There are lots of books out there that deal with magic and madness and sometimes both of them together. What makes Larbalestier's book so different are her characters. When I first started reading the book and "met" Reason for the first time, I thought her as very young and very naive. In fact, there was this sense of detachment when I looked at the world through her eyes. While the older me knew that much of what her mother had told her about her grandmother might have been untrue, I could not help but be swayed from this belief by the strength of Reason's determination to believe in her mother. There's Tom, who is so unlike all the heroes I've come across that I might have read the book for him alone. He thinks in fashion - his magic is fashion. Jay-Tee, whose better nature leads her to help Reason even though doing so would get her nothing but grief. And the creepiest villain so far - Mr. Blake. This is the first book so you don't get much of a sense of the adults - Sarafina, Mere and Mr. Blake have been hued (deliberately) vaguely so the reader gets a sense of the person but not the person wholly. What I found most fascinating about this story is Reason herself. For instance, I am never quite sure how old she is. The sense I got initially was around twelve but she fibs that she's fifteen and somehow the subject of age is never broached again. She doesn't react in the typical ways - anger, fear - emotions for her are not solid colours but prismatic. JT thinks Reason is naive when she is anything but. She's like an onion that you can peel to find continuous layers of - discover something different about. And the story - the promised thrill of magic is blanketed by the sobering fact that using magic has dire consequences just as not using it does. In fact, the entire story presents a morally gray area, letting the reader decide how to feel about whom without guiding them. And I appreciate the liberty to do. With Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier presents readers with a tale that allows them to feel the extremes of heat and cold, to both fear and cheer for the protagonists. She allows the reader to experience characters that are imbued with details and a rich complexity that lingers long after the last page has been turned.
