Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

8 reviews

cady_sass's review

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

5.0

Wow. I’m going to need anywhere from 7-240 business days to wrap my mind around this one. There is simply nothing else like this… I am so envious of Seanan McGuire’s mind and the way that it works. How do you even come up with this?! 

This is weird level 1000 so if you don’t care for nonsense and pseudoscience then just steer clear. If you’re down for melting your brain, this is the one. 

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green_amaryllis's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

5.0


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oliverreeds's review

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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

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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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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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helmituuli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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angelareads's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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sheerpoetry's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book destroyed me. I put off reading it for a good while because of the size. And then it took me so long (well, for one of Seanan's books, at least) because I had to keep stopping and do breathing exercises and recover enough to keep going.

It was amazing. I was thoroughly stressed out for most of it, but was so glad I kept going and finished it. It was definitely an experience and not just a book. I have no idea what we can expect from the sequel, but I am both terrified and excited.

[I will say, as a person with depression, that this book hurt at times. And I personally found Dodger's suicide attempt fairly graphic, even though it didn't depict the actual act from her point of view. But the descriptions of her feelings and reactions to being tired and left and lonely are so incredibly real and accurate. I cried. A lot. 

I will also say I was (pleasantly) surprised that it didn't just end with "and they lived."
 

It was absolutely a wild ride and I was stressed beyond belief reading it, but I'm so glad I did. It was worth it, in the end. (Not that I doubted it!) And, as always, Seanan keeps you guessing. Just when you think you may have figured out something, it takes a turn. Like I said, a WILD, emotional, beautiful ride.

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