sn03's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Pregnancy, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Gore, Alcohol, and Death of parent
joepyeweed's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Abortion, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Death, Cancer, Gaslighting, and Murder
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Self harm and Sexual harassment
chris_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Alcohol, Body horror, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Blood, Cancer, Gaslighting, Death, Medical content, and Stalking
Minor: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma
b_lownds127's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Cancer, Death, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Abortion
foreverinastory's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Rep: white female MC (I think Ivy is queer but I'm uncertain), BIPOC bisexual male love interest, several lesbian female side characters, pansexual female side character, BIPOC female side character.
CWs: Body horror, abortion, cancer, gore, blood, death, murder, medical trauma, medical content, grief, past death of parent, alcoholism, alcohol consumption, terminal illness, bullying, emotional abuse, violence, mentions of past pregnancy that was terminated, vomit, gaslighting, toxic friendship, injury/injury detail, sexual content. Moderate: eating disorder and mention of weight checks, cursing, mention of past adult/minor relationship, panic attack, suicide, sexual harassment.
Graphic: Gore, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Grief, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Vomit, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Cursing
enchantressreads's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.5
Sarah Gailey has a certain way of writing that just *gets* me. The way they write just sucks me in from page one, on all three of their books I’ve read so far. If anyone knows how to write a good opener, it’s Sarah Gailey.
Magic for Liars seems, on the outside, a murder mystery. But it is so much more than that. It deals with grief, trauma, relationships, love. Tough decisions for both teenagers and adults. It was really nice to see a world in which adults don’t treat the kids as useless, and the adults themselves are not useless.
The .5 reduction is because I wasn’t a big fan of the relationship with Rahul. The story would have flowed well without it. Otherwise, I really loved it.
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Abortion, Body horror, and Gaslighting
Minor: Bullying
longlost's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Spoiler
even if ultimately it may not have led anywhere for them.The school life of Osthorne in general felt very real and present - reading this did make me feel re-immersed in school culture, for good or for bad, and learning about all the magic lore from Ivy's outsider point-of-view was interesting. I very much enjoyed Rahul as a character (my beloved) and I appreciate the affect he had on Ivy's character development.
Regarding the murder mystery itself: I have some Thoughts.
Spoiler
The general redirect & red herring here and there helped keep the story feeling fresh as you're reading through Ivy's steps towards the answers, but I will admit that I had an inkling about who the killer was from the start. I did like Tabitha a lot and I appreciated her and Sylvia's relationship and the painful circumstances around Sylvia's death, and thought I'm not entirely satisfied with how Ivy chooses to wrap the case I do think it's a choice that's realistic for Ivy and Tabitha as characters.Gailey's writing style was also very enjoyable to me; in parts of the book where they would delve so deep into a scene that it would take a few more paragraphs to learn of small circumstances that took place during the scene that weren't focused on, a choice that feels like it helped with the tension & mystery elements. Ivy's inner voice also felt very authentic.
Overall: a good mystery book with some fun fantasy elements and a cache of pain to hit you with when you reach the story's end.
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Abortion, Gore, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Bullying, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief
Moderate: Stalking, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
TW details -Spoiler
Cancer comes up related to two separate characters. An abortion is performed on an underage student without anesthesia. Main character's parent dies of cancer: this does not happen in the story but is reflected on multiple times by the main character. There are multiple scenes where the main character & others drink together - main character is noted to drink often. Main character's sister at one point drugs her drink. Main character somewhat-inadvertently lies to her romantic interest about her identity and abilities, which may be uncomfortable to read about.alicelalicon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, and Outing
Moderate: Pregnancy
nicnevin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Ivy is a private detective given the case. Ivy has no magic but her twin Tabitha does. Ivy tries to navigate the world of magic and murder whilst remarking that how similar the high school environments are.
Its a good book, even if the ending is abrupt and so many loose ends are left dangling.
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence