The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths and Magic (Review)

October seemed the perfect time to pick up The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths and Magic, a YA urban fantasy about a teenage boy named Bridger who ends up getting a job as an assistant for a man who makes sure the magical world and the human world never mix. If highschool, figuring out his crush on the new boy next door and planning for college wasn’t enough stress already; werewolves, pixies, mermaids, and unicorns are sure to make life more exciting. 

I picked up The Rules after receiving an ARC of its sequel, Monster of the Week, and realizing in the first few pages that I had some catching up to do. Not that reading The Rules ever felt like a chore; I blew through this book in a few sittings, usually with a smile.

“Magic and Myths are troublesome things, unpredictable, but so are you.”

The Rules is a classic thrust-into-a-strange-world-of-magic story and was honestly adorable, mostly due to our lovely, yet very clumsy and awkward main character Bridger. Although the story is told in third-person narration, it’s clearly written with Bridger’s tone, giving an overall style of self-deprecating, sarcastic humor that I loved. It was such a strong voice that I found myself often confused as to why the story didn’t just go the extra mile and make it first person since we hear Bridger’s thoughts so clearly anyway. Nonetheless, it was my favorite part of the story and what made the reading experience so wonderful.

Bridger’s relationships with the people around him are just the cherry on top. He and his best friend Astrid are a classic BFF pair, their banter rife with pop culture references (Cap and Bucky) and their undying support for each other endearing. At home, it was great to see that Bridger had a healthy relationship with his mom and their conversations sometimes reminded me of a Rory-Lorrelei dynamic. It warmed my heart to read the scenes of them talking over take-out! On top of it all, our romantic interest, Leo, although too perfect to be real (but the story is self-aware of this!), is certainly crush-worthy, not only because he’s athletic and handsome, but even more so because he’s such a gentleman and is so supportive and kind to Bridger, especially, but also to everyone. The emphasis on his personality, and not just on his looks, was a bonus to the already pretty pure story.

Throughout the book, Bridger’s struggle with his sexuality became much more of an interesting plot, to me,  than the main conflict. Although the climactic events are supposed to create a crucial conflict (the world is in jeopardy) the conclusion comes too fast after we learn about the situation for it to feel like much of a problem, and there never seemed like there was that much at stake. In the end, the resolution and solution to the somewhat-mystery element was a bit lackluster, especially considering the possibilities, although satisfying enough to finish things off. Perhaps too satisfying, in fact; it wraps up everything in a bit of a cheesy and relatively neat way, including things that we didn’t necessarily need closure on (that didn’t really seem like problems at all, actually), and leaves nothing open-ended for the second book. If I hadn’t been holding it in my hands, I would have doubted it was part of a series at all. 

“Why did his liking a guy have to be a whole production? Why couldn’t he just be himself and it not be a big deal? Why did high school have to suck? Why was there such thing as a manticore?”

Part of the conclusion is that Bridger has grown a lot as a character, but this is told to us more than it’s shown. His faults, which are said to be so problematic, never really seemed like they were major issues for him, at least in my opinion. It would have been understandable if he had only seen them in himself, the normal self-doubt and self-criticism of a teenager, but those around him are also apparently affected by these flaws. Most notably, he’s said to be a liar (like a lies-all-the-time liar) but he doesn’t even really lie that much. Much much less in comparison to most YA main characters, to be honest. Perhaps if I’d seen genuine change in him I would have thought more highly of the ending, but his character arc, and flaws felt somewhat forced. 

On finishing the book, my only inclination, and hope is that in the sequel we will dive more into the magical world. Although the creatures and magic system aren’t particularly original, it works well within the story and is just generally pretty cute, but we only get a small corner of it. There’s clearly a lot more to it than we, as readers, haven’t been let in on yet and I hope to get into that in Monster of the Week (*cue foreshadowing*). 

I rated The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths and Magic 3.5 out of 5 stars. Even without the story being a total thrill ride, I really enjoyed this book thanks to the characters, especially because I was in a perfect mood for it. It would be a great October read for those who prefer lighter Halloween fare. Fans of Carry On and Mooncakes will probably like this.