Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

24 reviews

boneloose's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

new all-time favorite. holy shit. definitely a book i can see myself rereading over and over to catch every bit of foreshadowing i can find. holy shit i haven't read a book so good it leaves me in a daze upon finishing it in ages. (similar to vicious by v.e. schwab in vibes)
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milliemudd's review

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

3.25

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whatcassiedid's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

Wow I really loved this! Very intense worldbuilding that was a little confusing at the start, but made a lot more sense as it went on. The jumping around in timelines kind of reminded me of This Is How You Lose The Time War, which I adored.
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archaicgambit's review

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dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

I loved this book. I think it's so wild that Seanan Mcguire went and wrote the up-and-under books and I can't wait to read them. As a fan of the Wayward Children series, it was fascinating to see different themes and motifs that McGuire loves pop up in different ways-- frankensteins, portal fantasies, mad scientists and vicious girls. 

I love a character-centric fantasy with heavy slice of life elements and Roger and Dodger's relationship as siblings was handled beautifully. I also liked their growth of their respective halves of the doctrine-- I saw people critiquing that handling way too harshly as I was wrapping up the book.

I was surprised by the amount of Oz references growing and honestly loved the subtly twisted elements of that. Oz hangs high in american portal fantasy and it was such a great way to pay a tribute and critique and address the elephant in the room. 

The one thing I will say is this book is surprisingly less diverse than her other works. I guess we can presume some of the mad scientists were racist, but I was surprised all the doctrine children were white.
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chloeeereads's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book has easily made its way into my all time favourites list. I was so hooked right from the first sentence - this book intrigued me, confused me, made me laugh, made me sad, made me think, and I loved every second.

The premise of this book is confusing but so cool and I will try and explain as best I can without giving anything away. Rodger and Dodger are twins (one set of many) engineered by alchemists and separated at birth, destined to grow and live a life apart before coming together when their maker deems fit. Roger is incredibly skilled in language and words, and Dodger in mathematics and numbers, but neither of them realise just how important or dangerous their abilities are. Together, they are the physical embodiment of The Doctrine, an ancient conception which allows its wielder to control time and the universe. 

We follow Roger and Dodger throughout their childhoods and into adulthood, as they begin to learn more about themselves, each other, and the world around them. The writing in this book was stunning, and McGuire had such a way of taking something inherently weird and dark and twisted and confusing and weaving it into a story about friendship, family, heartbreak and sacrifice. The relationship between Roger and Dodger was raw and tender and so wonderfully built as the story progressed. There were characters that you couldn’t help but just hate, and so many twists and turns. It was so fun trying to figure out what was going on as Roger and Dodger were doing the same, and we deal with multiple timelines, time warping, telepathy and more. It’s definitely a confusing book and one that will make you verbally say “uh what the fuck” more than once, but it was so intriguing and wonderfully executed. I have been thinking about these characters and this story since I closed this book, and I will probably never stop thinking about it.

If you’ve been seeing this book around or meaning to read it, this is your sign to pick it up. 
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meliroo's review against another edition

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4.5

4.5 ⭐
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kmtd's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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ashleycmms's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I found the concept really interesting and the writing style fun. Usually, I am not one for anything that messes with time and rarely like Groundhog Day style books, but the use of time and time movement in this book was amazing. However, I found both the main characters to be very childish which was weird because towards the end of the book they were knocking on 30 AND still pouting and acting like kids. I understand how a lot of that can be attested to fear of what they were dealing with and also simply just the fact that they were 26/27 with no stable identity because they still did not fully deal with WHO and WHAT they are. But omg.... met things head on for once and maybe you’d know earlier. Still an amazing read so I suggest it. It’s just not a 5 star book for ME.

Also: tw suicide attempt, suicidal ideation/mentions, murders (including children), and a POC character gets murdered in specific, lots of talk about dismembered body parts
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deedireads's review

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

4.5

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Middlegame is an incredibly creative novel with great plot and character. I really liked it a lot and I’ll definitely be reading more of Seanan McGuire’s work.

For you if: You like fantasy novels that have sci-fi-like elements and a super creative premise.

FULL REVIEW:

“For a man on a mission, a hundred years can pass in the blinking of an eye. Oh, it helps to have access to the philosopher’s stone, to have the fruits of a thousand years of alchemical progress at one’s fingertips, but really, it was always the mission that mattered. James Reed was born knowing his purpose, left his master in a shallow grave knowing his purpose, and fully intends to ascend to the heights of human knowledge with the fruits of his labors clutched firmly in hand. Damn anyone who dares to get in his way.”


Chances are if you’ve been in a bookstore over the last couple years, you’ve seen the cover of Middlegame. It’s hard to miss that hand of glory! (And yet, my brain kept mixing it up with Middlemarch, which is just…so not the same, lol.) So I’d been intrigued for a while, and when it was nominated for the Hugo Award, I knew it was only a matter of time before I picked it up. And I was NOT disappointed.

Middlegame is about a set of twins, Roger and Dodger, who were born to embody the Doctrine of Ethos, an alchemical principle that would allow the one controlling it to alter time … and the universe overall. Roger has the language part, and Dodger has math. Two halves of one whole, separated at birth, under the watch of one who would seek to use their abilities — we see the two of them grow up, learn who they are, and strive to save the world.

This book is just so incredibly creative. You can tell from the first few chapters that you’re in for something that feels really different from pretty much anything else. It’s also just really well written, with dynamic and vivid characters and a really exciting plot.

I will say that this is probably not a novel for SFF beginners. The structure and storytelling will feel accessible to those who are used to world-building and wrapping their minds around alternate rules of the universe, but it could be a little hard to follow if you aren’t used to books like that.

If you are a fan of fantasy with a feeling of sci-fi mixed in, pick this up!
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whatellisreadnext's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

𝘋𝘰𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴? 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘳. 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴'𝘴 𝘴𝘬𝘶𝘭𝘭. 𝘐𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳.

Roger and Dodger meet as children, but not in an ordinary way. They speak to each other through their minds, but live hundreds of miles away from one another. They're both blissfully unaware, that their lives were being written even before they were born.

Well guess who found a new favourite book? Middlegame is bat shit crazy and I loved every second of it. It's not a small book, coming in at just over 500 pages, and it took me about a week to read, but only because I was enjoying it so much, that I didn't want it to end. 

Time travel in books is so hard to get right, but Seanan McGuire absolutely nailed it. The hints at alternate timelines, and the countdown like structure, showing us failed attempts at saving the world, was done so so well. 

I loved Rodger and Dodger so much, finally a believable and platonic relationship at the centre of a narrative. Their ups and downs felt so real, and I was rooting for them the whole way through. I read Over The Woodward Wall late last year, which is the fictional children's book featured throughout Middlegame, and I also loved seeing the parallels of Zib and Avery to Rodger and Dodger. It was really clever, and just added another layer to my love for this story.

If you love character driven, timey wimey sci-fi that is super weird, you need this book. I honestly can't pick one fault with it and I'm already looking forward to reading it again 😁
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