Unfamiliar Magic by R.C. Alexander

Unfamiliar Magic Reviews

• 
  Michelle (RavenLily)

  Such a cute book. Cat aka Devil is my favorite character. I love reading about animals turned to human and the hijinks they get up to.
• 
  Lenni Jones

  I guess I was a little old for this book. I feel like there were parts of this book I would’ve found hilarious as a younger girl. Also, one character in particular really annoyed me. Devil/Devalandnefariel/Cat really bothered me throughout the book because she did a lot of stuff that seemed arrogant and rude to me. She acted as if her problems were the biggest ones in the world. Other than that, this book was cute and a bit funny.
• 
  Crowinator

  Desi, teen witch, wants to learn more magic, but her mother is refusing to teach her much more than simple baby spells. When her mom runs off to deal with some unknown danger (that turns out to be Desi's semi-evil warlock dad, who is still miffed that Desi’s mother left him and went into hiding), Desi figures she can now start to experiment on her own. Cue wacky hijinks, at least until Desi's dad finds out where she is and attempts to win her over with a mix of actual fatherliness and crazed power-mad ambitions. The best thing about this fantasy is Cat, the witch's familiar turned from feline into teen girl so that she can babysit Desi while her mom is gone. Cat, as a human, still thinks like a cat, leading to many amusing situations -- Alexander must have a cat at home to understand them so well and to do such a great job translating a cat's mind into a human's body. She's a stylish character with a great voice and she narrates half the chapters (Desi narrates most of the others). However, people around Cat react in totally improbable ways to her crazy behavior (aside from Desi, of course, who knows what Cat truly is), undercutting the characters' credibility. In fact, most of the characters, aside from Desi and Cat, are one-note and not very believable, especially the two boys-next-door, who serve as love interests for Desi and Cat, respectively. There are some cool magical elements (like lawn gnomes that guard the house and get pissed off when Desi puts them in the closet) but overall magic is kind of generic. The two stories don't exactly mesh -- Desi learning magic is kind of Sabrina-esque, but the story turns dark and convoluted when her father begins a battle over merging the human world with the spirit (demon) world. It's a weird tonal change that doesn't really fit with the characters and the rest of the book. And audience is tricky, too: this book is a little young for high schoolers (because of Desi's narrative) and a little old for middle schoolers (because of Cat's narrative).
  
  It's not a terrible book by any means, but it's uneven. I liked parts of it a lot; other parts, I was scratching my head and wondering how this made it into the same book. Since this seems to be the author's first novel, I'll keep my eye out for the next to see how he develops as a writer.
• 
  Claire

  There is a lot to like in the book the characters are appealing and unusual.
  Valerian and Callida have a daughter Desdemona who will be very powerful. Callida flees with Desi at birth, she fears that Valerian will use Desi's power to his own ends.
  Twelve years later we have this story.
  
  Desi is confused and angry with her mother who abruptly leaves her with her familiar, a cat with the lovely name, Devalandnefariel. The cat is changed into a human (now called Cat) so she can be a more effective protector for Desi in Mom's absence. This makes for insightful and humorous exchanges. There are lovely boys living next door; one Cat's age, Bob - intensely shy, and Jarrett, Desi's age who is perceptive, enthusiastic open-minded and friendly. These boys are great friends to the girls. Desi uses her mom's absence to experiment with magic. With a normal witch this would not be a big deal, but Desi is very talented and unleashes more that she bargains for. Because of her wit and talent she can also cope with the situations she creates .
  I liked the friendships, the perceptive observations and the family love that suffuses the novel.
  By the end of the book the adults characters had fleshed out a bit and the reader is left with some hope that Val and Callida will be able to manage to work together for Desi's sake.
  Kids will probably like the action and not worry about the missing motivation that I could deduce - but I wanted more info up front. Perhaps kids would not have patience for that...
• 
  Kat (Lost in Neverland)

  You will die laughing when you read this book.
  I promise.
  You'll still be laughing even in your grave.
  
  That's how hilarious this book is.
  
  <3
• 
  G. Ludlow

  I enjoyed the read. It's a different and original look into the world of witches and warlocks. The relationship between Desi's parents is well wrought, I thought.
  Cat stole the show though. What a character. Human life from a cat's point of view is very entertaining.
  The suggestion of the fourth kind of magic suggests that there is at least one more book coming and that this fourth magic branch will be explored more fully.
  
  One hopes.
  
• 
  Kyla Stan

  I didnt finish at halfway through the book. I was really enjoying this, especially Cat's perspective but there were extra scenes and the plot dragged so I lost interest.
  
  A cute story for those who loves cats and magic!
• 
  Cay

  It was a really good book. I feel pretty bad for Bob lol
• 
  Amelie

  A delightful story that kept me on the edge of my seat!
  It was funny and sweet, and lots of fun to read!
• 
  Sally

  Unfamiliar Magic Random House, 2010, 353 pp., $17.99
  R.C. Alexander ISBN978-0-375-85854-3
  
  Have you ever wished that magic were real? Well for Desdemona (Desi) it is real. Not just like the kind of magic tricks you see on T.V.. She’d be a very powerful witch if only her mother would teach her. Over the course of Desi’s life, her mother Callida, Desi and her familiar Devalandnefariel (nicknamed Devil, who’s form is a cat), have moved all over the world. Desi doesn’t even know why. Whenever Desi asks about her father, why her mother and father broke up or anything about magic, her mother quickly changes the subject. Desi sort of feels like her entire life is a secret; she can’t tell anyone she’s a witch and barely knows anything about her father. On top of that her life gets even more twisted when she and her mom get in a fight. Desi goes off after the fight, and comes back to find her mom missing. She finds a strange girl, who she finds out soon enough was once her little kitty. Her mom changed the cat into a girl to keep Desi out of trouble, or was it to protect her from some unwanted guests? Along the way of her fabulous adventure, she meets a few new friends and so does Devil (Jerrett, Bob). Now as she tries to find her mother she meets a magician. So while mother’s away she decides to learn a few tricks to prove to her mother that she can handle magic.
  
  I loved Unfamiliar Magic by R.C. Alexander. The narrative voice was interesting because it would switch off between Desi and Cat (when Devil was human she’s called Cat). I also liked the narrative voice because it was like a narrator telling Desi’s and Cat’s thoughts. By saying what Cat was thinking it helped me think about how disastrous it was in the beginning. You’re hearing their thoughts but it’s told as if you were watching a movie or play. Sometimes during the book I felt like I wanted it to go faster to know what happens. Although it’s a page turner, but the beginning was a little weak. It kept me guessing throughout the book which is what I think makes a good story. I thought the dialogue was realistic and the character development convincing. Unfamiliar Magic it was one of the best books that I have ever read.
  
  I would recommend Unfamiliar Magic to both guys and girls who like magical mayhem and a tad bit of love. Anyone who liked Septimus Heap, Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter would probably enjoy this book. It is a fantasy science fiction. It was frabulous and I think that most any age would be able to read it, but you might want to wait until sixth grade or older. “What is life with out a little risk?”
  
  
• 
  Claire

  There is a lot to like in the book the characters are appealing and unusual.
  Valerian and Callida have a daughter Desdemona who will be very powerful. Callida flees with Desi at birth, she fears that Valerian will use Desi's power to his own ends.
  Twelve years later we have this story.
  
  Desi is confused and angry with her mother who abruptly leaves her with her familiar, a cat with the lovely name, Devalandnefariel. The cat is changed into a human (now called Cat) so she can be a more effective protector for Desi in Mom's absence. This makes for insightful and humorous exchanges. There are lovely boys living next door; one Cat's age, Bob - intensely shy, and Jarrett, Desi's age who is perceptive, enthusiastic open-minded and friendly. These boys are great friends to the girls. Desi uses her mom's absence to experiment with magic. With a normal witch this would not be a big deal, but Desi is very talented and unleashes more that she bargains for. Because of her wit and talent she can also cope with the situations she creates .
  I liked the friendships, the perceptive observations and the family love that suffuses the novel.
  By the end of the book the adults characters had fleshed out a bit and the reader is left with some hope that Val and Callida will be able to manage to work together for Desi's sake.
  Kids will probably like the action and not worry about the missing motivation that I could deduce - but I wanted more info up front. Perhaps kids would not have patience for that...
• 
  Shawna

  Desi's mom has disappeared, her cat is now a teen girl who seems determined to embarrass her in front of the neighbor boy, and, oh yeah, she's a witch. Unfamiliar Magic is told from alternating third-person limited; sometimes the story focuses on Desi and sometimes it focuses on her cat, now a teen girl. The story is fun, but I found knowing more than the individual characters to be frustrating. Because Cat is a cat, she doesn't get human behavior and some of her actions are second-hand embarrassment cringe-worthy. Desi, on the other hand, is kept in the dark and some of her actions make sense from her point of view, but are bad news from the reader's perspective. If second-hand embarrassment isn't a problem for you, go ahead and read. It's a fun story and the ending is cute even if it might be a little too neatly wrapped up.
• 
  Loulou

  Twelve-year-old Desi wants to learn magic from her mother Callida, who doen't want to teach it to her. So, Desi tries to teach herself using her mother's spell book.Then Callida turns the family Cat in to a teenager to babysit Desi.Weird behaviors occur and the plot gets confusing when Desi's real father comes along and the two parents fight witches and wizzards to try to protect Desi from a monkey who plans to kidnap her. I did not really like this book and I tried to stop reading it twice. I think the author, R.C. Alexander, was trying to make the story funny, entertaining, and scary. For me, the story became too unbelievable and confusing and the events didn't fit together very well which left me confused and ready to give up.
• 
  JANE

  In the book Desi is a teen witch who wants to know more about her magical culture, but her mother is very protective of her, and for good reason. Together they move from state to state to countret to countrey to house to house to evade the mysterious man trcking them and as they use more magic it leaves a kind of magical residue and makes them easily able to be tracked down.
  
  This book was preety good overall. I really liked it and I thought it was super funny. Though I could have done without some of the more random scenes, like hanging in trees, and snakes. (long story/book)LOL
  
  
• 
  Suzanne

  This is a first novel, and fairly uneven. What makes the book enjoyable and worth the read are the parts with Cat as a human (she's transformed from a witch's familiar into a human form to better protect the teenage daughter). The author does a great job taking typical cat behavior and showing what it would be like if a human did the same thing:
  
  "Would you like some salad, Cat?"
  
  "No, thank you. I do not wish to throw up now."
• 
  Ashlyn Poppy

  I really enjoyed the book. I loved how he was able write like a cat was REALLY trying to learn about human kind. I love Cat, and Desi, and all of them but it was unclear on what familiars do, and how the spirit world works, and the four paths. It really needs a second book because we don't know how the parents roles work out, what happens to the power of love and the drifting of the spirit world, what the forth path is, and what do demons do.
• 
  American

  I enjoy reading fantasy, so I picked u this book and read it. I found a lot of humor from this book. There are so many parts that are very funny! The plot is about a young teen witch living with her mom and her cat, a familiar. They have been hiding all of Desi's from her father. Her mom goes away on a secret trip and leaves the cat in charge to take care of Desi, but before she goes she turns the cat into a human! After this the funny parts start...
• 
  Michelle Rebar

  Oh, I finished this a while ago but I forgot to come back and mark it read and review it. I promise I will as soon as I get a chance.
  
  In short, this is an adorable and fun book that anyone who loves magic and cats absolutely MUST read! Seriously, I laughed until I cried in parts because of some of the things that Cat did. I'll give it a proper review soon, but don't miss out on this one!
• 
  Roxann

  This was a wonderful book. Desi (a witch in training) is learning spells (mostly from her mother's book of spells). When her mother leaves she turns the cat into a human to help take care of Desi. This is a fun book to read. I laughed a great deal between Desi's mistakes at magic and the cat trying to learn how to act like a human. Enjoyable!
• 
  Jocelyn

  This book is about a girl, named Desi, who is a witch. one day her mom leaves her and turns her pet cat into a teenage girl, who starts dating the boy next-door at the mall and makes him pay for everything (later, they find the mom's credit card). It turns out her mom is on the run from a powerful wizard (Desi's long lost father), who befriends Desi in an attempt to kidnap her. This book is fine.
• 
  Nora-adrienne

  I've been reading reviews of this book since it came out. I finally managed to snag a copy from my local library. I enjoyed it very much, but I'll admit that I did skip past a bunch of pages which I felt were slowing down my enjoyment of the book.
• 
  Katterley

  I really liked this book and would recommend it to middle graders that enjoy a good magical coming-of-age (teenage, that is...) story. It was fun to see things from Cat's perspective. Also good for kids whose parents aren't together, because Desi has to face that. Really enjoyable read.
• 
  Sydney-Michelle

  I was surprised by how good this book was. It was a different sort of fantasy/magic, not a Harry Potter wannabe, but it wasn't a thick dusty novel where you had to take forever to learn all about this new magical world.
• 
  Deeva

  This is one of those book that went by to fast and you didn't want to end! It literally made me LMAO! this is not something you read in the library. Her cat becomes a human and tries to fit in. I really hope there's a sequel!
• 
  Anna

  The cat remands me of one of my cats, all black and love sushi. Be just like her if she becomes human.
  I didn't understand what the problem with Desi's father. Why did they need to get away from him? Not everything was solve in the end.
  However it is an enjoyable read and there can be a squal.
• 
  The Male-Shaped Robot

  Are you an adult who reads kids's books for some reason? Don't read this. You won't like it.
  Are you the target audience (a kid)? Read this! It's a fun little story. It's not deep or meaningful, its just a kid with powers and an entirely unhelpful cat.