almost died. At the end of the story, Charles marries Dela after pining after her for decades, and without a single thought for his ''actual girlfriend''.
** At the beginning, when Mac and Zade argue over whether Zade will explain her trick (what appears to be a free fall into an illusory pool of water) to him and the crew, Mac is clearly supposed to seem unreasonable and controlling. But here's the thing: everything Mac says about why Zade should give him the details is ''completely correct''. Leaving aside the fact that in real life Zade would have had to explain long before this point, and that any serious performer wouldn't bat an eyelash, Mac has no idea she's using actual magic. If he let a regular person run an illusion like that with zero help from the tech crew, she could break her neck, and it would be partially his fault--his conscience and his job are on the line here, but Zade is ''special'' and ''magical'', so he's supposed to be wrong.

* {{Narm}}: Quite a lot of it. Special mention goes to any scene where Zade or any other character tries to look "tough"; it reads like a thirteen-year-old's wish-fulfillment fantasy.

** The cover is also plagiarized from an artist who didn't give approval. The artist in question did not approve this.

* OvershadowedByControversy: It suddenly appeared at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers' List, knocking off the ''massively'' popular and acclaimed ''The Hate U Give'', despite few people having ever heard of it; this has led to accusations that Sarem had people buy up copies en masse just to get it there. It was taken off the list shortly thereafter and Sarem later admitted to having committed fraud, albeit with the justification that it would "match her sales outside of stores". An examination of the sale numbers she claims indicates that this is a ''heavy'' exaggeration at best.