Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfying end to the trilogy, 10 Mar 2009
Following straight on from MAGIC LESSONS, Reason is pregnant, infected with Raul Cansino's magic and struggling to come to terms with both facts. Raul's magic is literally changing her, making her see the world through new eyes, see the way that magic actually operates. Increasingly seduced by the power of being able to do whatever she wants, she discovers that the power comes at the expense of her humanity - evidenced through physical changes that are becoming too obvious to ignore.
Reason's plan remains the same - to find a way to cure the increasingly frail Jay-Tee and her mother of the magic that kills them or makes them insane. But as she and her grandmother look for answers, Reason's links to humanity become more tenuous and the question becomes not whether she can find a cure, but if she will care enough about her friends and mother to use it.
There are two main sub-plots - one focuses on Jay-Tee's struggles to come to terms with the possibility that she will die young while fighting a growing attraction for Tom; the other on the return of Jason Blake, who still retains his hopes of seizing the Cansino magic from Reason and who will use anything - or anyone - to do so.
Although the plot is light on events, it's strong on character. Larbalestier's portrayal of her characters - both young and old - is never less than convincing and if I personally hankered for a little more action, I never doubted the credibility of the characters or their struggle. Larbalestier ties up all of the loose ends, but that doesn't mean the ending is pat and it's admirable that she opts not to give her characters everything they want. I also admired the way she leaves the way open for a sequel of sorts and if she produces such a book, I would definitely want to read it.
The only weak point in the book comes when Jay-Tee and Tom have a discussion about God and magic. Although religious faith has been briefly mentioned in the previous books, here it felt a little too self-conscious for it to really work for me, not least because Larbelestier plays it safe by refusing to come to any conclusions.
All in all though, this is a mature, thought-provoking conclusion to an excellent trilogy and one I would happily recommend to any teenager.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 1 Jun 2007
At the start of this wonderful conclusion to a great fantasy trilogy, Reason Cansino is a lot of things most fifteen year olds aren't. She's magic. She's pregnant. And she may or may not be entirely human.
In this continuation of Reason's story, she is falling more and more deeply into the strange, ancient, and inhuman power given to her by Raul Cansino. She is becoming more and more scarily powerful--but she's giving up her humanity (and maybe that of her unborn child) for that power. She won't die young like so many magic-wielders who use their powers unwisely, and neither will she go crazy and end up in the loony-bin with her mother.
But is giving up her humanity worth it?
MAGIC'S CHILD is strictly a continuation of an already begun story. It is not a story within itself, really, and, as such, should only be picked up by those who have read the first two parts of the trilogy (MAGIC OR MADNESS and MAGIC LESSONS). If you haven't read those, well, they're highly recommended, as well!
Justine Larbalestier's third installment in the MAGIC OR MADNESS trilogy is a good conclusion to the story, one that will have readers racing through it as fast as possible. It was a little bit open-ended for my taste, but not in a terrible cliffhanger way. It was either a less than fabulous last chapter or a fabulous way to leave the door open for another book set in this universe; who knows? Either way, the characters, dialogue, and style of MAGIC'S CHILD are all great, it's well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to reading more from Justine Larbalestier.
Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce
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by Justine Larbalestier
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