Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Magic for Liars: A Novel by Sarah Gailey

47 reviews

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

Soooo many mixed feelings about this one. I really like magical mysteries. This one clips along at a fairly good pace, and having the investigator be an outsider is a nice take on the genre. 

But I felt so frustrated by the MC (static and underdeveloped), the interview scenes (tortuous), and the ending

Spoiler

Ivy says that turning the killer in won’t be justice, but it also lets them dodge all accountability, and this killer REALLY needs to be held accountable.

I felt very unsatisfied when I reached the end.

I don’t know if Gailey intends to return to Ivy’s world, but I don’t think I’d follow if they do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Abortion, Vomit, Cancer, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, and Infidelity

gaby_aldridge's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

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

petrimagyk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Terminal illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, and Body horror

fraeyalise's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.5

I didn't like this book. 

It is well written, and the characters feel like real people. The world feels like it's real. The mystery is compelling. 

However, it felt me feeling very gross at the end, like I need to take a shower. 

Spoiler

I'm glad Ivy realized literally in the last few pages that she didn't want anything to do with her evil sister and realized she's the problem, and I'm glad she went back to Rahul to try and give herself another chance to be vulnerable. But I hated the plot of the teen pregnancy, and what her sister did was vile, and not something I was ready to read about after having a baby myself. If I knew there was an explicit abortion scene (even if it was "magical") and further trauma for the teen who had one without any anesthesia I would have taken this off my to-read list.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gore, Grief, Alcohol, and Medical trauma

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Abortion, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Eating disorder, and Bullying

joepyeweed's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.5

Like if Aunt Petunia became a detective and then had to solve a  mystery. Except she doesn’t really care about the mystery and has a drinking problem. The main character was too self-absorbed, and the mystery wasn’t enough of a focus. The ending of the mystery was unexpected though.

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Content Warnings

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

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This was an audiobook I checked out as part of a reading challenge, to read a book that had been nominated for literary award(s),  but not been an actual award winner. I figured that could go one of two ways; the book could be a hidden gem that's only of niche interest, or a promising title that didn't quite match up to the top billing nominees. The book ended up being slightly more of column B.

The narration in this book as brilliantly delivered. The main character is jaded and sardonic, and is a lonely woman with a tendencies toward takeout food and alcoholism. Xe Sands narrates the character expressively and playfully, especially the parts where the characters are getting more and more inebriated. An interesting narrator; I might see if I can find other titles read by her.

As far as genre goes, the story is magic-school meets murder mystery, and a romantic twist, with the emphasis mostly on the crime solving stuff. As a result it slid off me a bit, because murder mystery things aren't really my preferred genre. I did like that there was diversity in the story. There were characters of different ages, and there were several queer (gay and pansexual) characters in this story, but the main character is a woman trysting with a man. Although the characters are ethnically diverse, their ethnicity is not focused on at all in the story.

The thing that probably drove me most to distraction was the slow pace. I generally love stories that dwell on the building of relationships between the characters, but the main theme of this book was the impossibility of being able to really bond with others if you aren't prepared to be honest with them, so the relationship building aspect felt shallow and unrewarding.

On a personal note, this book does deal with the aftermath of losing a mother to cancer. It probably says a lot about how much I have grieved and coped and healed that I didn't find this subject matter really upsetting, but rather, I felt like it represented real-life everyday tragedy and the failure of a family to cope because they couldn't share their feelings openly, and support each other in their loss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pregnancy, Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Bullying, and Blood

Minor: Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

sarahmanuel3's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Abortion, Death of parent, Violence, Body horror, Cancer, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

incrediblemelk's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This was the first dark academia book I’ve read where the protagonist is not a student, isn’t part of the academic community and has no special talents that would help them join it, so the book felt strange to me, and I found myself craving a sense of competence from the protagonist Ivy that she didn’t possess.

But that was the tone: Ivy’s inferiority complex and fear of being unmasked as an unqualified interloper. For this reason the book never really explains how the magic works because the narrator herself doesn’t know.

Ivy’s main strength was interviewing people, and the book was at its most nuanced in scenes where Ivy was deliberately seeking to set a tone and control a conversation. 

I have to admit I was surprised that the book never took the easy way out of “what if it turns out that Ivy actually does have latent magical powers that were never trained?” But that would have been corny so I  am pleased it never went there.

It had a strange, bitter vibe of an older person looking back at their life and their teenage self and wishing for a do-over that would never come, but also having the distance to recognise that the teen characters are kind of lost and that what a younger person would see as charisma is mainly bullying and bravado.

The plot twists were pretty easy to anticipate. The character of Dylan felt like a YA fantasy cliché and it was clear he was being established as a Chosen One stereotype because he absolutely was not a Chosen One.

This was an easy read and was not an outstanding, memorable story, but was not bad either. The stakes felt small and I would not be in a hurry to revisit this world and characters in a different book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Abortion

thewoodlandbookshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death