Undine by Penni Russon

Undine is about a perfectly normal girl who discovers that she has magic powers.  Wow, how new-sounding!  Why is it always the normal ones who get magic?  Her good friend Trout has a crush on her, but she likes his older brother Richard.  This is one of the driving forces of the plot, unfortunately.  I'm not a big fan of romance at all, and watching it be almost the sole focus of part one was boring to read.  Also, do not be misled by the title.  The main character, Undine, is not a sea nymph but a girl.

One of the main points of Undine is Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.  It's mentioned throughout the book, there are characters named after characters in The Tempest, and Trout and Prospero (yes, that's his name) are obsessed with it.  I've never read The Tempest, but I have the funniest feeling that if I do, it will share some remarkable similarities with Undine.

The magic she gets is interesting.  It's called "chaos magic" in the book, but it has nothing to do with actual chaos magic.  The modern tradition of chaos magic is based upon using your belief in something or your desire for something for magical purposes.  In the book, chaos magic is about chaos theory, where small changes in the way something is at the beginning end up causing major differences, especially over long periods of time.  Undine apparently can control small things that happen enough that she can create storms, grow to several times the size of the Earth, and turn dead fish into people.

Undine wasn't a terrible book, but it was definitely below average.  If you see it on the shelf in your library and are attracted by the name or cover, you might want to consider picking up a different book instead.