Customer Reviews

Magic or Madness

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Despite the fact that I was utterly disappointed to find out that this book is the first in a trilogy (I didn't find out till the cliffhanger ending and I like to read series books all together), I really enjoyed this book.

The chapters alternate perspectives between Reason, Tom (the evil/not evil grandmother's apprentice) and Jay-Tee (Reason's friend/enemy in NY City). The 3 teens often contradict each other which makes the different points of view all the more real.

Reason has spent her whole life hiding from her grandmother who is a witch. R's mother doesn't believe in magic and raises her believe only in the rational. When her mother goes insane, R is taken by the authorities and placed with her grandmother. R quickly finds out that magic is real when she steps through a door in her grandmother's house and finds herself in New York City. The book is fast paced and mysterious. It is difficult to figure out who is on Reason's side and who is plotting against her, even to the end of the book. The teen characters are authentic and well developed and while the adult characters are a little more shallow (fairly typical in teen books) there is the promise that they will become more developed in the coming books.

THis is a gorgeous book. I'm not a young adult (just a regular old one, I fear) but this book made me wish I could have found this story when I was a 13 year-old girl -- I would have loved it. The blending of magic with real-world adolescent issues creates a memorable, delicious story -- easy to read (impossible not to, in fact) in one sitting. I can't wait for the sequel. In the meanwhile, I'm buying it for every young girl I know...

The first of three books, this story follows a young girl discovering her family's secret, the need for true friends and the awareness that adults are not perfect. The plot takes place in present day Australia and New York. The differences between the cultures makes for an enjoyable read.

A perfect book for young teens, of both sexes, and adults. Justine Larbalestier is a wonderful talented new author. You won't be disappointed starting this series.

Magic or Madness does a nice job of plunking us down in mid-story, giving us a sense of early momentum that seldom pauses the rest of the way. Reason Cansino has been kept on the move in the Australian bush for most of her 15 years, in order, her mother says, to keep her safe from Esmeralda, Reason's dangerous grandmother. Serafina, Reason's mother, has filled Reason's mind with stories of Serafina being held captive as a young child in Esmeralda's cellar, of Esmeralda's animal sacrifices and dark rites all in the name magic, which she impresses upon Reason, doesn't exist. But now, having seemingly gone from simply strange to truly crazy, Serafina is Institutionalized in a Sydney mental hospital and can no longer protect Reason, who as the book opens is being taken to Esmeralda's house by the "witch" herself.

This sense of coming into the story mid-stream does a good job of adding a sense of history to the ensuing story, as well as a feeling of suspenseful urgency. Her mother's tales weren't completely true, Reason finds out early enough (the house for instance is bright and airy rather than gothically dark), but neither are they completely false (something is buried in the corner of the cellar).

In an attempt to run away, Reason walks through a door and somehow ends up in New York City. Magic, therefore, does exist, and its existence, its effects on her family and herself, its temptations and dangers, all play a major role from then on. Along the way to trying to learn some answers, Reason meets several youths of her same age who may or may not practice magic and may or may not be her allies. The adults she comes into contact with do practice magic, but once again, their motivations and trustworthiness are unclear.

The strengths of the book are many. It is tautly constructed with a quick, urgent pace. Shifts in narration among the youthful characters and a third-person narrator add suspense and lend some variety to the voices telling the story. The young people are quickly but sharply characterized and mostly have a sense of authenticity in their actions and language. The magic is low-level through most of the story, acting mostly as an underlying sense of menace and mystery until the very end, where it makes a more pronounced entrance. The main storyline is pretty straightforward, but the unclear agendas of the adults, and their use of the children to achieve those agendas, makes for a nice complexity. Not only is one unsure as to who exactly is "good" and "evil", by the end those terms have been shown to be gross over-simplifications. Life is seldom so simple and neither is what is going on this book (the first of a projected trilogy).

Most of the flaws are relatively minor. The adult characters are so far more shallowly depicted, but Esmeralda deepens toward the end and one assumes/hopes that will continue in book two. Some of the plot events are a bit contrived or make use of hard-to-believe coincidence. But these are easily overlooked.

The largest and most annoying flaw, and the one that is consistently noticeable throughout (thus dropping the book from a four to a three) is the inconsistency with regard to just how sophisticated Reason is. At times she speaks like a never-been-out-of-the-bush-knows-almost-nothing fifteen-year-old; at other times she displays a jarringly normal response to events. For instance, she might compare something to an Escher painting on one page and then two pages later not recognize snow for what it is for several long minutes. There are many examples of this and they unfortunately did mar the reading experience pretty regularly for me, though some might find it less annoying, and maybe especially the younger audience the book is aimed at.

Overall, the series (and one will have to continue the series for the story to hold together) is off to a good start and despite its flaws, I recommend it fairly strongly.

Magic or Madness is the first book in a new trilogy by this Australian author. The book starts with Reason Cansino, a 15-year-old girl on her way to live with her hated and feared grandmother, Esmerelda. Reason and her mother, Sarafina, have spent years on the run, hiding in the Australian outback, moving from small town to small town, so that Esmerelda won't get her hands on Reason. However, Sarafina has had a mental breakdown. While she is in the hospital, Reason is forced to live with Esmerelda.

This is a difficult adjustment for Reason because Sarafina has spent the past 15 years telling her terrible things about Esmerelda, who is supposedly a witch who eats insects, and performs hideous animal sacrifices. Reason finds herself conflicted because Esmerelda appears normal, and turns out to have a beautiful home, and to act as a mentor and teacher for Tom, the teenager next door. Meanwhile Sarafina, in the mental hospital, is clearly NOT normal. Reason doesn't know what to believe.

Reason's mother has assured her that there is no such thing as magic. Sarafina has raised Reason to believe in the strength of numbers and logic and reason. And yet, Reason starts to notice strange things about herself, her grandmother, and about her family history.

Eventually, Reason finds conclusive proof of the existence of magic, as she steps through a doorway and finds herself in New York City. There she finds a friend, Jay-Tee, who wants to help Reason. Or does she? Nothing is as it seems, and Reason, Jay-Tee, and Tom must each struggle to figure out who to trust, and what to do.

The viewpoint in this book shifts between Reason, Tom, and Jay-Tee, in alternating chapters. Their voices are easy to tell apart because Reason and Tom use various Australian colloquialisms, while Jay-Tee speaks like a teen from the U.S. I think that the Australian vs. English terminology issue does add interest to the book (the kids repeatedly argue over which is the right word for something), but I found it a bit distracting, too. I kept having to look at the glossary in the back of the book to see what something was. I think that some kids will like this ability to learn Australian lingo, while others will find it an annoying distraction from the plot.

I enjoyed Reason's viewpoint the most of the three. Reason's magical ability is centered around numbers and patterns, and she centers herself by counting up Fibonacci numbers in her head (a kindred spirit for Gregory K. and his poetic Fibs). She is so gifted with numbers that she has merely to scan a crowded room to know how many people are there. I like the idea of a magic that comprehends and uses numbers and rational patterns. The magic in this book is also subject to real laws of supply and demand and energy usage, which I find refreshing.

Overall, I thought that it was an entertaining read, and an unusual look at magic. The characterization is strong. Although I am generally getting burned out on trilogies, I do look forward to reading the other two books in this series. I want to know what happens next to Reason, Tom, and Jay-Tee.

Magic or Madness was recently nominated for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize.

This review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on April 18th, 2006.

As the father of a twelve year old girl who is just starting High School, I found this book an absolute delight to share with her. The teenage characters come across as strong and believable; positively drawn without resorting to any of the pop-psychology-laden 'you go girl!' stereotypes that plagues so much young adult fiction these days. The Newtown/East Village environs in Sydney and New York are gorgeously and accurately evoked, and the story is fast paced and imaginatively constructed.

My daughter is now old enough that she enjoys reading some of the classics of my youth -- the Judy Blumes and the Roald Dahls and the Susan Coopers -- which we read together and she also reads by herself. I'm happy to share these books with her, but I also hope that she'll have books and authors she'll claim for her own. After reading Magic & Madness, I have a good feeling that Justine Larbalestier is one of the authors who she will adopt -- the book combines the reality of being young and in trouble with a world of magic one would love to explore (even as a grown up!); it's true fantasy that works because it doesn't skimp on being real. I've put the book in my daughter's room; I'm looking forward to having her tell me she wants to read it to me.

A mother that drags her child from village to village running from an evil witch may not seem quite sane. That would be because she's not. Her child, Reason, the main character, seems to think her mother is perfectly ok even though she tried to kill herself twice. It really leads you to think that the evil witch grandmother can't be that bad. So when Reason is shipped off to live with the crazy witch, we assume the grandmother will turn out normal. Not quite. There is the cat with it's throat cut in the basement, and the numerous teeth in random places to be considered. I was enjoying the first half of the book where Reason explores the witch's house and befriends the next door neighbor, but everything changed when Reason goes through the back door into New York. The pace changed, and my interest waned. Reason is taken in by another 15 year old and they go around the town exploring for a few hundred pages. Then, evil grandfather enters the picture. Every adult in the book seems crazy and dangerous, and I don't see why the children made the choices that they did in the end. Finding out that the 15 year old gets pregnant in the next book doesn't seem to bother anyone, but it bothers me. In any other YA book parents would be going off the deep end at the barest hint of sex, but not with these books for some reason. Even without knowing that, this book disappointed me. It's not a fun tale of magic and evil grandmothers, it's a creepy tale of abductions, magic pimps, and crazy people. I'm not even remotely interested in what the lost letters have in them and I don't want to go further into this series and read about teenage angst and pregnancy.

Reason is an Australian child whose mother, Sarafina, has gone mad. Sarafina has been shut in an asylum, and the daughter placed with her grandmother, Esmeralda, in Sydney, Australia. This situation seems rather sensible since Sarafina hasn't been a normal mother, nor cared for her daughter in the usual, safe fashion. Instead she has kept her daughter with her while she trekked through the Australian outback, keeping Reason away from large communities for years, and almost entirely without communication with other people, including other children. Sarafina has also "home schooled" Reason, mostly teaching her math and other sciences. Sarafina has always told her that magic is not real, that her mother Esmeralda lied to her and drove her daughter away with her cruelty.

Believing her mother, distrusting her grandmother, Reason hides in Esmeralda's house. The girl refuses to eat Esmeralda's food, refuses to speak to her and shuts herself in a bedroom until her grandmother goes out. Then, she explores the house, planning to escape as soon as possible. She finds a key and uses it on the only locked door in the home, opening it and stepping through. Outside she is in New York city in the middle of winter. Magic IS real. And she is capable of wielding it.

But I won't spoil the story for you. It is a wonderful story, and Reason a delightful teenager, full of strengths and normal insecurities. I will tell you, however, that this novel doesn't flinch away from the issues of power and corruption, as many other young adult novels do. Instead it portrays the way the pursuit of power affects relationships. The novel's "good' characters are strong and honest, yet still flawed, and the "bad" characters are deceptively charming, just as they are in the real world. And much too close for Reason to protect herself without help.

I do think this is a novel that is worth reading more than once, and I also look forward to the two sequels. From their reviews, it's clear they don't disappoint, either.

MAGIC OR MADNESS by Justine Larbalestier is book one of a trilogy. Reason Cansino lived the past fifteen years of her life with her mother Sarafina in the Australian outback, away from her witch grandmother Esmeralda. But when her mother suffers a nervous breakdown, she is sent to the very house she's feared the most--Esmeralda's. Reason's mother has told her horror stories about her grandmother and that magic doesn't exist.

Esmeralda is nothing what Reason has expected. But one day she opens a door and finds herself in New York City. And realizes that magic is real. But not only that, but she's magic as well.

I loved this book! I especially loved how the author shows that using and abusing magic comes with a price. A very heavy price at that. Reason meets others in New York City who seem to know more about her ability than she does. Jay-Tee, another girl who befriends Reason with ultimate motives of her own. And a strange man who reveals a secret that changes everything.

MAGIC LESSONS is book two. This story continues with Esmeralda helping Reason, Jay-Tee, and Tom, a boy next door with his own gift of magic. Reason once more finds herself in New York City but with a presence after her. Is this presence evil or good? Reason finds help from the brother of Jay-Tee, while she struggles to not fall prey to the curse of her family.

I enjoyed this book too but not as much as book one. What happens to Reason toward the end of the book I found hard to believe but hope the author will tie up the loose ends in book three MAGIC'S CHILD that comes out next year.