Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

22 reviews

rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Cursing, and Self harm

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

boneloose's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Suicide attempt, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence, Body horror, Gaslighting, Child death, Death of parent, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Forced institutionalization

Page 101 in the US hardcover edition for forced institutionalization mention. A character is painted as crazy for experiencing something that actually is happening and is threatened with forced hospitalization and forced anti-psychotic medication.

archaicgambit's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence

incunabula's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

it was good overall, but there was a lot of description that added like 50 pages to the book. I think that some of it (specifically the paragraphs in parentheses about other what was going on with characters) would have been much better as footnotes! that way they can still contribute to the story without killing the scenes' momentum. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence

hanz's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident

meliroo's review against another edition

4.5

4.5 ⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Sexism, Torture, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

kmtd's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

ashleycmms's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

abitsybat's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Self harm, Medical content, and Stalking

Minor: Medical content, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

aardwyrm's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

McGuire really shines in the conceit, and this is probably her most technically complex execution to date. The big, weird idea behind the world is where the book shines. The characters don't stand out much and the plot is remarkably predictable given its non-linear nature, but it's a fun journey, worth reading for every payoff. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Self harm