Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

8 reviews

candacealise's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Eating disorder

hecubatohim's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Murder, and Death

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, Racism, and Drug use

halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

Blood Like Magic is pure perfection. I may have found my favorite book for 2022🥰😍

That was quite an emotional rollercoaster...I am speechless. It's impossible to add specific lines (I annotated this like crazy) without gushing over what happened that it felt like watching a movie series.

 It was quite indept... going through the various magic systems, magical families, scientific use of genes and the list goes on!!!!

 There were so many laugh out loud moments and one in particular was comic relief at the PERFECT moment 👏🏼🤌🏼 relating to a "certain" family member, it would be a HUGE SPOILER.

I ADORE Voya and find her to be a truly relatable character. From being afraid to making mistakes to her passion for baking to her fierce love for her family and grandma🥰🥺🦋.

I am so enthused its the first of a duology and will soon purchase physical copies to enjoy over and over again. BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR BLOOD LIKE FATE, released August 9th. I know for a fact it will NOT disappoint🔥🦋🦋🦋

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Vomit, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, Infertility, Medical content, Body horror, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Bullying, Grief, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, and Stalking

librarybookscene's review

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Racism, Classism, and Slavery

Moderate: Death, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Medical trauma, Outing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Transphobia, and Cancer

tiannakelly's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Content and Trigger Warning: 

Drug use, whipping, disordered eating, misgendering, child neglect, and generational trauma. 

Our MC Voya has been asked to perform an impossible task within a tight deadline for her family to maintain their ancestral magic. 

She must fall in love and destroy her love. 

This book, I believed was pitched to me as Urban Fantasy due to the setting (Canada) in combination with the witchy elements. I think this would have done better if it was marketed as SciFi because of the biotech and advanced technology. (Sometimes, for me as a reader trying to imagine advanced tech is so distracting, and I wasn't prepared for it) 

 Sambury has a diverse cast that comes from non-traditional family structures. The blended family that Voya is a part of was challenging to watch because of their lack of support and the generational trauma. Alex being comfortable in her body and her family accepting her was so good to see with BLACK families that are okay with LGBTQAI+ people outside of their family. When someone within the family identifies with LGBTQAI,+ all bets are off. (I am speaking from my experience within the Black Community)  Voya's relationship with her cousins was relatable: bickering one moment and heartfelt moments the next. Luc being sponsored to work for the major Biotech company was new. The complex feeling surrounding identity isn't; Luc is from Mexico but grew up and spent a hefty amount of time away from Mexico that he is an outsider whenever he has the opportunity to visit. 

When Voya finally starts to see the cycle of drama and trauma is when the story picks up and becomes something I truly enjoyed. Voya tries to find a way around destroying Luc and falling in love with him, but as the story unravels, love takes over in the driver's seat. However, this is not an urban fantasy romance, as romance within the book is for the plot but nothing more. 

Be prepared for a story that allows for family to be your love and heartache. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Blood, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Slavery

prairieraven's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

sunsetcity's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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, Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Blood Like Magic takes place in a world only a few decades ahead of ours. Sciences has expanded to deep genetic analysis and modification and these things are amazing for those who can afford them, which does not include Voya Thomas’s family.  The Thomas family has their own set of problems – specifically Voya’s Task to destroy her first love.  It’s an unthinkable requirement for Voya to become a witch, and when she’s genetically matched to one of the head of NuGene’s sponsor kids, things get even more complicated.

In Blood Like Magic, we watch Voya Thomas face a serious of impossible choices.  We see her surrounded by family that is well-meaning but flawed, and by neighbors that are superficial but they generally all stick together.  The community, the magic, and the tech were all interesting to me, but the complex multi-level family relationships made Blood Like Magic particularly good.  I loved it.

Voya has a huge family, and sometimes, it was challenging to keep track of everyone.  I both applaud and bemoan Sumbury’s choice to name two different characters Keisha.  For the most part, I was able to keep track of who was who and who did what… although admittedly I sometimes had to slow myself down in the scenes that contained both Keishas.  The large cast of characters is something to prepare yourself for, but there is only one POV and that belongs to Voya.

The world is close enough to our own that the technological advances don’t feel leaps and bound ahead, a common flaw of futuristic sci-fi.  I thought NuGene was interesting for the little times we spent learning about the company and its technology.  I thought the Thomas family’s magic was even more interesting.  Blood Like Magic focuses heavily on Voya’s story, since this is her Coming-Of-Age ritual.  But there are so many interesting people in her family, all with their own gifts, and there are scores of ancestors with stories as well.  Not only is the magic system interesting, there are so many individuals who have potential for bigger stories.  I hope Sambury pursues them – there is already confirmation for the next book in the series next year, so we’ll see where she takes it.

Absolutely 100% pick up this book is you like Black girl magic, tech-related sci-fi, witchy vibes, family relationships, or messy YA stories.  Blood Like Magic is entirely a fantastic book.  I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent and Kidnapping

Minor: Abandonment, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Slavery