Alchemy

by Margaret Mahy

Book Overview

Roland is intrigued that his classmate, the mysterious Jess, is studying alchemy. When a sinister magician from Roland's past gets involved in the mystery surrounding Jess, Roland realizes he is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689850530
• ISBN13: 9780689850530
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Length: 207 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Magical page turner

This book captured my attention and held it throughout. This book is about a highschool kid named Roland who is popular. He is blackmailed by a teacher into spying on an unpopular girl. He begins to lose interest in his popular friends and cannot get the unpopular girl out of his head. Odd things keep happening to him: he has voices in his head, he feels that he is changing, and an odd figure follows him. He feels that the unpopular girl, Jess, has the key to what is happening to him. She does. This book was a great page turner with a lot of suspense. My only warning about this book is that it's not for elementary school kids. It has overt sexual feelings in it that elementary school kids wouldn't understand. Recommended for 12+.

Correction to a previous reviewer's comments

Margaret Mahy is not,as a previous reviewer informs,an Australian.That comment is like saying Sarah Mclachlan is an American!! Margaret Mahy is,in fact, a New Zealander.She works wonders in developing a love for reading in children.There are many a school and library in NZ who has been visited by Margaret Mahy to read one of her books to excited children.Wearing a wig of multi colours or some costume,she portrays to young Kiwi children the magic of books. Her latest book 'Maddigan's Quest' has been made into a series & is being shown on TV in NZ at the moment.

the only book i could ever read

i am one of those people that are like if i dont have to read then i wont but i found this book and couldnt put it down so i just had to get it for myself if anyone can read then they should read this.it might be strange but strange but it gets better/\.

Close to Her Best

Alchemy is another unusual thriller from Margaret Mahy. My personal favourite of hers is The Changeover, followed by The Catalogue of the Universe, but this one is pretty close behind. Like Diana Wynne Jones, Margaret Mahy writes strikingly original and very intelligent fantasy. At one breath I am wondering how they get away with some of the things they write, at the next I'm very glad they do... and long may they continue to do so.

Mahy at her very best

I have found myself rather disappointed in Mahy's recent books--until this one came along. The plot is as complex as anything from Diana Wynne Jones. Susan Price describes the book as 'a sinister story of a conjurer and his mysterious cabinet'. The cabinet concerned is one of those boxes into which someone (ostensibly from the audience) climbs and seems to disappear. Margaret Mahy doesn't need a gloomy castle to create a creepy, amazingly scary atmosphere. She manages it in an ordinary urban New Zealand house. My home will never seem the same now. :-) A Friend pointed out three disturbing inconsistencies in this book that I must admit I didn't notice myself. Perhaps she read the book in larger chunks than I did. Perhaps, being younger, she simply has a sharper mind. :-) The inconsistencies are as follows: 1. Roland's age is given as 17 (and he has a driving licence) and his younger brother Martin was born when he was eight. It is then said Martin is currently seven, which would make Roland 15, not 17. 2. The gift of six colouring pens, a notebook and a bar of chocolate later becomes six colouring pens, a notebook and a muffin. 3. Jess says her parents take it in turns to be at the house, and later says she is waiting for both to come home. It is a sad fact that once a writer becomes famous editors are often too scared to suggest changes and it's disappointing that Margaret Mahy's editor is one of these. I remember my husband complaining about a Jack Higgins novel in which the protagonist cast his boat from its mooring without first starting its engine. Later, a small aircraft being used by the 'goodies' was tampered with in a way the pilot would have discovered when doing his pre-flight check. One could argue that Jack Higgins should have done his homework in both cases because you can hardly expect an editor to know the basic rules of boating, never mind anything about pre-flight checks on aircraft. I wasn't terribly sympathetic to my husband's complaint. I simply told him, 'That's what you get when you read best-sellers!'