Changeover: A Supernatural Romance (Point) (Paperback)

by Margaret Mahy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"When three-year-old Jacko is stricken with a baffling illness, his teenage sister Laura, a 'sensitive,' is the only one to recognize that demonic possession is the true cause of his malady. . . . The beautiful characters grow with readers and the style is beautiful but ornate. An extraordinarily rich and sensitive novel."--School Library Journal, starred review. Winner of the Carnegie Medal; ALA Notable Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adiults; School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Booklist Editor's Choice.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140365990
• ISBN-13: 978-0140365993
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #839,909 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Mahy, Margaret
  #8 in	Books > Teens > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Mahy, Margaret

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yeah, it's the prefects you need to watch out for!, December 4, 2002

By	Brian Almquist "-baa-" (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Margaret Mahy's book is an unusual take on the juvenile magic-user theme. It takes place in New Zealand, in a single-parent home. Laura Chant lives with her divorced mother, and her toddler brother. Nothing is entirely reliable in Laura's world, certainly not her slightly flaky mother, their extremely flaky car, and especially the surrounding landscape, being transformed from forest and farm into a new subdivision.

Chant, perfectly named, can sense things that others can't. She can sense that her brother's rapid descent into illness is supernatural, and that it is linked to the boy's unfortunate contact with the also perfectly named Carmody Braque. She also can sense that the mysterious prefect at her school, an older boy named Sorensen Carlisle, is a "witch" and that he may hold the only key to healing her brother.

Sorry, as he's called, is one of those magnificent characters, the enigmatic boy who shows all the signs of being a proto-romance hero. But here, he's young, sly, and not above using his advantage over Laura. Mahy writes Laura as a strong character, and watching her handle Sorry is a lot of fun.

This novel is full of brooding atmosphere but with a great contemporary setting. Mahy's protagonist carries her weight, but everyone else is equally nuanced and fascinating. The book calls itself a romance, but I've never read an adult romance filled with such menacing ambiguity.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my teenage favorites, November 30, 2005

By	Kimberly S. Stanley (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book as a teenager when it originally came out in 1984. The greatest compliment that I can give The Changeover is that twenty+ years later, I still reread it sometimes--and I still enjoy it. I can't say that about too many of my childhood books.

The Changeover was a rare bird back in mid-eighties--there weren't too many well-written books about magic and the supernatural with teenage girls as the protagonists in those days. This was a genre that I adored and could never get enough of back then. So this novel was an instant favorite.

There are certain books that you read when you are young that shape the kind of person that you become--not necessarily in a large way, but in subtle way. The Changeover was one of these books for me. I didn't realize it when I read the book at fourteen, but The Changeover is a metaphor for changing from childhood to adulthood--from becoming a girl to becoming a woman. And this book really captures that--all the insecurity and the fear, and even the pleasure that you feel as a girl in your own new-found, womanly power. I guess this book appealed to me so much because it made me feel better about a lot of the things I was going through at fourteen; it gave me a certain confidence in myself: I wasn't just getting older--I was becoming a different being.

I have read other comments about this book and I agree with the reviewers that say they want a sequel. I still think about Laura from time to time--she and I were the same age when the book came out--and I often wonder what became of her and what type of woman she became.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Divorce, adolescence, and witchcraft...., April 30, 2000

By	"fiammetta" (New York) - See all my reviews

This is the best young adult book I have ever read. Laura and Sorry are unforgettable. Their shared scenes crackle with electricity (remember the munching thunderclouds?) and never has a male witch been so...appealing.

Laura Chant is a sensitive, a girl with supernatural inclinations, with certain glimpses into the future. One day she looks into the mirror and sees herself changed. She is aware that her world is going to change, but doesn't know what to do about it. Then her beloved brother Jacko starts to sicken from what she knows is not a natural cause. She's recognized the school prefect Sorenson Carlisle as a witch, and goes to him for help. He tells her that in order to save Jacko she can be changed over, that is become a witch, but the transformation is irrevocable. She will forever be separate from most others.

Mahy is an incredible writer. She makes the strange seem like home, and also makes the familiar worth another look. Read this book!