Scan barcode
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)
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.redkeys's review
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death
chalkletters's review
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
Graphic: Suicide and Self harm
Moderate: Death, Drug use, and Violence
Minor: Forced institutionalization
angelareads's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, and Mental illness
Minor: Child death, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization
More...