TL;DR having magic sucks
(finished 7/10/15)
I initially read this series back in elementary school and I actually remembered a lot from it, but I'm pretty sure I read the books out of order. It's been so long since I've read them that I forgot some things but managed to remember others. What managed to stick with me has no rhyme or reason.
(Ha. That's a pun because the main character's name is Reason.)
The concept of the book is awesome. However, Magic or Madness feels hella slow. There's not too much plot stuff happening the first third of the book, and very little ends up getting explained, even by the end. I'm sure that would've driven me crazy if I didn't already know the end.
The characters are pretty unique, but I'm not sure if I would really feel invested in them if I didn't already know them. (There's gonna be a lot of mentions of my past read. I apologize.) Reason is actually half Australian aborigine, so she's a POC main character, and Jay-Tee is POC as well, but I'm not sure if she's Latina or what. I'm not really sure if Reason's grandparents are both white or not, so she doesn't fall totally into a POC category, but she's not white-washed. Tom is definitely white (and super red-headed, from what it sounds like) and is worryingly thirsty for a fifteen year old.
It would be dead easy for them to kiss. pg 67
This crossed Tom's mind while he was giving Reason a piggy-back ride, and they've known each other for maybe a day. He never makes any inappropriate moves or anything, and I guess this could be pretty typical for guys, but it kind of stuck out to me as odd. Reason also didn't seem like the brightest kid, but I guess that could be because she's fifteen and never really been in school. (I thought she'd be smart enough to not down a whole bunch of champagne, common sense and all, but nope.)
Also in regards to the quote: the narration style is pretty unique for the book. Reason's POV is first person, but a couple chapters in it switches to third person to show Tom's POV, and later it adds Jay-Tee as well. It's not bad, but it can be kind of jarring. I completely forgot about it. There's also no indication of whose chapter it is, but it's pretty easy to tell considering they're only together as a trio for the last couple pages. You can tell whose chapter it is almost immediately. It also switches between American and Australian slang depending on who's narrating, and there's a glossary at the back of the book. I actually remembered a lot of it!
So like I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago, you really don't know what's going on in the first book. Nobody tells Reason, and Jay-Tee and Tom's narrations only hint at stuff. Not a good book if you hate mysteries or being just as lost as the main character.
The copyright on the inside of the library's copy is 2005, so Magic or Madness also falls into that "pre-2010 MG/YA fuzzy divide" category I've mentioned in, like, my past three reviews. I honestly think that it pushes more MG than YA because of the narration and the way the plot is set up. The library has a YA sticker on the spine. (The copy I checked out this time is new enough that it doesn't have the stickers on the back where they'd stamp the due date, which they phased out around the time I started middle school, I think.)
The story isn't really dark or anything, at least not in the first book. I remember it being a little depressing once the established rules and boundaries of the magic start coming into effect, but that might even be more towards the third book, and not even the second. (The second is Magic Lessons and the third is Magic's Child. I'm amazed I remembered the titles.)
Fun fact: Reason taught me about the Fibonacci series! My Pre-Calc teacher brought them up in class back in sophomore year and I was like, "Oh hey! I know what that is!" (Reason uses the Fibonacci series to remember a phone number and I sticky-noted that page because that was something I remembered from my first read.)
TL;DR it raises a lot more questions than it answers, but the system of magic that's set up is unique and I still haven't found one like it in the years since I read Magic or Madness the first time. Give it a chance if you can.
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