Reviews with content warning for Death - The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

97 reviews

lareinadehades's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

0.5

Listen, you know how in life there are moments of watching a train wreck in motion and yet, you're unable to look away? Well, that was me with this book.

Every time I thought: "this can't get worse", it did. Uh, and what's up with Christian witches and, " magic doesn't make a witch" vibe? Yeah no. This is my harshest rating to date, but honestly I can't bring myself to pump it up to a full star. Yes, I know I did this to myself.

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averyboredsara's review

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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bookworm14587's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

2.0

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passionatereader78's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.5

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ljahlgren's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.75

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jaedyn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

To start with the positives, this book is one of the best written books I’ve read in a while. Her descriptive skills are stunning, and her world building immaculate. The cozy, slice of life, small town America vibes are unmatched!

Additionally, the author handles large casts of characters incredibly well. As more and more people were introduced I started to get nervous, but the author clearly has a brilliant vision of who her character are.

This books is also incredibly good and luring you in with the promise of a heartfelt romance before twisting the knife and taking a darker turn! I read this book relatively quickly and I think that is down to the twists, turns and mystery.

Unfortunately, there were two reasons why this book wasn’t rated higher, one of which is a mild spoiler. However, read below as I think it is important to mention

MINOR SPOILER ALERT

Firstly, the book alludes the sexual assault of rape of the mother. I’m just tired of books marketed as cozy including sexual violence against women that is not, at the very least, mentioned as a trigger at the start of the book. I have read and enjoyed a plethora of books with trigger warnings, they don’t take away from the experience! Other TW include, attempted suicide, murder and death

Secondly, the author is Christian, which obviously isn’t the issue, however the use of bible stories and verse in the book is. Once the main character and some of the side characters start quoting the Bible immediately you become hyper aware of the world in which this book takes place and it completely breaks the fourth wall. The book espouses good values, however they become on the nose Christian values when coupled with the Christian theme.

Also, on a milder note, it makes the authors choice to blatantly say that they are not witches far less whimsical. Now, Sadie is not just some magical girl, but instead not a witch Bcs witches are conduits of the devil and the devil is bad *shakes fist and pouts

Obviously, the author is in her right to write about her faith, however from an accessibility and literary point of view, whenever Christianity was referenced it broke the pacing of the story, which is a pity because the author is a brilliant writer. However, I do want to say that there is NO RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY! In fact, upon some digging, the author seems like a really nice person.

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skye_era_books's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful sad 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

2.5

I have so many thoughts on this book. I definitely didn’t hate it, but oh my god it is not at all what it is marketed as. Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls? Where? This was not lighthearted and fluffy like I thought — it actually should have some pretty serious trigger warnings.
Anyway, some things that were… interesting:

1. Jake highkey emotionally cheating on his fiancé is wild, 2. His fiancé pretending to be PREGNANT, 3. Florence having a forced pregnancy because some dickwad put a fertility spell on her????, 4. The grandma killing said dickwad was iconic I won’t lie, 5. They all attend church but are involved in magic, 6. HER TRYING TO K*LL HERSELF to save her brother?????? with basically a sleepy time tea?? hello???

There’s so much more but I DID ENJOY all of the recipes throughout the book so at least there’s that.

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