Magic or Madness by Larbalestier

This is the opening book of a fantasy series that takes place totally in the present time. Magic is real as main character Reason finally accepts by book's end. Material can be influenced to become a beautiful, beautifully fitted piece. Money can be produced from nowhere. And doors act as portals from one place to another. Characters in this story that know how, step from summer time Australia to winter time New York City. Reason does not know yet what her magic can do. She has been on the run with her mother for 15 years. With her mother's descent into madness and hospitalization she is forced to live with her grandmother Esmerelda from whom she and her mother were trying to escape. Meeting Tom, the fifteen year old boy next boy who trusts Mer and J-T who is under the control of an evil man helps Reason accept magic rather than run -and her experience running helps her to help J-T escape the evil man who just happens to be Reason's grandfather. If you have magic, you either use it and die young or you go mad. The choices are not great, but Reason is hopeful that with Mer's training and her own intelligence there is another way and not drinking the magic from others as her grandfather does. Reason's adventures in this story are fast paced and fun. It will be interesting to see what she and her friends do with their magic in future books. Magic Lessons and Magic Child follow.
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