Review of Magic Trash by Gertie Poole "I don't like the dialog. It sounds like trailer trash." When Gertie Poole repeated this writers' group criticism of her work, her daughter/editor Tiffiny jumped to her defense with, "yeah- magic trash!" and Poole’s fourth book, "Magic Trash", took off from there. Winner of the 2006 Royal Palm Literary Award for SciFi/Fantasy, "Magic Trash" is a murder mystery set in a trailer park for magical misfits forced to live like mortals. Magic Memories is a Florida trailer park that serves as a penal colony for elves, trolls, dwarves, and goblins. Poole's heroine, Hattie Mae, is particularly ill suited to a life without magic. She's slovenly, unmotivated, and incompetent (think "Bewitched's" Aunt Clara reincarnated as Roseanne Connor). But she's loyal, with an admirable past, and takes on the task of proving a friend's innocence after four of the park's inhabitants are murdered. I must admit that I'm not much of a fantasy fan, so it seemed that getting into "Magic Trash" might be a chore. Happily, I was wrong (and that's not something I often like to admit). For readers who aren’t fantasy fans, the mystery should keep you engrossed. At one point, I was no longer willing to suspend my disbelief regarding the mystery angle (I won’t spoil it by telling you why, but it involves a cussing parrot), but the author rewarded my continued reading by pulling that one off. But what really shines about Poole’s writing is her humor, portrayed not only in her prose but also in her characterizations. She pulls the reader in from the first paragraph, which advises, "If you ate a whole pot of beans, it's hard to find the one that made you fart". Hattie Mae's attempts at magic fail miserable for her, but succeed in giving us a good laugh throughout the book. The devil is a depicted as a temperamental baker affectionately known as "Bubba" whose specialty is brownies. "Magic Trash" is indeed magic, and it most certainly isn’t trash. Review by POW! Book Reviewer - Elizabeth Greene
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