Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

56 reviews

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. I’m going to need anywhere from 7-240 business days to wrap my mind around this one. There is simply nothing else like this… I am so envious of Seanan McGuire’s mind and the way that it works. How do you even come up with this?! 

This is weird level 1000 so if you don’t care for nonsense and pseudoscience then just steer clear. If you’re down for melting your brain, this is the one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

silvae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

traa's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Car accident and Pregnancy

lectora21's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

linossidepiece's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Blood, and Suicide attempt

fictionallyfinn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

ashleyk50413's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Self harm and Suicide attempt

oliverreeds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

no idea what happened. i loved every second

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

monalyisha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

“Wake up. We need to let my terrifying ex-girlfriend tell us how we’re supposed to manifest a primal force of reality before asshole chemists set us the fuck on fire.”

 

The above quote is pretty indicative of Middlegame’s overall tone: it’s desperate, matter-of-fact, urgent, terribly serious but also quite silly. 

 

While I enjoyed my reading experience, it largely confirmed that giant tomes just aren’t my thing.

Reading this book took me much longer than I would have liked (& there was a bit too much “timey-wimey stuff”). But it was interesting to see what McGuire can do when she gives herself length & breadth, especially given that I normally read her (absolutely killer) novellas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide attempt

mfrank's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 I love Seanan McGuire and her writing so much! I was so happy to read this and it made me happy to go through it! I loved Roger and Dodger so much. They felt very real to me. I think Seanan McGuire is so great at creating characters. For me, the only reason that this was four stars instead of five stars is the climax scenes. I think Seanan McGuire is great at creating characters and building narrative tension, but I've noticed in a few of her books that I've read that the climax sometimes fails to deliver on that tension.

I really hated the fake-out climax. It felt like we gained nothing from that. They would have manifested without that. And the fact that we thought both Leigh and Erin died and then neither of them died made me so upset. Like, what was the point of that scene if it accomplished literally nothing for them. Also, the face that Erin then actually died made me so upset. It felt a bit weird too. Like, that Erin was just too broken to survive without her brother? It felt off to the message about sibling love. Especially, that Erin basically chose to kill herself, sort of? I know she didn't literally, but it felt at the end like she was making the choice to die rather than that Reed actually killed her. Just those last like 30 pages felt weird overall.

Despite those few issues I had with the book, I loved the overall story enough to sort of make up for those moments where I didn't. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent