Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier
Apr. 28th, 2011 03:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
effexMagic or Madness
Justine Larbalestier
2006, 271 pages
Note: I read this in three hours while high on NyQuil (I still am, if we're honest), forgive me if the review's a little choppy.
I liked this a lot better than some of the other YA Urban Fantasy I've read - there's no info dump, information about the world is given organically throughout the story. Two of the three PoV characters are girls and PoC (and it passes the Bechdel test, hurray!). The magic has very real consequences. There isn't a vampire/werewolf/fairy in sight (not that I dislike those things, but it's refreshing).
I love that the main character, Reason, loves maths and food. I love that she's...mmm, uninformed? about a lot of stuff but not naive or stupid. I love that Tom, our boy character, loves fashion and making clothes and is straight (or interested in girls, at least). I've never seen a modern, straight-identifying boy character allowed that before. I love Jay-Tee and how kind she is, despite everything, but I wish we knew more about her. I love boiling hot Sydney and frozen New York.
I do not love the book's depiction of mental illness. It's not something I know a lot about and I could be wrong about this, but it reads like a very generic magic driven 'madness' - It's never called anything specific, it's not something that can be treated/handled/lived with, it makes you say strange things and hurt yourself/others, and it's basically as bad as (or worse than) death.
This is all through the PoV of a 15 yr old girl who knows less about mental disabilities and illness than I do, but I wish it had been handled better.
I'm not fond of the 'adults can't be trusted' trope either, being mostly one myself these days. It's YA, though, so pretty par for the course.
This is the first book in a trilogy and I'm more than interested enough to track down the next one. After I work through my pile.
Justine Larbalestier
2006, 271 pages
Note: I read this in three hours while high on NyQuil (I still am, if we're honest), forgive me if the review's a little choppy.
I liked this a lot better than some of the other YA Urban Fantasy I've read - there's no info dump, information about the world is given organically throughout the story. Two of the three PoV characters are girls and PoC (and it passes the Bechdel test, hurray!). The magic has very real consequences. There isn't a vampire/werewolf/fairy in sight (not that I dislike those things, but it's refreshing).
I love that the main character, Reason, loves maths and food. I love that she's...mmm, uninformed? about a lot of stuff but not naive or stupid. I love that Tom, our boy character, loves fashion and making clothes and is straight (or interested in girls, at least). I've never seen a modern, straight-identifying boy character allowed that before. I love Jay-Tee and how kind she is, despite everything, but I wish we knew more about her. I love boiling hot Sydney and frozen New York.
I do not love the book's depiction of mental illness. It's not something I know a lot about and I could be wrong about this, but it reads like a very generic magic driven 'madness' - It's never called anything specific, it's not something that can be treated/handled/lived with, it makes you say strange things and hurt yourself/others, and it's basically as bad as (or worse than) death.
This is all through the PoV of a 15 yr old girl who knows less about mental disabilities and illness than I do, but I wish it had been handled better.
I'm not fond of the 'adults can't be trusted' trope either, being mostly one myself these days. It's YA, though, so pretty par for the course.
This is the first book in a trilogy and I'm more than interested enough to track down the next one. After I work through my pile.
