Magic or Madness  Bk. 1
by Justine Larbalestier

    MAGIC OR MADNESS by Justine Larbalestier
    Category:  Paranormal
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  3/16/06
    Publisher:  Razorbill
    Reviewed by:  Jocelyn Pearce
    Rating:  5 Stars


    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!