THE MATERIAL EYES

In Aquarian’s absurdist comedy of magic and mysteries, two men are brought back to life as part of a plan to get back at a warlock.

As the story opens in a small town in Oregon, Hayden and Talbot are dead, but not for long. Misha, who’s a witch, and her boyfriend, Gabe, have stolen their bodies, prepared a ritual, and are ready to perform a forbidden and unstable resurrection spell. With the candles in place and fresh eyeballs “procured” from a morgue and popped into the cadavers’ heads, the witch aims to bring Hayden and Talbot back and “imbue them with the ability to use magic” so they can “take on” the witch’s warlock enemy, Fenton Fixx. But when the ritual is complete and the men are once again alive and kicking, Misha’s coven quickly demands penitence for her misconduct. Meanwhile, Fixx is already on her trail, ready to hex them all over again. As the coven tries to evade Fixx and his mystical master, The Presence, the line between fantasy and reality blurs. In Aquarian’s hasty yet hazy caper, it appears that nothing is as it seems; the two leads can’t even trust that their own names and memories are accurate. As such, readers will find it simultaneously thrilling and confusing—and at times, a real headscratcher. Misha and Gabe are introduced as a wacky couple who constantly refer to each other by 1990s-era band names (“Good one, Stone Temple Pilots”), an endearing quirk in banter that brings to mind the 2022 animated film Wendell & Wild or the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, many other characters seem to share the pair’s immature, crude sense of humor and penchant for bickering, which feels out of place as their dark circumstances are revealed. Aquarian’s tale is full of unpredictable twists, but many of them feel like excuses to avoid explaining a previous plot point. Unanswered questions pile up and remain unanswered as the story ends in a puff of smoke.

A psychotropic, genre-bending read that’s hampered by uneven execution.