Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

24 reviews

green_amaryllis's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Child death and Car accident

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

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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

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

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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

jayisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

3.25

For a limited time, Tordotcom made Middlegame downloadable for free, which was nice. I admit I have a tendency to jump at any opportunity to get a free book, even if I don’t know the premise of it. It was absolutely the case with this book, ahaha.

That said, I think I enjoyed this book? It’s hard to tell because, admittedly, I didn’t fully follow what was happening at times. I think there were two reasons for this. One is that there’s a lot of fascinating worldbuilding, but there was a little too much happening. The other related reason is because of the point-of-view that McGuire decided to write in, which was limited third-person primarily from the perspectives of Roger and Dodger. I don’t mind reading books that don’t have an omniscient perspective, but I think it would have helped for this book because, goodness, Roger and Dodger simply have no idea what’s happening for most this book. In other words, the reader has to deal with this as well, and that can get really frustrating. As a result, the story got messier.

On a more positive note, though, I was fascinated by this idea of math and language being the foundation of the world (in a way). I also really enjoyed how McGuire explored the relationship between Roger and Dodger. It was such a unique dynamic that felt very real. Lastly, McGuire writes beautifully with multisensory descriptions that added so much to the book.

I could have missed something that resulted in my confusion, but I may look into the sequel. I’m admittedly curious to know what more McGuire can do with the worldbuilding she has done. Plus, it might make more sense since I have some footing from this book. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death

yourlocalsadie's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Self harm, and Death

milliemudd's review

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Violence, Death, Gore, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Physical abuse

chronoreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.75

Once I understood the chronology and what was going on, I enjoyed the story (though I still had to jump back and forth a bit to fill in some gaps). The dynamic between the characters evolve in ways that use some of my favorite tropes. The book would have been five stars if it were easier to get my initial foothold into the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Gaslighting

whatcassiedid's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

Wow I really loved this! Very intense worldbuilding that was a little confusing at the start, but made a lot more sense as it went on. The jumping around in timelines kind of reminded me of This Is How You Lose The Time War, which I adored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

gladiolus17's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I thought Middlegame had great characters and such an interesting premise. Dodger and Roger were very fleshed out and I was invested in their relationship. My favorite character was Erin, though! 

The other thing the book did well was metaphors. Sometimes you see books that throw in a metaphor just to be beautiful, but these ones extended the meaning of what they were comparing AND were unique and beautiful.

I was also blown away by how the timeline fit everything together. First I was confused, but then everything fell into place and I was very satisfied.

I did feel certain things were repetitive on a sentence and scene level. I’m not sure if it was necessary to have Roger and Dodger part so many times, as it dragged the narrative down a bit. As well, I felt that the metaphors around math and language were overused sometimes, since Roger and Dodger were often described as not being good at each other’s disciplines.

All in all, an enjoyable read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Moderate: Body horror and Fire/Fire injury

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

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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