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Magic or Madness #1
Magic or Madness
"My mother named me Reason."
Reason Cansino has lived fifteen years in the Australian outback with her mother, Sarafina. They're on the run from Reason's grandmother Esmeralda, who 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 home in Sydney.
Nothing about the house or Esmeralda is what Reason expected. 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 shocking truth. Magic is real. And Reason is magic.
Reason Cansino has lived fifteen years in the Australian outback with her mother, Sarafina. They're on the run from Reason's grandmother Esmeralda, who 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 home in Sydney.
Nothing about the house or Esmeralda is what Reason expected. 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 shocking truth. Magic is real. And Reason is magic.
271 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2005
51 people are currently reading
4148 people want to read
About the author
Justine Larbalestier
26 books742 followersJustine Larbalestier is an Australian young-adult fiction author. She is best known for the Magic or Madness trilogy: Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons and the newly released Magic's Child. She also wrote one adult non-fiction book, the Hugo-nominated The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction (Best Related Book, 2003), and edited another, Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century.
Her surname has been pronounced in several different ways, but the FAQ on her website says that Lar-bal-est-ee-air is correct:
Q: How do you pronounce your surname? A: Lar-bal-est-ee-air. It can also be pronounced Lar-bal-est-ee-ay or Lar-bal-est-ee-er. Those are all fine by me. Friends at school used to pronounce it: Lavaworm. I have to really like you to let you get away with that one, but.
Larbalestier was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She now alternates living between Sydney and New York City.
In 2001, Justine married fellow author Scott Westerfeld.
Her surname has been pronounced in several different ways, but the FAQ on her website says that Lar-bal-est-ee-air is correct:
Q: How do you pronounce your surname? A: Lar-bal-est-ee-air. It can also be pronounced Lar-bal-est-ee-ay or Lar-bal-est-ee-er. Those are all fine by me. Friends at school used to pronounce it: Lavaworm. I have to really like you to let you get away with that one, but.
Larbalestier was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She now alternates living between Sydney and New York City.
In 2001, Justine married fellow author Scott Westerfeld.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 371 reviews
August 9, 2007
I’ve never been into books about dragons and fairies and whatnot (I don’t even care for Lord of the Rings), but Larbalestier’s magic is so suffused with real, temporal, relational implications that it was easy to overlook the unicorn-adorned fantasy sticker on the book’s spine. Magic, in this world, does not rely on the wand-and-spell clichés that make Harry Potter so endearing, instead finding inspiration in psychic energy that flows from humans to the natural world and back again.
The heroine, Reason, is a fascinating narrator, her first-person experience allowing the reader to grasp new revelations as they occur; the addition of her friends Tom’s and Jay-Tee’s cross-cultural viewpoints rounds out the perspective on the mysterious happenings in Sydney and New York. I also liked that magic was loosely defined within the world of the novel, following certain rules (e.g., the shocking double-bind at the center of the plot affects all witches) while freely bending others (for example, magic is expressed differently in individuals; Reason’s manifests as a preternatural feel for numbers and math, while Jay-Tee’s is centered in relational connections and crowds and Tom’s in clothing and fabric).
I’m eager to read the rest of the series to see how the questions raised in the first installment resolve, such as the mystery of the black and purple feathers and, most pressingly, whether the quandary of “magic or madness” can be circumvented.
The heroine, Reason, is a fascinating narrator, her first-person experience allowing the reader to grasp new revelations as they occur; the addition of her friends Tom’s and Jay-Tee’s cross-cultural viewpoints rounds out the perspective on the mysterious happenings in Sydney and New York. I also liked that magic was loosely defined within the world of the novel, following certain rules (e.g., the shocking double-bind at the center of the plot affects all witches) while freely bending others (for example, magic is expressed differently in individuals; Reason’s manifests as a preternatural feel for numbers and math, while Jay-Tee’s is centered in relational connections and crowds and Tom’s in clothing and fabric).
I’m eager to read the rest of the series to see how the questions raised in the first installment resolve, such as the mystery of the black and purple feathers and, most pressingly, whether the quandary of “magic or madness” can be circumvented.
September 6, 2007
I have to first start off with the point of view, or points of view i should say. Reason, the main character started the story off by narrating in first person. But as the story proceeded and introduced more characters the telling was twisted into third person with these new characters as the focal point. I found this more irritating than confusing and wished the story would have been told from one point of view preferably Reason's. I believe the maintaining of Reason's narration would have brought me into the book more so than it actually did.
Moving on to a different topic, i would like to say that i also found the absurdness of Reason not knowing anything about the world (Jay-Tee too for that matter)was also irritating. I wish i could have wrung her neck and slapped her in the face when Reason refused to even speak with her Grandmother. I believe that if the author delved deeper into the way Reason was raised with her mother and the beliefs her mother installed in her, it would have made the hatred and caution more understandable.
However, the story line was acceptable, nothing new or intriguing. I suppose it is a good starting point for those people who would like to start reading fantasy. But i wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for High Fantasy.
Moving on to a different topic, i would like to say that i also found the absurdness of Reason not knowing anything about the world (Jay-Tee too for that matter)was also irritating. I wish i could have wrung her neck and slapped her in the face when Reason refused to even speak with her Grandmother. I believe that if the author delved deeper into the way Reason was raised with her mother and the beliefs her mother installed in her, it would have made the hatred and caution more understandable.
However, the story line was acceptable, nothing new or intriguing. I suppose it is a good starting point for those people who would like to start reading fantasy. But i wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for High Fantasy.
August 15, 2007
The one where Reason's mother goes mad, leaving Reason in the clutches of the grandmother she's been taught is a wicked witch.
I enjoyed this, though like many YA books it was more of a snack than a full novel. (It only lasted me a day and a half! I had to make a special evening trip to the library so as not to face a bookless night!)
I enjoyed spending time with Reason; unlike a lot of YA heroines, she's not whiny, nor are her problems trivial. She is exasperatingly unwilling to listen or ask questions, but she does have a better-than-average excuse (much better than, say, Harry Potter's). Tom and JayTee and Esmerelda and even poor Sarafina are all interesting as well.
I got a little tired of listening to Tom go on and on about Reason's attractiveness; it was so overdone that I began to wonder whether the author felt that she needed to reassure people that even though Tom is interested in fashion, this doesn't mean he's gay, honest. (If that's the reason, it would have been a good idea not to have him use the word 'gorgeous' quite so much, unless it carries different connotations in Australia.)
The climactic battle, which apparently happens entirely in the heads of the participants, is a bit of a letdown. Still, I've put Magic Lessons on my to-read list.
(Locus poll: Magic Lessons #3 YA SFF novel of year)
I enjoyed this, though like many YA books it was more of a snack than a full novel. (It only lasted me a day and a half! I had to make a special evening trip to the library so as not to face a bookless night!)
I enjoyed spending time with Reason; unlike a lot of YA heroines, she's not whiny, nor are her problems trivial. She is exasperatingly unwilling to listen or ask questions, but she does have a better-than-average excuse (much better than, say, Harry Potter's). Tom and JayTee and Esmerelda and even poor Sarafina are all interesting as well.
I got a little tired of listening to Tom go on and on about Reason's attractiveness; it was so overdone that I began to wonder whether the author felt that she needed to reassure people that even though Tom is interested in fashion, this doesn't mean he's gay, honest. (If that's the reason, it would have been a good idea not to have him use the word 'gorgeous' quite so much, unless it carries different connotations in Australia.)
The climactic battle, which apparently happens entirely in the heads of the participants, is a bit of a letdown. Still, I've put Magic Lessons on my to-read list.
(Locus poll: Magic Lessons #3 YA SFF novel of year)
November 15, 2012
Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com
Reason Cansino has always been taught to fear her grandmother, Esmeralda. Reason's mother, Sarafina, has taken them all over Australia, mostly to remote Aboriginal settlements. Reason has only been to a real school once, but Sarafina has taught her lots of things, mostly math and some science.
Reason has been happy with her life, but when Sarafina goes crazy--really crazy, as in trying to kill herself instead of her usual craziness consisting of things like making them walk in straight lines for days--all of that comes to an end. Reason is sent to live with Esmeralda in Sydney. She's expecting the dark, scary house of her mother's stories. The one where Sarafina's cat was murdered. The house where dark magic takes place--imaginary magic, of course, as Sarafina has always said that magic isn't real. It's too illogical.
What Reason finds, however, is a spacious, light house, not at all witchy. There are no animal sacrifices in the living room, no bubbling cauldrons in the kitchen. That can't undo the belief that years of Sarafina's stories have created, though. Reason is sure that something is going on underneath the surface, and she's got to run away and get out of Sydney as soon as possible. She's got to rescue Sarafina from the loony bin where she's been locked up.
Sydney's not all bad, though. Reason meets Esmeralda's neighbor, a boy about her age named Tom. She'll be sorry to leave him behind, but it looks like he's working with Esmeralda, and she's got to get away from the witch.
Reason's escape from Sydney doesn't exactly go as planned. Instead of escaping with her mother and all of her supplies, Reason finds herself on a winter street in New York City, barefoot and with nothing, after stepping through Esmeralda's back door.
She doesn't know how she ended up there, but she's grateful to Jay-Tee, the teenage girl who rescued her from the freezing, alien streets. She thinks that Jay-Tee is just a friendly passerby...But could there be more to it than that? What is going on? How did Reason step through a door from Sydney to New York? That's just not possible. What secrets are being hidden from her?
MAGIC OR MADNESS is a wonderful novel from Justine Larbalestier, who's married to one of my favorite authors of all time, Scott Westerfeld. It's a fascinating story, and the way it's told is a little unconventional: some chapters are told in a first person point of view, in Reason's voice, and others are told in a third person limited point of view, from inside either Jay-Tee's or Tom's mind. These three different points of view could be confusing, but Justine Larbalestier pulls it off wonderfully.
The story itself is quite a page-turner. I read this book when it first came out, and reread it after getting my own copy in paperback, and I loved it both times. The characters are all wonderfully realistic and interesting. Each answer Reason finds only leads to more questions, keeping suspense throughout the story. The writing is fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to the third book in the trilogy, MAGIC'S CHILD, coming in 2007!
Reason Cansino has always been taught to fear her grandmother, Esmeralda. Reason's mother, Sarafina, has taken them all over Australia, mostly to remote Aboriginal settlements. Reason has only been to a real school once, but Sarafina has taught her lots of things, mostly math and some science.
Reason has been happy with her life, but when Sarafina goes crazy--really crazy, as in trying to kill herself instead of her usual craziness consisting of things like making them walk in straight lines for days--all of that comes to an end. Reason is sent to live with Esmeralda in Sydney. She's expecting the dark, scary house of her mother's stories. The one where Sarafina's cat was murdered. The house where dark magic takes place--imaginary magic, of course, as Sarafina has always said that magic isn't real. It's too illogical.
What Reason finds, however, is a spacious, light house, not at all witchy. There are no animal sacrifices in the living room, no bubbling cauldrons in the kitchen. That can't undo the belief that years of Sarafina's stories have created, though. Reason is sure that something is going on underneath the surface, and she's got to run away and get out of Sydney as soon as possible. She's got to rescue Sarafina from the loony bin where she's been locked up.
Sydney's not all bad, though. Reason meets Esmeralda's neighbor, a boy about her age named Tom. She'll be sorry to leave him behind, but it looks like he's working with Esmeralda, and she's got to get away from the witch.
Reason's escape from Sydney doesn't exactly go as planned. Instead of escaping with her mother and all of her supplies, Reason finds herself on a winter street in New York City, barefoot and with nothing, after stepping through Esmeralda's back door.
She doesn't know how she ended up there, but she's grateful to Jay-Tee, the teenage girl who rescued her from the freezing, alien streets. She thinks that Jay-Tee is just a friendly passerby...But could there be more to it than that? What is going on? How did Reason step through a door from Sydney to New York? That's just not possible. What secrets are being hidden from her?
MAGIC OR MADNESS is a wonderful novel from Justine Larbalestier, who's married to one of my favorite authors of all time, Scott Westerfeld. It's a fascinating story, and the way it's told is a little unconventional: some chapters are told in a first person point of view, in Reason's voice, and others are told in a third person limited point of view, from inside either Jay-Tee's or Tom's mind. These three different points of view could be confusing, but Justine Larbalestier pulls it off wonderfully.
The story itself is quite a page-turner. I read this book when it first came out, and reread it after getting my own copy in paperback, and I loved it both times. The characters are all wonderfully realistic and interesting. Each answer Reason finds only leads to more questions, keeping suspense throughout the story. The writing is fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to the third book in the trilogy, MAGIC'S CHILD, coming in 2007!
March 15, 2011
I have alluded (or more like outright stated) in my previous reviews my love of anything to do with witches and magic. Even thinking about anything remotely to do with magic instantly brings me back to a much more innocent place in my life. Ever since this, okay I’ll say it, obsession with this type of world started, I’ve been searching for books about magic that would take me back to the wonderment I first felt by watching something about it (Charmed) and reading something about it (Harry Potter). Some of the books have been good, but most of them have been a tad on the mediocre side. Magic or Madness, unfortunately, falls under the latter.
First of all, the main character, Reason was completely inconsistent. No 15 year old is that naïve. It just doesn’t happen. After a while, it did start to grate a little. In fact, every time Jay-Tee was getting annoyed at the same thing and wanting to punch Reason, I kept thinking that she should totally go for it. And as the story progressed, I was wishing for naïveté to come back because Reason was starting to turn into a damn idiot. But going back to the inconsistent part, she was taught to be on guard and a bit on the paranoid side. However, she just stands by and swallows all the fake crap that people tell her. It was like everyone else was saying “Dance, puppet, dance!” and Reason was all, “I shouldn’t…but OKAY!!!!” And then there are moments when she starts being wise (after like 24 hours which also makes it inconsistent) and then goes back to being an idiot. In fact, I found reason and Tom (her maybe love interest in the future) both idiots. Tom was all “I have to SAVE Reason”, yet all he does for most of the book is stop by a café or a restaurant to eat something. He was equally as useless as Reason.
The only characters I even remotely liked were Jay-Tee and Esmeralda. I found Jay-Tee to be refreshing and I’ve always been drawn to “troubled” characters. Mostly because they tend to be less annoying than the actual goody-goodies in YA books (and this is coming from someone who was a complete goody-goody in high school). I was also extremely intrigued by Esmeralda. So much that I was hoping that she would narrate some chapters of the book (yes I know it’s a YA book so I should’ve known she wouldn’t). Again, it could be my love of “troubled” characters shining through. The magic in the Magic or Madness was also intriguing. It’s too bad that it was only lightly touched upon in this book.
So, Magic or Madness was a bit of a bust for me. I just didn’t find Reason’s portrayal realistic. Neither was Tom, come to think of it. Will I read the second book? Probably. But only because of that interesting storyline involving Esmeralda that I think may come up. But it sure as hell won’t be anytime soon.
First of all, the main character, Reason was completely inconsistent. No 15 year old is that naïve. It just doesn’t happen. After a while, it did start to grate a little. In fact, every time Jay-Tee was getting annoyed at the same thing and wanting to punch Reason, I kept thinking that she should totally go for it. And as the story progressed, I was wishing for naïveté to come back because Reason was starting to turn into a damn idiot. But going back to the inconsistent part, she was taught to be on guard and a bit on the paranoid side. However, she just stands by and swallows all the fake crap that people tell her. It was like everyone else was saying “Dance, puppet, dance!” and Reason was all, “I shouldn’t…but OKAY!!!!” And then there are moments when she starts being wise (after like 24 hours which also makes it inconsistent) and then goes back to being an idiot. In fact, I found reason and Tom (her maybe love interest in the future) both idiots. Tom was all “I have to SAVE Reason”, yet all he does for most of the book is stop by a café or a restaurant to eat something. He was equally as useless as Reason.
The only characters I even remotely liked were Jay-Tee and Esmeralda. I found Jay-Tee to be refreshing and I’ve always been drawn to “troubled” characters. Mostly because they tend to be less annoying than the actual goody-goodies in YA books (and this is coming from someone who was a complete goody-goody in high school). I was also extremely intrigued by Esmeralda. So much that I was hoping that she would narrate some chapters of the book (yes I know it’s a YA book so I should’ve known she wouldn’t). Again, it could be my love of “troubled” characters shining through. The magic in the Magic or Madness was also intriguing. It’s too bad that it was only lightly touched upon in this book.
So, Magic or Madness was a bit of a bust for me. I just didn’t find Reason’s portrayal realistic. Neither was Tom, come to think of it. Will I read the second book? Probably. But only because of that interesting storyline involving Esmeralda that I think may come up. But it sure as hell won’t be anytime soon.
December 19, 2011
Disappointing. Larbalestier's Liar -- when it impressed and when it didn't -- that book was interesting. It was thinking and messing with the boundaries of young adult fiction and just doing stuff.
This book is none of the above. It's just a couple hundred pages in which stuff happens. And I was frankly confused, because this is a universe where people -- women, mostly -- have a choice between the assumption of power and death on one hand, or eventual mental illness (unspecified) on the other. Magic or madness, right. And I kept twitching, because that's difficult ground right there, a lot of things can go really, really wrong, and I kept waiting for it to happen. And it kept not happening. Not because Larbalestier was doing a really good job with it, but because she wasn't doing anything with it. Like, at all. Stuff just happened to a bunch of young people, and then it was over.
Does the rest of the trilogy deliver . . . anything?
This book is none of the above. It's just a couple hundred pages in which stuff happens. And I was frankly confused, because this is a universe where people -- women, mostly -- have a choice between the assumption of power and death on one hand, or eventual mental illness (unspecified) on the other. Magic or madness, right. And I kept twitching, because that's difficult ground right there, a lot of things can go really, really wrong, and I kept waiting for it to happen. And it kept not happening. Not because Larbalestier was doing a really good job with it, but because she wasn't doing anything with it. Like, at all. Stuff just happened to a bunch of young people, and then it was over.
Does the rest of the trilogy deliver . . . anything?
May 10, 2008
I'm not sure how I came across this book, but I'm glad I checked it out from the library & didn't buy it. It was really just ok for me (that sounded like Randy from American idol - dawg). Anyways, I wouldn't recommend it. I don't even think I will bother reading the other 2 books in the trilogy.
January 12, 2011
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.
August 27, 2009
Not bad. Not great either, but a very interesting concept. Magic exists, but it comes with a hefty price. One you can't avoid. Either you use your magic but you die early, or you ignore your magic and go insane. It's told from the point of view of several characters across the chapters, but the author does a good job keeping you abreast of who's talking without making it forced.
It splits the story between Sydney, Australia and NY, NY, with characters from both locations. So the English is either American or Australian depending upon who's talking. She includes a glossary for the Aussie words you might not know. Not bad for an afternoon read, but not one I'd look to buy. I could walk away mid-story and not feel particularly compelled to find out the rest. I also don't feel certain who the "bad guy" is. One minute you're for someone, and the next they're a horrible person, and the author can't quite make up her mind which way she wants it. But it doesn't go so far as a truly complex character with strengths and flaws.
I've got the whole trilogy since it was there, we'll see if things improve as we go along.
It splits the story between Sydney, Australia and NY, NY, with characters from both locations. So the English is either American or Australian depending upon who's talking. She includes a glossary for the Aussie words you might not know. Not bad for an afternoon read, but not one I'd look to buy. I could walk away mid-story and not feel particularly compelled to find out the rest. I also don't feel certain who the "bad guy" is. One minute you're for someone, and the next they're a horrible person, and the author can't quite make up her mind which way she wants it. But it doesn't go so far as a truly complex character with strengths and flaws.
I've got the whole trilogy since it was there, we'll see if things improve as we go along.
April 9, 2012
Reason’s mother is mad.
Which means Reason has to move to Sidney, Australia. And move in with her grandmother.
The Witch.
Or rather, the woman who believes she’s a witch. And whom Reason and her mother have spent their entire lives fleeing.
But as soon as Reason arrives in Sidney, she makes plans to run away.
She just didn’t intend to run away through the back door. Using the hidden key.
And wind up in the middle of a snowstorm in New York.
Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness is the first book in a trilogy where reality is all about perception. And perception is sometimes faulty. But perhaps not more faulty than truth. I liked Reason’s special Gift for numbers. As well as the initial Australian setting. On to book 2.
Which means Reason has to move to Sidney, Australia. And move in with her grandmother.
The Witch.
Or rather, the woman who believes she’s a witch. And whom Reason and her mother have spent their entire lives fleeing.
But as soon as Reason arrives in Sidney, she makes plans to run away.
She just didn’t intend to run away through the back door. Using the hidden key.
And wind up in the middle of a snowstorm in New York.
Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness is the first book in a trilogy where reality is all about perception. And perception is sometimes faulty. But perhaps not more faulty than truth. I liked Reason’s special Gift for numbers. As well as the initial Australian setting. On to book 2.
September 25, 2015
Reason is sent to live with her feared grandmother after her mother is institutionalised, not knowing that the magic her mother was trying to escape is alive and well in both her grandmother and in Reason herself. There is a bit of intrigue (why did all of her female ancestors die so young) to keep the plot moving along, while Reason is planning her escape routes. She is quite a resourceful 15 year old. The relationship between magic and power is examined, as is the inner battle between using power for good or for evil means. A contemporary novel set in both Sydney and New York. There is lots to enjoy in this first book of the series.
April 19, 2009
I really was not a fan of this book. I thought Larbalestier's writing was just strange. Some of her sentence structure just made no sense and it got on my nerves. Then she jumped from first person narrative to 3rd, which made no sense to me either. I didn't add anything to the book only made it look unedited and just strange. I've never read a book that jumped back and forth like this. It would have been better had she just stayed with one style the whole way through. Also, you never start a book with a good feeling when you read the Authors note to the readers in the beginning and she actually has to explain things to you about the story. That is just not a good sign because if the story is good and the writing is good that should speak for itself and there should be no need for the author to go in to try to explain things to you. Also some of the character development was weak but it seemed to become stronger near the end of the book. I thought she did do a nice job of bringing the story line together at the end and really the story itself is interesting, you just have to get over her style of writing. I have to admit i almost gave up.
I probibly wouldn't really recommend this one unles you really had nothing else to read. but then again, like the fool i am, i'll most likely read the other two of the series cuz that's just how i am. Can't start something and not finish it. Dang it!
It seems though like the other two are hard to find though unless you order it online. not a good sign sense it a relatively new book.
I probibly wouldn't really recommend this one unles you really had nothing else to read. but then again, like the fool i am, i'll most likely read the other two of the series cuz that's just how i am. Can't start something and not finish it. Dang it!
It seems though like the other two are hard to find though unless you order it online. not a good sign sense it a relatively new book.
February 16, 2011
I loved Justine Larbalestier's Liar, and I think in a way it spoiled me for this book, which is equally readable but a bit less intricate, and requiring less thought. The basic idea is encapsulated in the title, which makes it very annoying that the main character, Reason, spends at least half the book not getting it -- it doesn't come as a big revelation to the reader, if they can put one and one together to make two.
My other problem with it was how prevalent the slang was. It's like Justine Larbalestier did some basic research on what teens are saying in Australia and NYC lately, and then crammed all of it in, in every other sentence. That'll quickly make it feel dated, and it feels so contrived. The fact that she needs a little glossary in the back to make things clear is kind of annoying.
The characters themselves haven't gone anywhere much, but I have hope for them. I'm most interested in Esmeralda, really: I found the portrayal of her for the most part one-dimensional, except for at the end where she shone. I like the moral ambiguity, and I hope it's expanded upon. That could make it very interesting. I'm not so drawn by Jay-Tee, Reason and Tom.
Magic or Madness is a pretty quick, fun read, but I don't like it nearly as much as I liked Liar. If I were to recommend Larbalestier's work to someone for the first time, I'd suggest they read Magic or Madness first, and figured out if they were interested in reading the rest, before going onto Liar, simply because Liar raised my expectations very high, and consequently reduced my enjoyment of this book.
My other problem with it was how prevalent the slang was. It's like Justine Larbalestier did some basic research on what teens are saying in Australia and NYC lately, and then crammed all of it in, in every other sentence. That'll quickly make it feel dated, and it feels so contrived. The fact that she needs a little glossary in the back to make things clear is kind of annoying.
The characters themselves haven't gone anywhere much, but I have hope for them. I'm most interested in Esmeralda, really: I found the portrayal of her for the most part one-dimensional, except for at the end where she shone. I like the moral ambiguity, and I hope it's expanded upon. That could make it very interesting. I'm not so drawn by Jay-Tee, Reason and Tom.
Magic or Madness is a pretty quick, fun read, but I don't like it nearly as much as I liked Liar. If I were to recommend Larbalestier's work to someone for the first time, I'd suggest they read Magic or Madness first, and figured out if they were interested in reading the rest, before going onto Liar, simply because Liar raised my expectations very high, and consequently reduced my enjoyment of this book.
September 22, 2008
I'm just going to review all three of the books in this trilogy right here, because honestly, I don't think they should even be three separate books. One longer novel (with all the repetition edited out) would've been plenty for this concept, which was interesting, but that's about as far as I can go. The characters could be okay, but they're either too naive or annoying or just unrealistic, and they don't react to the novel's situation very believably AT ALL. Switching narrators also annoyed me. This just really falls flat, especially when compared to some of the really good YA lit that's out there.
OT: It's obvious that Larbalastier is married to Scot Westerfeld -- many of her concepts are seen in his novels too (numbers in the Midnighters series, for example).
OT: It's obvious that Larbalastier is married to Scot Westerfeld -- many of her concepts are seen in his novels too (numbers in the Midnighters series, for example).
December 17, 2009
Reason Cansino has spent her whole life on the run in Australia (the author's home) with her mother Sarafina, escaping her grandmother Esmerelda; Reason's mum calls Esmerelda a witch and tells Reason awful stories of dark magic and sacrifice. When Sarafina has a mental breakdown, though, Reason has to go live with Esmerelda in Sydney; when she steps through Esmerelda's back door and finds herself in New York, Reason must face the truth behind Sarafina's stories and behind Reason herself: she has magic. Magic or Madness is a wonderful combination of vivid characters (especially Reason), excellent sense of place, both in Sydney and in New York, and an original and fascinating magical system (on which I won't go into details for fear of spoilers).
March 12, 2012
I don't even know how to rate this. I felt like most of the book was a very long chapter one. You never really figure out what is going on until the last few chapters. Even then, more effort into world building needed to happen. Perhaps the author has it all in her head, but she does not share it with the reader. She also starts the book off in 1st person POV and then strangely switches to third, or really first of another character, but not an omniscient third. It needed some tighter editing. The story itself was interesting, but I feel as if I need to read the next book just to get into the meat of the story. This book felt like wrapping paper without very much gift. Too many things were unresolved and I've definitely read better.
August 19, 2021
This book has several cuss words in it. So if you are funny about that sort of thing don't get this for your kids. And there were weird phrases like instead of the author saying "falling down" he used "going arse over titts" several times and that just felt weird to say when reading aloud to my kids lol. I like the plot of the book but found the story to be a little slow for me, however my daughters can't wait to read the next 2 books. Hopefully the plot speeds up! The author would just go on and on about certain things. If I have to hear about Reason running away one more time I'm going to scream.
August 11, 2018
Toller Start in die Cansino-Triologie.
Ich fande es leicht und angenehm zu lesen.
Die Hauptperson ist ein sympathisches Mädchen und man fiebert mit ihr mit, das sie endlich das Familiengeheimnis erfährt und warum ihre Mutter soviel Angst vor ihrer Großmutter hat.
Freue mich darauf zu lesen, wie es weiter geht.
Schöner magischer Jugendroman, der auch Erwachsenen gefallen kann. Genau das Richtige für zwischendurch.
Ich fande es leicht und angenehm zu lesen.
Die Hauptperson ist ein sympathisches Mädchen und man fiebert mit ihr mit, das sie endlich das Familiengeheimnis erfährt und warum ihre Mutter soviel Angst vor ihrer Großmutter hat.
Freue mich darauf zu lesen, wie es weiter geht.
Schöner magischer Jugendroman, der auch Erwachsenen gefallen kann. Genau das Richtige für zwischendurch.
July 29, 2017
I really enjoyed this book! I appreciated the Australian word translations in the back as the book is split between U.S. and Australian style writing. (All of which is laid out in the "Note to readers" page in front of chapter 1). The story ends very abruptly, which just made me want to immediately start the next book (which luckily I had). Can't wait to read the next one.
July 8, 2017
Fifteen-year-old Reason, gifted in mathematics, struggles to work out where she fits in a family where magic and madness go hand in hand. The author's sparky and electric writing style brought the book alive for me. A quick and enjoyable read.
June 5, 2013
So, I hadn’t heard much about the Magic Lessons trilogy until after I had initially read Liar—up until then, my only experience with Justine Larbalestier’s work was reading How to Ditch Your Fairy and giving up partway through because while that book had a cool idea, the concept was clearly not that all thought out. And I think I can say the same of Magic or Madness. There’s cool ideas, there’s definitely a strong story set up here, it’s just that Larbalestier spends so much time on the set up that the majority of the book chugs along with not much happening and then oh hey! Climatic battle and we’re done. (Basically, it suffers from Trilogy Syndrome; I would really like to see this series in an omnibus format and see how it compares to reading the standalone volumes.)
Because I do like what’s given here. I like magic systems that utilize science and math to explain how the universe works (the old-adage “Magic is just sufficiently advanced science”), I liked the characters involved, and I like that not only does magic take a toll on a user’s life in this series, but at such a staggering cost. But the problem is that it takes such a long time for anything to happen. Reason spends roughly a hundred pages trying to figure out whether or not her grandmother is trying to trick her, to seduce her into the world of magic, then BAM! She’s in New York….and spends the rest of the book being dragged around by Jay-Tee while people half-explain things to her. And I get that this book is setting things up for a larger trilogy, but I’m just not feeling it.
It’s not that the book overall is bad. I like a lot what Larbalestier does here, especially with handling three different character POVs. It also helps that all three characters are pretty strong. I liked Reason’s natural curiosity and affinity for Fibonacci numbers (and foodie tendencies), but you could also tell how innocent she was, not only from Jay-Tee’s POV, but from Reason’s unsureness about herself. I loved Jay-Tee, not just because she felt like that she’s been through the most, but you could really see how she would be attracted to using magic. And I loved that she recharges herself through dance; the club scene where Reason watches her dance is a fantastic sequence. Tom is probably the weakest of the three, seeing as he probably knows the most of what’s going on, but I still liked that he’s a distinctive character in his own right. (I also love that he really wants to be a fashion designer.) And what really works for me is a lot of these character details don’t come from the personal POVs, but when the others are observing the character in question. Sure, it’s frustrating for Jay-Tee to take care of Reason, but we get to see how really sheltered Reason was due to being on the run with her mother. And I like these three characters not only helping Reason discovering her magic, but also as growing friends and just helping each other out.
The problem is Esmeralda and Jason Blake. I did like Esmeralda, but we never get to see enough of her that’s not from Reason’s POV. (Tom does interact with Esmeralda, but we never get enough information on their relationship aside from mentor/student and that she “helped out” Tom’s family when his mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.) The problem is that we never get the conflict explained beyond, “Oh, well, we just have different methodology for using and gaining someone else’s magic.” (I do kind of like the fact that Esmeralda acknowledges that her ‘showdown’ with Blake was actually really low-level, mainly because they couldn’t expend a lot of magic.) We know that Blake’s bad news, but we don’t get an actual reason why aside from being a skeevy douche. I don’t get why this is so important that Reason shouldn’t be near him, aside from Reason has massive magical potential. (It’s also frustrating how casually it’s dropped that Reason accidentally killed a boy when she was little. The only reason I’m not more ragey about this plot point is that it’s explained in the Magic Lessons preview at the end of my copy). I wanted to get more into the mysteries right away—why do magic users only live so long? What’s with Reason’s power? Why did Esmeralda kill a cat, and why did it affect Reason’s mother like it did? (I do have to also say I really don’t like the whole reason that Sarafina tries to kill herself is because she doesn’t use her magic, and that’s implied of all strong magic users who stop using their magic. If I do get my hands on another volume, I hope that this gets explained better, because the reason here reads as really problematic.)
Again, this is not to say that this is a bad book, nor a bad start to a series. But ultimately, Magic or Madness does suffer from the Trilogy Syndrome thanks to the massive amount of set-up that’s given in one book and resolved with a quick denouement and a “To Be Continued.” I do want to read the rest of the series, but as a stand-alone volume, I can see where people would be quickly turned off from reading the other two books. (I can haz omnibus?)
Because I do like what’s given here. I like magic systems that utilize science and math to explain how the universe works (the old-adage “Magic is just sufficiently advanced science”), I liked the characters involved, and I like that not only does magic take a toll on a user’s life in this series, but at such a staggering cost. But the problem is that it takes such a long time for anything to happen. Reason spends roughly a hundred pages trying to figure out whether or not her grandmother is trying to trick her, to seduce her into the world of magic, then BAM! She’s in New York….and spends the rest of the book being dragged around by Jay-Tee while people half-explain things to her. And I get that this book is setting things up for a larger trilogy, but I’m just not feeling it.
It’s not that the book overall is bad. I like a lot what Larbalestier does here, especially with handling three different character POVs. It also helps that all three characters are pretty strong. I liked Reason’s natural curiosity and affinity for Fibonacci numbers (and foodie tendencies), but you could also tell how innocent she was, not only from Jay-Tee’s POV, but from Reason’s unsureness about herself. I loved Jay-Tee, not just because she felt like that she’s been through the most, but you could really see how she would be attracted to using magic. And I loved that she recharges herself through dance; the club scene where Reason watches her dance is a fantastic sequence. Tom is probably the weakest of the three, seeing as he probably knows the most of what’s going on, but I still liked that he’s a distinctive character in his own right. (I also love that he really wants to be a fashion designer.) And what really works for me is a lot of these character details don’t come from the personal POVs, but when the others are observing the character in question. Sure, it’s frustrating for Jay-Tee to take care of Reason, but we get to see how really sheltered Reason was due to being on the run with her mother. And I like these three characters not only helping Reason discovering her magic, but also as growing friends and just helping each other out.
The problem is Esmeralda and Jason Blake. I did like Esmeralda, but we never get to see enough of her that’s not from Reason’s POV. (Tom does interact with Esmeralda, but we never get enough information on their relationship aside from mentor/student and that she “helped out” Tom’s family when his mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.) The problem is that we never get the conflict explained beyond, “Oh, well, we just have different methodology for using and gaining someone else’s magic.” (I do kind of like the fact that Esmeralda acknowledges that her ‘showdown’ with Blake was actually really low-level, mainly because they couldn’t expend a lot of magic.) We know that Blake’s bad news, but we don’t get an actual reason why aside from being a skeevy douche. I don’t get why this is so important that Reason shouldn’t be near him, aside from Reason has massive magical potential. (It’s also frustrating how casually it’s dropped that Reason accidentally killed a boy when she was little. The only reason I’m not more ragey about this plot point is that it’s explained in the Magic Lessons preview at the end of my copy). I wanted to get more into the mysteries right away—why do magic users only live so long? What’s with Reason’s power? Why did Esmeralda kill a cat, and why did it affect Reason’s mother like it did? (I do have to also say I really don’t like the whole reason that Sarafina tries to kill herself is because she doesn’t use her magic, and that’s implied of all strong magic users who stop using their magic. If I do get my hands on another volume, I hope that this gets explained better, because the reason here reads as really problematic.)
Again, this is not to say that this is a bad book, nor a bad start to a series. But ultimately, Magic or Madness does suffer from the Trilogy Syndrome thanks to the massive amount of set-up that’s given in one book and resolved with a quick denouement and a “To Be Continued.” I do want to read the rest of the series, but as a stand-alone volume, I can see where people would be quickly turned off from reading the other two books. (I can haz omnibus?)
August 13, 2021
really good first book, will have to read the 2nd and 3rd ones
July 26, 2016
Odds are, if you've read one of Justine Larbalestier's books before, it's either Team Human or Liar, and you're checking this out because you liked one or both of those. I haven't read Team Human yet, so I can't compare this book to that, but this couldn't be farther from Liar. And I hate to say it, but I don't mean that in a good way. Liar was a stunningly original, character-driven story with one of the best twists I've ever seen. This isn't a bad novel - particularly in the beginning - but overall, it feels bland and slow in comparison to Liar.
The most noticeable thing that Larbalestier does right in the beginning is that she does a really good job of anticipating the reader's reactions and playing off them. The novel opens with Reason (yes, that's the name of a character) in her grandmother's house, and instantly, we're bombarded with descriptions from Reason's mother of the grandmother's abuse. They're very evocative and terrifying, setting the audience up for the Grandmother as a villain. But then Reason searches the house, and the signals are more mixed. She finds teeth in her grandmother's toothbrush, but little of the other expected signs of abuse were found. Slowly, we realize we're dealing with a very different kind of book than we thought we were. The way I'm describing it, it probably doesn't seem like such a big deal, but when it comes gradually, it's incredibly subtle and surprising. Larbalestier clearly has a lot of command over how her readers think and make predictions.
But then Reason gets sucked to New York City, and it all goes downhill from there. My main problem with the book was that it felt more like the pilot of a long TV show than the first book in a trilogy. We have the introduction of the heroes (but no significant character development other than their outlines), the introduction of a villain (but no serious fighting with him), and the beginnings of a plot (but no real suspense and only the beginnings of a longer arc). Most of all, I was disappointed in the setting. In Liar, Micah's New York was real and evocative - full of life and character. Here, Larbalestier has little to say about either Sydney or New York City, other than, "Whoa, people from America think Australians talk weird, but Australians think it's the other way around! Dude!" It has none of Liar's insight or dimension.
The writing was another aspect I was disappointed in. There was nothing wrong with it, exactly - it was smooth and efficient, and it got the job done. I was just incredibly disappointed in how Larbalestier chose to represent Reason's voice. In Liar, Micah's voice was captured with an astounding subtlety and grace. Here, Reason doesn't have a distinct voice - it could be any Australian teenager behind the writing. The reason for this soon becomes clear: when Larbalestier wants to write a chapter from Tom or Jay-Tee's point of view, she just changes to third person and doesn't change how she writes a bit, other than using Americanized spelling and grammar for Jay-Tee. I've seen this before, and it annoys me every time. It's such a lazy way of changing POV characters without having to develop distinct voices. Tom and Jay-Tee were very different characters from Reason, and none would speak alike. I could've understood if Reason's chapters were in third person as well, but the way it is, it simply felt like a misrepresentation of all three POV characters.
And it's quite a shame, too, because all three were very well-developed. Despite the lack of progression I mentioned earlier, Larbalestier clearly had a good idea of all of their personalities. Larbalestier did a good job of fleshing out their backgrounds - their hobbies, their passions, their weird fetishes. (Okay, very little weird fetishes, but whatever.) As the series goes on, I'm looking forward to seeing how Larbalestier chooses to extend on their personalities and develop them further. Because they have a lot of potential, more than we see here.
Overall, this was a perfectly fine novel that I ruined by reading Liar first. Really, this wouldn't be bad on its own, but it can't hold a candle to Liar. If you're looking for a controlled and unique experience reading a fantasy book, this is a fine option. But it's nothing compared to the punch that Liar packs, and I'll always recommend that over this.
A slightly improved version of this review can be found on my blog.
The most noticeable thing that Larbalestier does right in the beginning is that she does a really good job of anticipating the reader's reactions and playing off them. The novel opens with Reason (yes, that's the name of a character) in her grandmother's house, and instantly, we're bombarded with descriptions from Reason's mother of the grandmother's abuse. They're very evocative and terrifying, setting the audience up for the Grandmother as a villain. But then Reason searches the house, and the signals are more mixed. She finds teeth in her grandmother's toothbrush, but little of the other expected signs of abuse were found. Slowly, we realize we're dealing with a very different kind of book than we thought we were. The way I'm describing it, it probably doesn't seem like such a big deal, but when it comes gradually, it's incredibly subtle and surprising. Larbalestier clearly has a lot of command over how her readers think and make predictions.
But then Reason gets sucked to New York City, and it all goes downhill from there. My main problem with the book was that it felt more like the pilot of a long TV show than the first book in a trilogy. We have the introduction of the heroes (but no significant character development other than their outlines), the introduction of a villain (but no serious fighting with him), and the beginnings of a plot (but no real suspense and only the beginnings of a longer arc). Most of all, I was disappointed in the setting. In Liar, Micah's New York was real and evocative - full of life and character. Here, Larbalestier has little to say about either Sydney or New York City, other than, "Whoa, people from America think Australians talk weird, but Australians think it's the other way around! Dude!" It has none of Liar's insight or dimension.
The writing was another aspect I was disappointed in. There was nothing wrong with it, exactly - it was smooth and efficient, and it got the job done. I was just incredibly disappointed in how Larbalestier chose to represent Reason's voice. In Liar, Micah's voice was captured with an astounding subtlety and grace. Here, Reason doesn't have a distinct voice - it could be any Australian teenager behind the writing. The reason for this soon becomes clear: when Larbalestier wants to write a chapter from Tom or Jay-Tee's point of view, she just changes to third person and doesn't change how she writes a bit, other than using Americanized spelling and grammar for Jay-Tee. I've seen this before, and it annoys me every time. It's such a lazy way of changing POV characters without having to develop distinct voices. Tom and Jay-Tee were very different characters from Reason, and none would speak alike. I could've understood if Reason's chapters were in third person as well, but the way it is, it simply felt like a misrepresentation of all three POV characters.
And it's quite a shame, too, because all three were very well-developed. Despite the lack of progression I mentioned earlier, Larbalestier clearly had a good idea of all of their personalities. Larbalestier did a good job of fleshing out their backgrounds - their hobbies, their passions, their weird fetishes. (Okay, very little weird fetishes, but whatever.) As the series goes on, I'm looking forward to seeing how Larbalestier chooses to extend on their personalities and develop them further. Because they have a lot of potential, more than we see here.
Overall, this was a perfectly fine novel that I ruined by reading Liar first. Really, this wouldn't be bad on its own, but it can't hold a candle to Liar. If you're looking for a controlled and unique experience reading a fantasy book, this is a fine option. But it's nothing compared to the punch that Liar packs, and I'll always recommend that over this.
A slightly improved version of this review can be found on my blog.
February 5, 2015
Eh. This book was kind of difficult to get into. I probably won't read it again, but it wasn't HORRIBLE! I guess the hardest part for me was that there was very little character development; I never really connected with Reason, and her friendship with Tom, especially, seemed really rushed, which made it hard to understand why he was so desperate to find her in New York. There is also not much about Esmeralda, who I assume is a bigger character in the sequels, and I still don't understand how Reason's magic works with the whole "numbers" thing, but this will probably be explored further in the remaining books.
I did, however, like that, in the end, there is no stereotypical "bad guy." I liked that the whole time I was reading, I thought Reason was crazy and that her mother taught her crazy things because Esmeralda seemed pretty normal to me. This brought out more of the "magic or madness" in the book, because I started to wonder, once the book was over, if Reason was actually already starting to go crazy because of her ignorance about the magic she would have to use to prevent herself from going insane. I wonder what was in the letters . . . but I assume this is also in one of the sequels.
Warnings:
Language--There is a bit of language, but it is pretty tame.
Drugs--There is a bit of teen drinking.
Violence--Some of the end scenes could be considered violent, especially the one in which Jay-Tee is thrown to the floor.
I did, however, like that, in the end, there is no stereotypical "bad guy." I liked that the whole time I was reading, I thought Reason was crazy and that her mother taught her crazy things because Esmeralda seemed pretty normal to me. This brought out more of the "magic or madness" in the book, because I started to wonder, once the book was over, if Reason was actually already starting to go crazy because of her ignorance about the magic she would have to use to prevent herself from going insane. I wonder what was in the letters . . . but I assume this is also in one of the sequels.
Warnings:
Language--There is a bit of language, but it is pretty tame.
Drugs--There is a bit of teen drinking.
Violence--Some of the end scenes could be considered violent, especially the one in which Jay-Tee is thrown to the floor.
December 9, 2007
This book is about Reason Cansino and she lives in Australia. Her mother and her have been traveling the outback trying to escape her crazy grandmother. Although her mother becomes insane and is sent to a care place. So Reason is put in the care of her grandmother. Reason's mother, Sarafina, has told her of all of the bad things about the house and her mother. She believes her to be an evil woman who does evil deeds. But as Reason lives there more often, she is becoming to realize that her grandmother is not completely what her mother has told her. Although, her grandmother is a magic user. All of the Cansinos are. Reason befriends her neighbor, Tom and he develops a crush on her. There are mysteries about the house and one of them is the door. What's up with it and what does it do? Do you want to find out? Then read the book.
February 22, 2011
This review is also posted on my blog, In The Good Books.
Magic Or Madness was Justine Larbalestier's first YA novel. I've read Liar by her before, and it's one of my favorites. I enjoyed reading Magic Or Madness, but I wasn't wowed by it like I was her other books.
I recognised the writing style - simple, emotive, and captivating. The plot was tense, the characters were all realistic and dynamic, and the ending was satisfying. The premise was unique, and I liked how the book explored a downside to supernatural abilities.
I liked every element of the book, yet I finished feeling kind of indifferent (thus this incredibly short review). I can say that overall I found Magic Or Madness good but not great. I recommend it anyone who likes books which have a unique take to a common supernatural element, and give it a 3 out of 5.
Magic Or Madness was Justine Larbalestier's first YA novel. I've read Liar by her before, and it's one of my favorites. I enjoyed reading Magic Or Madness, but I wasn't wowed by it like I was her other books.
I recognised the writing style - simple, emotive, and captivating. The plot was tense, the characters were all realistic and dynamic, and the ending was satisfying. The premise was unique, and I liked how the book explored a downside to supernatural abilities.
I liked every element of the book, yet I finished feeling kind of indifferent (thus this incredibly short review). I can say that overall I found Magic Or Madness good but not great. I recommend it anyone who likes books which have a unique take to a common supernatural element, and give it a 3 out of 5.
February 16, 2007
I enjoyed this better than the other teen sci-fi trilogy I've been reading (Westerfield's Uglies/Pretties/Specials). And it is related--apparently Westerfield was a mentor for this author.
Anyway, good stuff. Reason has been raised in the Outback by her mother, constantly running from an "evil" grandmother. The duo gets caught and mom is hauled off to a psychiatric hospital. Now, Reason finds that her grandmother doesn't seem that scary or evil, but she can't go against what her mother taught her. And she also finds that a big huge something is missing from her knowledge about herself--that she's magic. And if she doesn't use the magic, she'll go insane like her mom.
Anyway, good stuff. Reason has been raised in the Outback by her mother, constantly running from an "evil" grandmother. The duo gets caught and mom is hauled off to a psychiatric hospital. Now, Reason finds that her grandmother doesn't seem that scary or evil, but she can't go against what her mother taught her. And she also finds that a big huge something is missing from her knowledge about herself--that she's magic. And if she doesn't use the magic, she'll go insane like her mom.
December 12, 2012
Magic or Madness
Reason Cansino and her mother Sarafina have been on the run in the Australia outback as long as Reason can remember. For fifteen years they have been running away from Reasons grandmother Esmeralda, this crazy woman that believes in magic. After her mother suffers a mental breakdown, Reason is sent to her grandmother in Sydney. Soon after arriving Reason finds herself in the streets of NYC, and she is forced to face the truth… her mother did lie.. Reason is magic! You will love this thrilling novel of a girl discovering the truth about her self, filled with fantasy and mystery.
Reason Cansino and her mother Sarafina have been on the run in the Australia outback as long as Reason can remember. For fifteen years they have been running away from Reasons grandmother Esmeralda, this crazy woman that believes in magic. After her mother suffers a mental breakdown, Reason is sent to her grandmother in Sydney. Soon after arriving Reason finds herself in the streets of NYC, and she is forced to face the truth… her mother did lie.. Reason is magic! You will love this thrilling novel of a girl discovering the truth about her self, filled with fantasy and mystery.
May 6, 2008
This first in a fantasy trilogy is a very fast paced read. Reason's mother goes insane, so she has to go live with her grandmother, the source of her mother's insanity, or so she has been led to believe. Reason tries to avoid contact with Esmerelda, but decides she needs to run away. Little does she know running away will send her from Australia to New York. The book is full of action, a little violence, and is a good entry in the urban fantasy genre.
July 2, 2009
An uneven novel—parts are boring, a few tidbits are exciting or maddening (what do the feathers at the end mean? Ahh!), but mostly a pretty basic story without anything really standing out. Reason has been on the run from her witch grandmother her entire life, but is her grandmother really as dangerous as her mother says? (The answer, obviously enough, is yes.)
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