A review by wealhtheow
Alchemy by Margaret Mahy
3.0
Read in October 2007: Roland’s teacher blackmails him into spying on his classmate, the solitary and faintly mysterious Jessica Ferret. Roland and Jess strike up an unlikely alliance that gradually shifts as Roland grows ever more dissatisfied with his pretense at a normal life. As their friendship deepens, rival magicians close in on them. It’s a slightly psychedelic YA novel that deals with teenage identities and family more than magic.
Read in October 2016: I accidentally re-read this book. Not a single thing jogged my memory, which is worrisome. This time around (while reading it for the second time but I thought it was the first), I was kinda dissatisfied with the book. Roland has a complex set of feelings about his family, in which he feels the need to be more grownup and perfect than he really is in order to make up for resembling his father, who abandoned them. And I liked his growing relationship with Jess, and the way his relations with his girlfriend and existing friends were written--it all felt quite natural. And the way magic is described is cool--both very subtle and very surreal and overwhelming by turns. But the climax came too suddenly, and too much was explained all at once in the final chapter. I think this book could've done with being at least 50 pages longer, or possibly even more.
Read in October 2016: I accidentally re-read this book. Not a single thing jogged my memory, which is worrisome. This time around (while reading it for the second time but I thought it was the first), I was kinda dissatisfied with the book. Roland has a complex set of feelings about his family, in which he feels the need to be more grownup and perfect than he really is in order to make up for resembling his father, who abandoned them. And I liked his growing relationship with Jess, and the way his relations with his girlfriend and existing friends were written--it all felt quite natural. And the way magic is described is cool--both very subtle and very surreal and overwhelming by turns. But the climax came too suddenly, and too much was explained all at once in the final chapter. I think this book could've done with being at least 50 pages longer, or possibly even more.