Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

55 reviews

traa's review

adventurous dark tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Car accident and Pregnancy

lectora21's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Self harm, Vomit, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Violence

linossidepiece's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

fictionallyfinn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

ashleyk50413's review

adventurous dark hopeful 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

Minor: Suicide attempt and Self harm

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

monalyisha's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

“Wake up. We need to let my terrifying ex-girlfriend tell us how we’re supposed to manifest a primal force of reality before asshole chemists set us the fuck on fire.”

 

The above quote is pretty indicative of Middlegame’s overall tone: it’s desperate, matter-of-fact, urgent, terribly serious but also quite silly. 

 

While I enjoyed my reading experience, it largely confirmed that giant tomes just aren’t my thing.

Reading this book took me much longer than I would have liked (& there was a bit too much “timey-wimey stuff”). But it was interesting to see what McGuire can do when she gives herself length & breadth, especially given that I normally read her (absolutely killer) novellas.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Self harm

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

adancewithbooks's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

 Middlegame is one of those books I've heard a lot about. People singing its absolute praises. Did I love it as much as them? No but I can see why it captured everyone's attention like that.

Middlegame follows the lives of two twins that were seperated at birth. They were used for human experimentation to create something entirely non-human in a human body. To become the perfect vessels. They weren't the only ones. Of course they know none of this. And across the country they find each other. Despite those higher up trying to stop them, they still find each other again and again.

Middlegame is a trip that you follow along with Roger and Dodger. Even though we know more than them it doesn't take away from all the surprises we come across with them in who they really are. And even that, it isn't really about that. It is about their relationship and finding their way in the world when the world has been shaped for you. To take back your own choices.

And it is strong in setting up the two unit between Roger and Dodger. Because it goes with heart, bumps and scrapes. Many scrapes but with a lot of feelings. Relationships, especially with found siblings like these, don't come easy. It was realistic to see them run and turn away from each other. Their characterisation made me invested in the story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Self harm

Moderate: Body horror

Human Experimentation

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