Customer Reviews

A Deadly Game of Magic

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

All of Joan Lowery Nixon's books are great. You can't put them down! You get into them so well, it's like you're there, experiencing it yourself! They get so suspensful, you finish one chapter, can't stop and turn the page as fast as you can, and all of a sudden, you've read the whole book in two hours, non-stop, with nightmares that night! This book makes you wonder, for instance... what's at the end of the hall? You see, this group of kids put on a performance and lost in the contest. They all felt so bad. So on their way home, they got caught in a thunderstorm and got lost. They ended up in a spooky mansion. They called a cab since their car wouldn't start anymore. The cab driver got at the mansion and had to go to the bathroom. He went down the long, dark, spooky hall and poked his head into the room at the end of the hall. He came running back down the hall, scared out of his mind, and fainted in front of the main character. It's really freaky, and you have to finish reading it right away to find out Who-Dunnit. If you read it non-stop, you really get into it, but if you read it like 20 minutes a day, it's not as good as it was meant. But it really grabs hold of you and i recommend it to absolutely anybody. Anybody would like it. I've read all of Nixon's books and they are just super. I garantee it.

A Deadly Game of Magic is the first book that I read by Joan Lowry Nixon. I believe she is an incredible author. Her characters seem so real, that you are drawn into the story with them. As the book progresses, the plot thickens and the danger becomes more real. I would recommend that anyone read this book and follow Nixon's characters as they play their game- their deadly game of magic.

This book is a Great book to read. The first book that I read of Joan Lowery Nixon and makes me want to read more of her books. This book makes you wonder who the person is. This book is about a group of kids having their car break down and going to this house in the rain. Then, Lisa (the main character) has to use her magician skills in order to catch the person who is trying to get them out of the house. Great book, I recommend it to everybody who loves mystery books!!!

A Deadly Game of Magic, wonderfully written by Joan Lowery Nixon, is the intriguing story of four teenagers who are trapped inside an "abandoned" house.
Lisa, Bo, Julian, and Teena were coming home from a regional drama and speech tournament, when a terrifyingly dangerous Texas thunderstorm storm hits. Suddenly, their car brakes down. They had stopped in front of an old house, swaying in the storm. Two strange people-a man and a woman- allow them to come in, but leave shortly afterward. The four teenagers are positive they were not the owners of the house. Deserted, the teenagers find themselves hearing strange noises coming from a closet at the end of the cold gloomy hallway. The phones go dead, an incorporeal hand begins tapping the mantel and a strange head suddenly emerges. The teenagers are know trapped inside a house with an evil magician trying to manage a fatal "accident".
Lisa, a clever and curious seventeen-year-old, knows several magician secrets. She begins to recognize the uncanny happenings as a clever magician's game. Bo, a tense, irritating senior football player, refuses to accept any great or imaginative ideas someone else might have, especially Lisa's. He has taken a disliking to her, which doesn't help him to cooperate with Lisa's magician theories. Julian, a graceful, prim, sensitive male ballet dancer, is forced to put up with Bo's sly comments. Teena, a clever young woman doesn't know where her life will lead her. She has no plans for her future and is in complete awe and belief of Lisa. She will do what ever it takes to get out of that creepy house.
The theme for A Deadly Game of Magic is perseverance and bravery, which is shown throughout the entire novel.
I thought this was an excellent book that kept you on the edge of your seat from the first to last page. It was exciting and suspenseful. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and suspense.

"A Deadly Game of Magic" was a hair-raising thriller that keeps you wondering throughout the entire thing. While reading it, I could see everything that happened through my mind's eye. Of course, I was left with lots of questions at the end, and there were a few plot holes not covered up, but I loved it all the same.

I have read many of Joan Lowery Nixon's books, and I love all that I have read. This book popped out at me while I was going through a book shelf. I bought it, took it home, and couldn't put it down it kept me at the edge of my seat troughout the whole book. When I read her books I can picture the people and where they are so well it seems like I'm there. I hope many people find her books as great as I do!!

This book was one of the best books I ever read. It is so good and spooky. I could not put it down. I was reading it for like 3 hrs straight when I got home from school. It was so scary, and I don't know how Joan got the idea for this book. It's really suspenseful and wonderful, and also very very very unique! I could read this book again and again!

I sssooooo reccomend this book. READ IT NOW!

This is one scary book. Four teenagers driving home from a speech and drama tournament in a blinding rain storm are stranded by car trouble north of Dallas. They're let into a home to call for help, but the man and woman they meet there almost immediately leave for a party. Left on their own to wait for a mechanic, the kids begin to think that the couple who let them in may not in fact be the owners of the house. And they begin to suspect as well that there's someone else in the house with them. When the storm knocks the power out, plunging the foursome into darkness...well, like I said, this is one scary book.

Joan Lowery Nixon's YA novel, originally published in 1983, isn't entirely successful. The occasional conclusion is jumped to without sufficient evidence, and the dialogue can be clunky. Also, Nixon's protagonists tend to say things and otherwise behave in ways that aren't credible given the context. For example, when it's pitch dark in a strange house that you think may be haunted and/or inhabited by a killer, and when there's a room down the hall in which you suspect there just might be a dead body, you don't react to finding an old scrapbook with a cheery cry of, "This is terrific! Look! Photographs!"

What's particularly impressive about A Deadly Game of Magic is how Nixon manages to instill the story with dread. We aren't told specifically what's wrong with the behavior of the couple whom the teenagers first meet in the house, for example. But there's something off about it. We sense it just as well as the teenagers do, and we want them to get out of there as soon as possible. But of course they don't, and things just get worse from there.

While facing their fears in the house Nixon's protagonists reveal their back stories. They are all bowed down, in various ways, by their parents' expectations for them. Battling evil in the house, we are to understand, will also give them the courage to choose their own paths in life. This is the uninteresting part of the book, the part that's meant to make the story relevant to its underage readers. Maybe they'll like the character development and maybe not; for sure they'll like the main story line.

Highly recommended to its intended audience and as a quick read for adults. But don't read this one right before bed.

These four kids are on there way back from there torment and it is raining really bad. They decide to stop at this house so they wont get hurt. They pull into the driveway and go up to the front door and before they could even knock a guy with a long black beard answered the door. He invited them in so they could use the phone to call the auto club. Meanwhile why they were trying to call a lady walked into the room and asked Black beard " Who are these kids " " Please don't tell me you made another deal with a hitchhiker " " Black beard answered " They had car trouble so im letting them use the phone " Black Beard and the strange women left the old deserted house. Bo, Lisa, Teena, and Julian sat down and watched some TV when the lights went out and the phone died. They keep hearing weird noises and they think to themselves they were the only ones in this house, so someone must be in this house with them. They don't know who it is or anything but someone keeps pulling pranks on them. Who ever it was they wanted them to live now. This guy likes to perform in front of an audience so they decide to call this guy out and have him perform right in frout of them. So they start screaming " Come out here , come perform in front of us ". All of a sudden he pulled Teena right out of her seat and brought her somewhere. Lisa thought of this great idea to do a magic trick right in front of the guy and see how good he was to compete. So lisa set up the plan and Julian and Bo were going to be in different cabinets and they were going to change in there into black so they could pop out and get the heck outta there. Lisa put them into the box and also put Teena into a Mental coffin like thing and told her to do the same thing as the guys. And it worked for the guys but Teena was stuck inside a metal coffin like box. Lisa went out side the room and when she came back in she saw Bo and Julian on top of the guy. They got Teena out and they carried the guy into the living room and tied him up. Suddley the phone rang it scared them half to death it was the next door nab our saying " Did you know the phone worked ". Right after that they call the police and they said they would be coming down there. The last thing Teena said was " i hope they don't make us go back in the back room".

BY:KAYLA U.

A Deadly Game Of Magic was a great book. It's detailed and you can see pictures in your mind of what's happening. It's really interesting and after you read this book, you want to run out to the nearest bookstore and buy all of Joan Lowery Nixon's books. All of her books are really good, and this one was fantastic.
In this book, there are four main characters: Julian, Teena, Bo, and of course Lisa. Lisa tells the story. Anyway, here's what happens: It was a stormy night and the four seventeen-year-olds were in a car, driving home. Something goes wrong with the car, and the car doesn't work. The teenagers must get shelter, so they go to a house and knock on the door. A man answers, and they're sure he's not the owner of the house. He tells them that he and his wife need to go out, and that the fours teenagers can stay in the house. After the strange man and his strange wife leave, they call a place that fixes cars, and the place tells them that they'll be over there soon. After giving the man the address and hanging up, the electricity goes out and the phones don't work. Soon a man that takes cars to his work to fix comes, and he talks to the kids. Lisa asks the man to check the rooms because she's afraid. He does, and when he gets to the last room, he faints. When they go into the kitchen, the man wakes up and drives away. They're stuck in house a house with something that is creepy enough to make a man faint.