Review: Magic's Child

Magic's Child is the third book in Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness Trilogy (see my reviews of Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons). I liked the first two books, but I wasn't blown away by them. While I delighted in the world Larbalestier created, the characters left me a little cold in the first two books of the series. So I was really pleased by how much I enjoyed Magic's Child. This is a really good book, so good that it actually made me like the first two more, as I look back on them.

A week ago, 15-year-old Reason Cansino didn't even know magic existed. Now she's been given more power than she could ever have imagined. Suddenly, Reason can do anything, go anywhere, and of live for centuries… The only cost? Her humanity.

As Reason begins to lose herself in the intoxicating essence of magic itself, her friends Tom and Jay-Tee must choose between magic and death, or madness.

I think some of my pleasure in Magic's Child comes from how complicated the story becomes and how unexpected the ending was for me. Without giving too much away, I really appreciated Larbalestier's willingness to turn her characters' lives so upside down.

While these books are presented as a trilogy, I really feel like they should be looked at as a book in three parts. As individual books, they don't really have a beginning, a middle, and an end. But taken together, they do. If I can be so bold as to give my opinion on this kind of thing, I think would make so much more sense to publish these three in one volume than as individual books!

I recommend the Magic or Madness Trilogy to all YA fantasy fans.

Buy Magic's Child (Magic Or Madness Trilogy) on Amazon.