Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier
Dec. 2nd, 2007 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
"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.
I came to this book on the recommendation of some friends and am glad that I did. Larbalestier has put a lot of thought into how magic works in 'her' world, giving it a terrible twist - use it and you die young, don't use it and you go insane.
Reason's mother, Serafina, opted to pretend that magic didn't exist and now she's locked up in an asylum, leaving Reason to be looked after by her grandmother, Esmeralda, a woman who Reason's been told kills animals and babies and drinks their blood. Reason, with her strong gift for maths and science, does not doubt the things that Serafina has told her and plots to escape her grandmother's house. But when she opens the back door, she finds herself suddenly transported from summery Sydney to wintery New York and realises that magic is real afterall.
Like I said, the worldbuilding is credible and Larbalestier takes her time to introduce the reader to the concept, intertwining Reason's first person narrative with the third person narratives of Tom and Jay-Tee (other young magic users) to good effect. There's a credible 'baddie' in the form of Jason Blake, a villainous magician who steals other people's magic to prolong his own life and Esmeralda is suitably ambiguous.
Unfortunately whilst the writing is excellent, when you come to the end you realise that there isn't actually a whole lot of plot - mostly it is just world building. Therefore, by the time you get to the end, when Reason does accept that she's magic and realises what the consequences are, you don't necessarily feel that a great deal has happened. In addition, I thought that the ending was weak - far too open-ended, I suppose to keep Esmeralda's ambiguity going, although the effect is to make you feel that you're missing a chapter. I also think that there were a couple of instances where Larbalestier was clumsy in introducing her backstory, notably when we discover that Reason has used magic once before (albeit unknowingly) to deadly effect - it was a revelation that came out of nowhere and because there was no prior reference, I felt it was rather out of kilter with the rest of the book.
Still, it is well-written, dialogue is nicely handled and there's a fun culture clash between Australian English and US English. Kudos to the publisher for including a glossary of Australian slang, which was v. useful.
The Verdict:
Definitely worth a look as it's one of the best written YA fantasies I've read. There isn't a huge amount of plot but it's not something you become aware of until the end and the worldbuilding, particularly the thought that's been put into how magic 'works' and what its consequences are is highly original.
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.
I came to this book on the recommendation of some friends and am glad that I did. Larbalestier has put a lot of thought into how magic works in 'her' world, giving it a terrible twist - use it and you die young, don't use it and you go insane.
Reason's mother, Serafina, opted to pretend that magic didn't exist and now she's locked up in an asylum, leaving Reason to be looked after by her grandmother, Esmeralda, a woman who Reason's been told kills animals and babies and drinks their blood. Reason, with her strong gift for maths and science, does not doubt the things that Serafina has told her and plots to escape her grandmother's house. But when she opens the back door, she finds herself suddenly transported from summery Sydney to wintery New York and realises that magic is real afterall.
Like I said, the worldbuilding is credible and Larbalestier takes her time to introduce the reader to the concept, intertwining Reason's first person narrative with the third person narratives of Tom and Jay-Tee (other young magic users) to good effect. There's a credible 'baddie' in the form of Jason Blake, a villainous magician who steals other people's magic to prolong his own life and Esmeralda is suitably ambiguous.
Unfortunately whilst the writing is excellent, when you come to the end you realise that there isn't actually a whole lot of plot - mostly it is just world building. Therefore, by the time you get to the end, when Reason does accept that she's magic and realises what the consequences are, you don't necessarily feel that a great deal has happened. In addition, I thought that the ending was weak - far too open-ended, I suppose to keep Esmeralda's ambiguity going, although the effect is to make you feel that you're missing a chapter. I also think that there were a couple of instances where Larbalestier was clumsy in introducing her backstory, notably when we discover that Reason has used magic once before (albeit unknowingly) to deadly effect - it was a revelation that came out of nowhere and because there was no prior reference, I felt it was rather out of kilter with the rest of the book.
Still, it is well-written, dialogue is nicely handled and there's a fun culture clash between Australian English and US English. Kudos to the publisher for including a glossary of Australian slang, which was v. useful.
The Verdict:
Definitely worth a look as it's one of the best written YA fantasies I've read. There isn't a huge amount of plot but it's not something you become aware of until the end and the worldbuilding, particularly the thought that's been put into how magic 'works' and what its consequences are is highly original.
