Reviews tagging 'Death'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

48 reviews

libraryghost's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide attempt, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Grief, and Death

Minor: Child death

lily_kruse's review

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Suicide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Vomit, Cursing, and Death of parent

jazhandz's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

If this book were 20% shorter it would've been 50% better.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, and Abandonment

bethsiekierawalker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and Suicide attempt

oliverreeds's review

adventurous challenging dark slow-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

no idea what happened. i loved every second

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, and Violence

mfrank's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

 I love Seanan McGuire and her writing so much! I was so happy to read this and it made me happy to go through it! I loved Roger and Dodger so much. They felt very real to me. I think Seanan McGuire is so great at creating characters. For me, the only reason that this was four stars instead of five stars is the climax scenes. I think Seanan McGuire is great at creating characters and building narrative tension, but I've noticed in a few of her books that I've read that the climax sometimes fails to deliver on that tension.

I really hated the fake-out climax. It felt like we gained nothing from that. They would have manifested without that. And the fact that we thought both Leigh and Erin died and then neither of them died made me so upset. Like, what was the point of that scene if it accomplished literally nothing for them. Also, the face that Erin then actually died made me so upset. It felt a bit weird too. Like, that Erin was just too broken to survive without her brother? It felt off to the message about sibling love. Especially, that Erin basically chose to kill herself, sort of? I know she didn't literally, but it felt at the end like she was making the choice to die rather than that Reed actually killed her. Just those last like 30 pages felt weird overall.

Despite those few issues I had with the book, I loved the overall story enough to sort of make up for those moments where I didn't. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Minor: Blood, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

leanne_miron's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child death, Confinement, and Gun violence

bright_eyed_and_bookish's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense 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

I loved the sibling dynamic in this story. I was cheering for Roger and Dodger the whole time as they discovered their abilities and struggled with their relationship with each other. I sometimes struggle with Seanan Mcguire’s writing style and understanding the details she includes, but I have to say, she created an amazing atmosphere and mange’s to be a little humorous at times too.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Death

Moderate: Death of parent and Violence

Minor: Gore

jayisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

3.25

For a limited time, Tordotcom made Middlegame downloadable for free, which was nice. I admit I have a tendency to jump at any opportunity to get a free book, even if I don’t know the premise of it. It was absolutely the case with this book, ahaha.

That said, I think I enjoyed this book? It’s hard to tell because, admittedly, I didn’t fully follow what was happening at times. I think there were two reasons for this. One is that there’s a lot of fascinating worldbuilding, but there was a little too much happening. The other related reason is because of the point-of-view that McGuire decided to write in, which was limited third-person primarily from the perspectives of Roger and Dodger. I don’t mind reading books that don’t have an omniscient perspective, but I think it would have helped for this book because, goodness, Roger and Dodger simply have no idea what’s happening for most this book. In other words, the reader has to deal with this as well, and that can get really frustrating. As a result, the story got messier.

On a more positive note, though, I was fascinated by this idea of math and language being the foundation of the world (in a way). I also really enjoyed how McGuire explored the relationship between Roger and Dodger. It was such a unique dynamic that felt very real. Lastly, McGuire writes beautifully with multisensory descriptions that added so much to the book.

I could have missed something that resulted in my confusion, but I may look into the sequel. I’m admittedly curious to know what more McGuire can do with the worldbuilding she has done. Plus, it might make more sense since I have some footing from this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death

yourlocalsadie's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Self harm, and Death