Book Review: Random Magic by Sasha Soren

Review: Random Magic
Author: Sasha Soren
No of Pages: 397
Release Date: 1 January 2010

When absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice in Wonderland, young Henry Witherspoon must book-jump to fetch Alice before chaos theory kicks in and the world vanishes. Along the way he meets Winnie Flapjack, a wit-cracking doodle witch with nothing to her name but a magic feather and a plan. Such as it is. Henry and Winnie brave the Dark Queen, whatwolves, pirates, Struths, and fluttersmoths, Priscilla and Charybdis, obnoxiously cheerful vampires, Baron Samedi, a nine-dimensional cat, and one perpetually inebriated Muse to rescue Alice and save the world by tea time.

My Thoughts:

I am still actually trying to look for the words to describe Random Magic, other than completely random.

Random Magic follows the story of Henry and Winnie on their search for Alice from the book, Alice in Wonderland. She escaped from the pages of her book into the pages of another.

Henry provided the human eyes to view the story through. Being a smart kid and extremely observant the train of thought we gleaned from being in his perspective made you feel like you were walking along side the pair as they searched.

Winnie was probably my second favourite character in the entire story, and considering how many characters there were, that’s really saying something. Winnie is a doodle-witch the name for a person who practises magic when they have nothing better to do. Winnie is one of those characters that no matter how many times you read the book, you could never really tell what exactly is going through her mind. She is constantly one step ahead and nothing ever seems to really faze her.

Random Magic wasn’t character driven and it didn’t really seem plot driven either. Random Magic reads like a jumbled mind, as things are thought of they are added, some back story here a visit to an ancient castle there all the while trekking on to the final point which was to find where Alice had ended up. I say this and some people will inevitably think “well what’s the point of that then?” and I say to you: The point is to get lost in the story.

I think this is why I loved Random Magic so much, sure at times it was hard to follow, but I got lost in a world that wasn’t structured or even mildly predictable. A world full of vanishing cats, hostile forests, moving chess pieces and evil substitute teachers from hell. None of it made sense and yet it all came together so well. There were cameos from nearly every fairytale I remember reading and characters that really just wouldn’t fit in anywhere else my favourites being the Muses.

The nine muses took form in Random Magic, one of those muses being Callie the writing muse. Callie was no doubt my favourite character and will remain my favourite character because Random Magic not only let me get lost in a world full of random magic, but it also let me get lost within my own imagination once again.

I can say right now that Random Magic will not be for everyone. There are inconsistent time jumps, a few unanswered questions and especially in the beginning it is a little hard to follow but for anyone that really wants to get lost in a story once again and not have any way of knowing how the story ends or what on earth is going to happen in between will absolutely love it.

Book Review: Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" by Debbie Viguie

Review: Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid"
Author: Debbie Viguie
No of Pages: 198
Release Date: 24 October 2006

In a quiet fishing village, one lone fisherman rescued a child from the sea seventeen years ago. He and his wife raised the girl, Pearl, as their own daughter, never allowing themselves to wonder long about where she came from -- or notice her silver hair, usually pale skin, and wide, dark blue eyes.

Pearl grows from a mysterious child into an unusual young woman, not always welcomed in the village. As all the other girls her age find husbands, she has only one friend to ease her loneliness. One very special, secret companion: Prince James.

But their friendship is shaken when trouble erupts in the kingdom -- a conspiracy against the royal family combines with an evil enchantment from beneath the sea. Now, just when Pearl and James need each other most, bewitching magic and hints about Pearl's past threaten to tear them apart...forever.

My Thoughts:

The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite fairytales and Midnight Pearls did it justice in its own way.

Pearl was found at sea by her father when she was five years old; she always knew she was different based purely on her looks and her troubles with walking. Not many people have silver-blue hair and trip over absolutely everything.

It has been hard for Pearl, growing up shunned by most and gawked at by the rest. The only person who doesn’t treat her differently is Prince James, her best friend. Their friendship developed at a young age but always kept a secret.

The friendship is tested though with the arrival of Kaye. Kaye is the real Little Mermaid, being the woman who traded her tail for legs after falling in love with the prince. This devastates Pearl at first because she is starting to fall in love with him.

Midnight Pearls tells the story from the land dwellers point of view instead of the mer-peoples. A lot of people think that Pearl is the Little Mermaid but it is clear about a third of the way through that she isn’t. She is an extra character that was turned into a main. Friend to the Prince who falls in love with a mermaid who saves his life.

The story is what sticks in my mind when it comes to Midnight Pearls; the characters are just blips of info dumps. It is interesting reading The Little Mermaid from a completely different view, and the story is definitely engaging.

What detract the most from Midnight Pearls though is the drawn out beginning and the lightning fast finish. We spent half the book on Pearl and her problems and the last quarter on the actual Little Mermaid story. Everything happens so quickly that it leaves you definitely wanting more, but not in the best of ways.

Midnight Pearls is a very quick read and a nice fresh perspective on a classic. Nice and light, good for a beach read, if you feel like having mermaid fantasies for the rest of the day.