I had, to my knowledge, not read anything by Margaret Mahy prior to this, although her name always comes up on lists of good, award-winning books. To be precise, she’s won the Hans Christian Andersen award, and the New Zealand Children’s Book Foundation NAMED their award after her. That’s a pretty good pedigree, no? It appears she also writes children’s picture-type books; I may, many years ago, have read one or more of those. She’s published quite a bit, and I’m glad I picked this volume up on a whim at a library book sale.

Roland is in his last year of secondary school (a senior in high school, in US terms); he’s popular, has a gorgeous girlfriend, gets along with all his teachers, is doing exceptionally well in school, was named a prefect: in short, his life is just about perfect. One day, however, on a whim, he shoplifts a pie, a notebook, and three felt-tipped markers. He isn’t even sure why, but one of his teachers — Mr. Hudson — uses that knowledge to blackmail him. Just a bit, though — he wants Roland to find out what’s going on with Jess Ferret, one of Roland’s classmates. Well, if Roland is the top of the popular list, Jess is the bottom. Even being seen with her in public is social suicide. Unfortunately, if knowledge of the shoplifting gets out, Roland will be in even worse shape. So what does he do? Goes to talk to Jess, of course. But what’s going on with her runs even deeper than he would have guessed . . .

This book is just over 200 pages; I wasn’t sure if it was a YA book or a middle-readers book when I first picked it up. Having read it, I can decisively say that it’s a YA book. There’s sexual references, swearing, and complicated topics. However, the shorter length did not mean that the plot was any less complicated or solid than a longer novel; there are at least two subplots, one involving the girlfriend, another involving Roland’s father, that didn’t get mentioned in my plot description. What got cut, I guess, was ‘extra’ — there was barely any exposition. We were thrown immediately into Roland’s life. However, Mahy was masterful at dreams, musings, and other random interjections of important information. A drawn-out exposition at the beginning would have been pointless.

The title refers both to alchemy as the historical pursuit of scientific magic (the transmutation of lead into gold and the seeking of eternal life via the Philosopher’s stone, although it’s never mentioned) and alchemy as general transformation. There is magic in the book; a character describes it as ‘nudging the world’. It’s all very subtle, though; Roland doesn’t even notice the one time it’s used right behind him for several minutes. I think the most explosive thing magic does in the book is put people to sleep.

The alchemy of general transformation refers both to Roland’s transformation from popular, happy-go-lucky schoolboy to, well, less popular, and Jess’s transformation, in Roland’s eyes. It’s quite impressive, all the symbolism and subtlety, of this work. On top of that, it’s an interesting ride, to watch the whole story unfold. When I started it, I thought for sure it was going to be a ‘boy’ book, but by the time I finished, I’d changed my mind. This book should appeal to either gender, and probably even most adult readers. 4.5/5 stars.