magic lessons - justine larbalestier
Man, Justine is just so good. I read the last part of Magic Lessons, the sequel to Magic or Madness, on the train on my way to a client appoinment, and when I was there I couldn't wait for the meeting to end so I could get back on the train and into the book. How the 14-year-old me would have loved this. Pity Justine was only 14 herself at the time...
I'm not going to tell you any more about what goes on in the book, since you should really know as little as possible about it before diving in, just know that it is good and daring and genuinely creepy-scary at times. Particularly if you're not a teen. I think several things in the story creeped me out much more that they would have when I was (lots) younger.
But there are a number of things on my mind that I want to mention, for myself, to look back at when part three (currently titled Magic! Magic! Magic! Oi! Oi! Oi!, or so I'm told) is published, next year. Only read it if you've read the book, OK? Not that I guarantee it will make sense then, but it's full of spoilers, so don't read if you haven't read the book yet. Really.
OK, random thoughts and worries:
- Why is Jason Blake always mentioned by his full name, never Jason or Blake? And what's the dealie with his real name being Alexander? How is he connected to Old Man Cansino exactly? I may just have to read the book again to properly figure this out.
- Will the lift-in-New-York return/be explained in part 3?
- I don't trust Danny. Why does he have such a lot of money? I know his father is dead and he supposedly inherited all this money, but still, it's suspect. As are the many phonecalls. I suspect drugs.
- Other than that, Danny's gorgeous and perfect, of course. Which makes me all the more mother-suspicious.
- So Old Man Cansino is related to Reason. Then why does he smell bad originally? Reason only thinks he smells nice after he sends the golem-thingie into her and changes her around. And is he a golem himself? Then who hath made him? And presumably he's related to Danny and Julieta as well, since Julieta thinks he smells really nice, and Reason thinks Danny smells the same as Old Man Cansino. (but then how come he didn't smell gross to her in book 1? is it something she has been sensitized to? Probably). So are Reason, Julieta and Danny also related to each other? Why have the two lines separated? Or haven't they? Confusion.
- How can Danny really be not magic? I don't believe it. My secret theory is that he has this cloaking device (probably involving some kind of drug) that hides his magicness from Reason and lures her into danger. I may be full of crap and unreasonable here, but Tom doesn't trust Danny either, so there. Though he is biased... Is it some elaborate set-up? Who will turn out to have the real power in the end?
- The baby. Here's where my creep-meter goes into the red. Poor Reason, pregnant at 15... That's much worse to me now than it would have been to me (in a book! in a book! not in real life of course) at the same age. But will it be a boy or a girl? Boy would fit better with traditional saviour narratives, of course, but girl seems more likely, in view of Raul Cansino's rummaging around with the name of his daughter on the monument. Will the baby be that daughter returned? On the other hand, the female line figures quite a lot in these books, so a boy baby would be more surprising.
- And what will the baby's function be? Saviour? Anti-saviour? Re-unification for the first time of the two lines, with untold superpowers? Or nothing special beyond a baby? I just hope the author treats it nice...
- Will Reason's dad play a part in M!M!M!O!O!O!? I think it's inevitable.
- And I'm worried about these people.
- I got a little bit sick of the door by the end. But I loved Reason's new-found ability to see the patterns of magic in the world around her!
- There was lots of food in part 1. This part dealed more with weirdness of time.
21-04-2006
