By: Joan Lowery Nixon Publisher: Harcourt Paperbacks Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Harcourt Paperbacks Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 240 Publication Date: March 01, 2004 Reading Level: Young Adult
Seeking shelter from a fierce Texas storm, four teens are trapped inside a strange house as unwitting players in a magician's evil games. The phone goes dead. A plaster head suddenly appears. A disembodied hand taps the mantel. Then the magic turns even more sinister, leading inevitably toward murder.
A Deadly Game of Magic As an avid suspense and horror reader, the title, "A Deadly Game of Magic", immediately caught my attention. However, when reading this story, the expected feeling of thrill and suspense was replaced with discontent and regret.
In this story, four friends become stranded in, what they believe is, an abandoned house. The friends, Lisa, Teena, Julian, and Bo explore the house, and they find a room full of magic props. Strange things begin to happen, such floating balls of light. These magic tricks start to become more dangerous as the book progresses. The friends predict that the previous owner of the home (and magician), The Great Chamberlain, is in the house trying to scare them. Can the friends escape the house unharmed?
In all, this book lacked originality and a suspenseful plot. However, the short length of the book made it easy to get through. When deciding to pick up this book, determine if you would rather have a simple-read, or a book with substance. If you would rather have a book with nail-biting, heart-pounding, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense, then I would advise you to stay away from "A Deadly Game of Magic".
-Lindsey W.
A Deadly Suspence Four students try to return home from a school debate contest, and thankfully four return, but not in the best shape. On there way back they get caught in a terrible lighting/thunder rainstorm. Where they then are forced to finally give up driving all night long to return home and stay somewhere. They stop at a house and meet the owners, but to the students it seems that it really isn't people's home. The people seemed really anxious to leave and were what it looked like in a hurry. What where they doing there? And why? The people leave and let them stay .Later they hear noises and find clues that are finally put together and solved to reveal that they aren't the only ones in the house. Throughout the book there is a conflict between the four students and one mystery person in the house that won't leave them alone until they finish his Deadly Game of Magic.
This is one scary book This is one scary book. Four teenagers driving home from a speech and drama tournament in a blinding rain storm are stranded by car trouble north of Dallas. They're let into a home to call for help, but the man and woman they meet there almost immediately leave for a party. Left on their own to wait for a mechanic, the kids begin to think that the couple who let them in may not in fact be the owners of the house. And they begin to suspect as well that there's someone else in the house with them. When the storm knocks the power out, plunging the foursome into darkness...well, like I said, this is one scary book.
Joan Lowery Nixon's YA novel, originally published in 1983, isn't entirely successful. The occasional conclusion is jumped to without sufficient evidence, and the dialogue can be clunky. Also, Nixon's protagonists tend to say things and otherwise behave in ways that aren't credible given the context. For example, when it's pitch dark in a strange house that you think may be haunted and/or inhabited by a killer, and when there's a room down the hall in which you suspect there just might be a dead body, you don't react to finding an old scrapbook with a cheery cry of, "This is terrific! Look! Photographs!"
What's particularly impressive about A Deadly Game of Magic is how Nixon manages to instill the story with dread. We aren't told specifically what's wrong with the behavior of the couple whom the teenagers first meet in the house, for example. But there's something off about it. We sense it just as well as the teenagers do, and we want them to get out of there as soon as possible. But of course they don't, and things just get worse from there.
While facing their fears in the house Nixon's protagonists reveal their back stories. They are all bowed down, in various ways, by their parents' expectations for them. Battling evil in the house, we are to understand, will also give them the courage to choose their own paths in life. This is the uninteresting part of the book, the part that's meant to make the story relevant to its underage readers. Maybe they'll like the character development and maybe not; for sure they'll like the main story line.
Highly recommended to its intended audience and as a quick read for adults. But don't read this one right before bed.
meh.... it was okay.... It was okay.... i guess. I'm just not to sure. Its about these kids whos car breaks down so they enter this house and some really weird things happen... including a disenbodied hand and a glass head and a mysterious back room... and some dissappeirenses of a dog, a boy and wheres the owner of the house? Is their anyone in the house with them? Do you want to know? Read a deadly game of magic.
Overall Good The book is overall good. The plot keeps you reading, and the characters are mildly realistic. The problem with the book is it lacks key details that can develop the plot and characters on a deeper level. This would make the book excellent. The plot in the beginning is a little confusing. Later in the book you get the answers you seek, but they still are not explained well. The characters have some personality, but I feel them to be lacking besides what is given. There are some questions left unanswered in the end- what happened to the magician's wife and her sister- and you have to conclude the answers yourself. The book never truly tells you. Overall, the book is a good light read. There are one or two curse words in the book which parents should be advised of. I give it 3 stars out of 5.
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