Magic or Madness

If you had to choose between using magic and dying earlier than most people or going insane and trying to kill yourself, which would you choose? Or would you try to run away from it and pretend magic doesn't exist? Well, Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalster features these questions and the choices the characters take. With magic stealing, daring shortcuts over balconies, and a teleporting door, this book just oozes magic.

Reason Cansino has been on the run with her mom Sarafina from her grandmother Esmerelda for fifteen years in Australia. But when Sarafina has a mental catastrophe that sends her to an asylum, Reason is sent to the place she fears most- Esmereldsa's house. Seclusive and silent, Reason soon see that the evil grandmother who ate babies and practiced dark rituals she thought she had isn't real, but after walking through the back door and finding herself in New York City, Reason is forced to realize what she'd been told to deny for fifteen years- magic is real. Now, after meeting Jay-Tee in New York, Reason comes to another unpleasant conclusion- Reason is magic.

This book is one of the best because it shows magic in another lights, vividly describing some of the consequences of embracing it. Larbalestier ingeniously writes the stories of Australian Reason, Tom, and Esmerelda, as well as American Jay-Tee's, combining them into a wonderful story.

Can Reason accept the fact that she's magic? Will her mom recover from her insanity? Is Esmerelda hiding something important from Reason? Well, if you read Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier, I expect you will find out.