Customer Reviews

Magic's Child (Magic Or Madness)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Australian author Justine Larbalestier's first novel, Magic or Madness, challenged Reason - that is, to say, a teenage girl named Reason who spent her life with her cheery mother, until her lovely mother went a little mad. Reason realized that the stories her mom told her were true. Magic exists, and it runs through the veins of all of the women in her family. Either they use it and die young or they repress it and go mad.

Her grandmother, who is depicted as a villain in all of her mother's stories, takes Reason in when she has no other place to go. Reason then meets her gran's neighbor, a boy her own age, and Jay-Tee, who lives in New York - which magically appears outside of her grandmother's door. The story continued in Magic Lessons, when the stakes were raised and the powers of the main characters tested.

Now the final chapter in the Magic or Madness trilogy is here: Magic's Child. The title itself is a huge spoiler, obviously. I recommend that you read the trilogy in the proper order for the ultimate impact.

Each character gets his or her moment in the spotlight here as the story bounces back and forth between locations and viewpoints. I enjoyed Reason's travels around the world, confirming the presence of other doors and introducing her to another generation of magic-users. (Can you say spinoff?) I found myself liking Jay-Tee more and more as the story progressed. Even Sarafina has a memorable scene in which she creates butterflies. Such a childlike innocence about her then, making her greedy demeanor and evil actions only a short while later all the more scary.

Magic's Child pushes Reason's sanity and strength to the brink. Will she go past the point of no return? Has she any reason to stick around? Find out by reading the book, then share the magic of Reason's world and Larbalestier's writing with other fantasy fans.

At the start of this wonderful conclusion to a great fantasy trilogy, Reason Cansino is a lot of things most fifteen year olds aren't. She's magic. She's pregnant. And she may or may not be entirely human.

In this continuation of Reason's story, she is falling more and more deeply into the strange, ancient, and inhuman power given to her by Raul Cansino. She is becoming more and more scarily powerful--but she's giving up her humanity (and maybe that of her unborn child) for that power. She won't die young like so many magic-wielders who use their powers unwisely, and neither will she go crazy and end up in the loony-bin with her mother.

But is giving up her humanity worth it?

MAGIC'S CHILD is strictly a continuation of an already begun story. It is not a story within itself, really, and, as such, should only be picked up by those who have read the first two parts of the trilogy (Magic or Madness (Magic or Madness Trilogy) and Magic Lessons (Magic or Madness Trilogy)). If you haven't read those, well, they're highly recommended, as well!

Justine Larbalestier's third installment in the MAGIC OR MADNESS trilogy is a good conclusion to the story, one that will have readers racing through it as fast as possible. It was a little bit open-ended for my taste, but not in a terrible cliffhanger way. It was either a less than fabulous last chapter or a fabulous way to leave the door open for another book set in this universe; who knows? Either way, the characters, dialogue, and style of MAGIC'S CHILD are all great, it's well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to reading more from Justine Larbalestier.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

This was a great way to end te series. A tantalizing taste of what magic could be like if it existed. 5 stars, and this authour is awesome. I will read anything else she comes out with.

First of all, I really did like the title of the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy. I really did, as usual with this series by Larbalestier, enjoy the writing and interaction between the characters. I think the most interesting aspect of this comes up with a really frank and open discussion regarding the connection between religion and magic. I loved that Larbalestier was able to fairly show two differing opinions through her characters without sounding preachy or carrying a bias. One bone I do have to pick was the changing points of view. I am usually a fan of this if done well, but really, that bothered me a bit in this book. I don't think it fit in well with the rest of the novel. The final face off was fantastically well done, and really, I don't think I've ever read a book series that would translate so well to film. I hope one day this happens. All in all, it's a slow-paced read, but in a comfortable way, and the ending totally justifies all the preceding events.

Rating: 4/5

This series has almost a scientific feel to it. I don't want to ruin the story for you but the math in this story is just beautiful to me and I'm not a very mathematical person. The magic in this is a very real thing and we go through it knowing our characters' fates until the rug is tugged out from under us and that's amazing too.

Absolutely worth the read.

I finished Magic's Child last night and I have to say that it ended great! If you haven't read the first two books in the Magic or Madness trilogy, well then you need to! The other reviews tell you the basis of the book so i'm not going to go over that again. I'll just say that i didn't understand all the math stuff, but that is probably because I was never good at math. Other than that this trilogy was great!!