Majix: Notes from a Serious Teen Witch
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15
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My name is Kestrel. Kestrel Murphy. Never call me Susan. Who ever heard of a witch named Susan? A year ago, I was on the white-magic side. Lately, I've been leaning toward the black. I blame the universe. What's the point in being a nice little white witch in the universe I've got? If I could choose my own universe, I'd be a white witch in it. But black makes a lot more sense in this universe. Not that I'm complaining. A witch never complains. But if I did, I'd have a lot to complain about. For instance: Richard Milhous Nixon High. What's a teen witch to do when she's stuck in the most unmagical high school in the universe? Create her own "majix." Take notes. And above all, avoid nasty classmates, heartless grown-ups and boys who may prove a little too distracting for a serious teen witch to handle….
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Going into this book I knew that Kestrel (a.k.a Susan) would be one of those characters that tends to see the negative side of things, and therefore ends up sounding whiny. The synopsis showed me this before I even had a chance to open the book. Let it be known that this generally puts me off a book. I know it's awful, but I often can't find the power to see from that person's point of view. In this case, however, I decided to go ahead and give Kestrel a chance. I reminded myself that often when a book starts out this way there tends to be an ending where the character grows and learns.
Lo and behold, I was right! Although I won't spoil the ending for anyone who has this book on their TBR list, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised with it. Once I was able to get past Kestrel's rather bleak outlook on things the book really picked up. Kestrel learns quickly that her negativity won't solve anything in her life. The reader also gets to see more into her past and why she feels the way she does now. Within the pages are lessons about life, about optimism, and about the simple adage that you “reap what you sow”.
The characters in this book didn't necessarily fall flat for me, but they didn't really allow me to become invested in them either. I did enjoy reading from Kestrel's point of view after a while, especially once I saw what a wit she actually had. However the other characters were just in existence to revolve around Kestrel. I thought of it as a painting, where everyone else was flattened into the background and Kestrel was the only item in the foreground. Even though they were a central part of her life in Jurupa, there wasn't really too much revealed about Laura, Jose and Blake. I'm sure the length of the story probably contributed to this fact, but it made the reading difficult for me. I am the type of reader that needs to be invested in my characters.
In the end, I did enjoy Majix: Notes from a Serious Teen Witch enough to finish it and actually ended up teary eyed at the ending. The biggest struggle was definitely learning to look at things from Kestrel's point of view. It is a quick read, and I would definitely recommend it as a library book!
