Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Middlegame

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

whatellisreadnext's review

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 😁

Content Warnings

allonsythornraxx's review

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challenging emotional

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

25/12/2020
4 ⭐
This book was completely wild and a bit mind-boggling to the point where I found myself re-reading sentences a lot. But it was also fantastic and so obviously a Seanan McGuire book so I loved it! I loved getting to know Rodger and Dodger, especially via the audiobook which was SO GOOD. I absolutely can't wait for the sequel (even though you can 100% read this as a standalone) and will be reading Over The Woodward Wall asap!

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cp_frey's review

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I really must be the odd woman out here. I did not care at all about what happened to these characters (and I read until page 300 because I so badly wanted it to get as good as everyone says it is)! But, alas, it was not the book for me.

Dodger's character was highly unlikable, and Roger's felt heavily underwhelming. Being someone who loves writing and reading I wanted more of his "talent" to be part of the story, but I felt it was all about Dodger and her math. Meh.

I am not calling this a concrete DNF - perhaps I'll pick it up again, but no time soon.

I am still looking forward to trying Every Heart a Doorway to see if that is more of a style I would enjoy from McGuire.

Content Warnings

chalkletters's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Seanan McGuire had come up on the Reading Glasses podcast, and at previous meetings of book club, as a great writer who packed an emotional punch. I’ve had Every Heart a Doorway on my TBR for ages and, were it not for lockdown, would probably have been leant a copy. Thanks to all of this, I went into Middlegame with relatively high expectations.

Even at the beginning, Middlegame’s plot and structure are pretty complicated. For quite some time I had no idea what was going on, and how all the puzzle pieces related to one another, but in a good way! I’ve had this feeling before, where I don’t know what’s happening or how it relates but I know I’m having a great time being carried along for the ride. I recognised it from the first time I read On the Jellicoe Road, which is one of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors.

It helps that the characters are easy to like. I cared about Roger and Dodger from the first passages written from Roger’s perspective. Seanan McGuire wrote them in such a way that I wanted them to be happy, I wanted them to be together and I wanted to learn more about them all at once. The strength of that desire carried the narrative for the first half of the book.

By the second half, the picture on the box of the jigsaw puzzle is starting to take shape. I found it particularly interesting that it was the villains of the novel who were trying to bring magic back into the world. That’s usually the job of the heroes, so it was a neat inversion (though, I have to say, it’s not quite that simple).

Caroline at book club suggested that Middlegame might be a kind of metaphor for the process of writing, which I thought was really interesting. You have to have the right elements, the right building blocks of plot and when it goes wrong, it’s possible you might need to go back a long way to find a small decision you can twist to get the outcome you want. I definitely want to reread the whole book with this in mind and also considering Edward’s idea that Reed was deliberately created to be a villain who would drive Roger and Dodger in a certain direction.

Content Warnings