Reviews with content warning for Death - A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

32 reviews

sasaboba's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

book: 6 stars
audio: 2.5 stars

"[he] had forgotten that his history might be a legacy of power, but hers was a legacy of resistance. sera's ancestors had not defied tyrants and broken free of empires for her to now give this man a single inch."

another certified banger from sangu mandanna, feeding readers british-indian, cozy, fall, witchy vibes to save us from the horrible summer heat. there's another large cast of lovable characters with their own distinct personalities and a heavy spotlight on autism representation in masking adults and early development children. readers are also blessed with a fantastic and emotionally heartwrenching representation of mental illnesses and how that manifests as various traumas in multiple adults. chapter 20 especially left me brutalized 😭

i have a couple of minor gripes with the book and a major issue with the audiobook. i had the same struggles with the love interest in this as i did with irregular witches. his personality is fine and i love how much he cares for his sister but constantly describing his "icy blue eyes" and how he's "so white that he's translucent" was so beyond unattractive. i'd started imagining something akin to the pale man from pan's labyrinth and was almost repulsed every time he touched the mc 😂 second gripe is clemmie. minor spoiler:

self-victimizing white women who do the most to inconvenience others grind my gears and i felt like she was too easily forgiven, especially because she was a consistent thorn in everyone's side the whole book

.

as for the audiobook, i'm not south asian but it's really weird to me that the audiobook production team at penguin random house won't hire british south asian talent when the talent exists and penguin has the means to. this is especially weird to me when the white scottish voice actress is tasked with speaking in what i can only describe as a caricature of an indian accent for a major character 🥴 samara maclaren is talented and did a fantastic job with everyone else but that indian accent felt like a hate crime. audiobook readers beware.

despite all of my issues with it, a witch's guide to magical innkeeping is one of the best new releases i've read so far and i think it will stay that way for 2025. the magic system is even more fantastical and the politics was even more assertive—both of which i absolutely loved! sangu mandanna said, "support independent businesses and protect immigrant, bipoc, queer, mentally ill, and autistic people!" resistance is beautiful 💖

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us cover artist: lisa perrin
uk cover artist: irene neyman

Content Warnings

ilaxaria's review against another edition

3.75

fast-paced

Content Warnings

twoweeeeks's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

Well worth the wait. I’m not sure I’ve read anything else like it. A refreshing, ambitious take on romantic fantasy.

For anyone who felt like The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches wasn’t for them - consider giving this a go.

Content Warnings

m_a_j's review against another edition

3.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

Content Warnings

solson5212's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-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

This is actually the first ever audiobook I've every listened to, and it sucked me in quick! There was really good representation from a race, disability, and mental illness standpoint, and there were certain parts of it that were just straight up beautiful!

Content Warnings

ms_morri's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad 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

Honestly, this story probably arrived just as I needed. If you're looking for a story to be as low stakes as Sangu's last book, I'm sorry to say that things are a little more intense. This story is about losing everything and the journey to rise up from where you fell down. In a way, I liked the arc of the main character better in this book than The Secret Society of Irregular Witches. She seemed to have more growth. I will say that what keeps this from being a five star book is that there is a bit of a cut and paste feel to some of the characters. In many ways, that is comforting and if that's what you're looking for then you will love this book. It's most definitely a great book to curl up to next to a fire with a pet and drink some lovely tea. And perhaps a good story to read when you feel the world is against you.

Content Warnings

evarinya's review against another edition

3.5

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Originally was thinking about anything between 4 and 4.5 for the book. It's a cozy, whimsical tale about a girl who lost most of her (immensely powerful) magic to save a family member - and how, as a woman, she still needs to heal from that.
There was also a lot of different characters with different sorts of traumas (some were definitely handled better than others, though - and there really wasn't enough time to have more than surface level development for... pretty much everyone besides Sera...) but mostly those characters were interesting and likeable.

I was a bit... confused about Posey and the portrayal of her autism. I'm no expert with autistic children but I have researched a lot about it in adults and... it just seemed a little off to me, not sure why exactly.
Still a very precocious child, though!

The romance was... fine, I guess? I found the "first kiss" scene pretty weird, honestly (there's a time and a place for everything and that was not it. Dunno if I'm too Ace for this but honestly, it was ridiculous. And not in a good way!) but all in all, Sera and Luke were a cute couple and the conflict and resolution were mostly sweet and their interactions were nice to read.

The sex scene was... meh, and I wish there wouldn't have been one, but it wasn't horrible either. I just don't get the need fir having one in every single romance book in general...

Sadly the ending was really a big downer for me. Up to... around 90% I believe, I was sure that this book would end equally cozy as it had been for the whole duration. Some conflict was there, yes, but never truly bad consequences. Simply a "feel good book".
Alas, it was not to be.
And... honestly, the ending "conflict" and its resolution were... horribly executed. Instead of any sort of actual plan, the "solution" ends up being

"Yeah lose an integral part of yourself that you spent years trying to fix... so one guy can "only" use his money and influence to fuck up more people, but not his magic"

... Great.
Feels like her

final sacrifice was too much for what they got out of it. And that, in the end, while Grey lost his powerbase, he still got what he wanted: Sera powerless. (And I know it's a bit simplified and sure, it did screw him over, but... it still felt like way to much of a sacrifice for her to make)

I would have probably accepted it easier if

she had kept at least some of her magic... maybe the same amount as before? As in, her quest still was, ultimately, a success and her sacrificing its result is meaningful, but... it doesn't end up being a "oh your magic loved you, so you will FOREVER have a reminder of just what you lost. Every time you close your eyes. Unable to EVER move on. Congrats!" kind of thing?? (Again, very simplified, but still technically true! As if she can move on from having lost her magic if she has a constant reminder in that one star? How is that supposed to be comforting in the long run?)
Honestly, at this point, why didn't they just kill him? It would have solved all their problems, he could never mistreat other people again and Sera would have kept her magic. Boom. (Certainly not less whimsical than permanent mutilation. For that's, in essence, what Sera did to herself.)

I don't know. The ending was really bittersweet (though more bitter than sweet, really) so in the end, the rating for the whole book suffered, since... well. The ending is what tends to stay in mind the longest, isn't it?
Quite a pity, for I truly loved The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. (Also, I somehow thought both books played in the same universe, but... I guess not? Or The Very Secret Society was taking place in a very different location as the vibes I got from the magic and everything were very different... and not really in a good way. Meh.)

Content Warnings