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.

Review: Magic Lessons

Magic Lessons is in the second book in the Magic or Madness trilogy written by Justine Larbalestier.

Fifteen-year-old Reason Cansino has learned the painful truth that she— like her mother, grandmother, and new friends Tom and Jay-Tee—must make a choice: to use the magic that lives in her blood and die young, or refuse to use the magic and lose her mind. Now a new threat leaves Reason stranded alone in New York City, struggling to control a power she barely understands. But could the danger she faces also hold the key to saving her life?

Magic Lessons is a good book but it doesn't quite stand on its own - it feels a little too in-between for me. The story moves very quickly (both to read and in time - the entire books takes place in just a matter of days) and I wish more time had been spent on learning more about Reason's grandmother and on the teen's magic lessons. I think that there is something unique and fascinating about the world Larbalestier has created, and yet I feel like its flying by in a blur, with no time to explore, as we are caught up in the plot. Primarily, Magic Lessons served to make me want to read the final book in the trilogy, Magic's Child, to find out what's going to happen.

Buy Magic Lessons on Amazon.

Review: Magic or Madness

After reading Justine Larbalestier's blog for the past couple of months, I finally got around to reading one of her books - Magic or Madness, her first novel and the first in a trilogy.

Fifteen-year-old Reason Cansino has lived all her life in the outback with her mother, Sarafina, on the run from her evil grandmother, Esmeralda. Esmeralda believes in magic and practices horrifying dark rituals. But when Sarafina suffers a mental breakdown, Reason is sent to the one place she fears most—Esmeralda’s house in Sydney.
Nothing about the house or Esmeralda is what Reason expected. For the first time she finds herself questioning her mother’s teachings. Then when she walks through Esmeralda’s back door in Sydney and finds herself on a New York City street, Reason is forced to face the truth. Magic is real. And Reason is magic.

This is an interesting book. Larbalestier as created a whole new world and sympathetic, compelling characters. Like many books that are the start of a series, much of the book is spent building up this world, especially its take on the rules of magic. Fortunately, I found this building process to be engaging. The plot is relatively spare but works - it is a good place to hang all the other story elements on. There are some darker themes (the madness of the title is real, sadly) that give weight to the story as well.

The book is written from three different points of view (Reason's, Tom's and Jay-Tee's; Tom is Esmeralda's apprentice and Jay-Tee is the girl who befriends Reason in NY). Somehow, though, none of the voices of these characters entirely clicked for me. I read through it very quickly, enjoying it but not entirely engaged. And, of course, I'm not a teen anymore, so younger readers may not feel the same way I did.

That said, I've already gotten the sequel, Magic Lessons, from the library and am looking forward to diving in - the pleasure here, for me, was definitely in seeing where this structure Larbalestier has set up will take us. YA fantasy fans should take a look at Magic or Madness.

Buy Magic or Madness on Amazon.