Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Magic for Liars: A Novel by Sarah Gailey

21 reviews

arynapril's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book. I loved the strong prose and unique imagery that pushed into my brain. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Self harm, Vomit, and Medical trauma

burnt_milk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Gore, and Abortion

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Eating disorder, Rape, and Vomit

lily1304's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

I got so invested in this story so fast! Ivy is a funny and sympathetic narrator, and the mystery was juuuuust the right level of difficulty. I couldn't figure it all out on my own, but I might have if I had taken notes. But it's not just a mystery, it also gave me feelings??

Yeah, it takes place at a boarding school for magical teens, but it's definitely not Harry Potter.

I would have rated it higher, except I feel like it has low reread-value - but the first read was SO fun!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Blood, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Terminal illness, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

lexa's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.0

A great fantasy book for people who don’t read fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

katymat18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Vomit, Abortion, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I really liked this book. It's a solid murder-mystery that takes a lot of fantasy tropes (specifically those surrounding magic schools) to their conclusion if they were played out in reality. Specifically, what does this magic do to the people who were, in essence, left behind by their magic relatives? What does it do to someone to be told they are a Chosen One with a Great Destiny when they're a teenager having their first love? It's interesting, if a bit depressing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Vomit

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

If anything about this book’s summary speaks to you, please read this book. An excellent concept executed brilliantly, with a compelling mystery, interesting characters, and an honestly fresh take on the concept of hidden magic schools (which, btw, a nonbinary author did way better than a certain transphobe…). At points I did feel like I was getting ahead of our protagonist with connecting clues, but the mystery still has enough twists and creativity  that it kept me on my toes and surprised. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lilifane's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The premise of this one was SO good: A violent death in a magical school. The protagonist Ivy, a private detective without any magical powers, whose estranged sister is one of the magical teacher, gets hired to find out what happened. This could have been such a cool murder mystery. 

Instead, it was just really weird and kind of boring? 

Beside the premise, I also loved some characters, like Rahul and Mrs. Webb. I also liked a tiny portion of the magic (the healing parts were so cool! I think these were the most exciting and thrilling scenes of the whole book), the queer rep and the setting kind of. 

But that's basically it. The whole investigation was random and full of boring teenager drama I didn't care for at all. The clues and red herrings were ridiculous, especially because it was kind of easy to guess who done it pretty early on. The decisions Ivy makes are the worst ever. The magic system is weird. I mean there are some cool parts to practical magic but the theory? The book lost me there. It just felt weird. And don't get me started on the romance plot...

I'm really torn because it felt like a more realistic take on a magical school, not another romanticized version. With teenagers acting like actual teens and a school which provides sex ed and contraception. I liked this a lot. It felt like the book was written for everyone who waited for their Hogwarts letter to arrive for half their life and finally gets to experience a magical school as a non-magical adult. And it's kind of disenchanting. Also, the way the Chosen One trope is handled here was actually really refreshing. 

But I was expecting SO much more from the actual mystery plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

jourdanicus's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, and Abortion

Moderate: Cancer, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Vomit