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stories's review
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Wow. Dad recommended this book and he was right. Certainly designed to be read more at once than episodically, with a large, cast of complex relationships. A satisfying mixture of political intrigue, morality and magical wonders in a battle-to-the-death equivalent of this magical world’s election cycle.
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Self harm, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, and Physical abuse
Minor: Racism
booksthatburn's review against another edition
I stopped reading because I’m concerned that this book where a secret and powerful group of magic users whose power is propped up by a secret location where children (and some adults) are tortured and killed in New York City might be antisemitic. It’s at least playing way more into blood libel than I’m comfortable reading.
I hated almost every character. Sydney and her employer are the most sympathetic characters among the magicians, and it seemed like most of the other magicians were meant to be somehow repulsive. Sydney are her employer are also the only magic users who are in the competition but not part of the established houses. At least as far as I got in the book, the members of the houses are varying degrees of unpleasant, from just generally complicit in the pain caused by their magic, all the way up to one being a serial killer who thinks his method of direct murder is better than the secret torture dungeon. I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, but I’m uninterested in the debate.
I hated almost every character. Sydney and her employer are the most sympathetic characters among the magicians, and it seemed like most of the other magicians were meant to be somehow repulsive. Sydney are her employer are also the only magic users who are in the competition but not part of the established houses. At least as far as I got in the book, the members of the houses are varying degrees of unpleasant, from just generally complicit in the pain caused by their magic, all the way up to one being a serial killer who thinks his method of direct murder is better than the secret torture dungeon. I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, but I’m uninterested in the debate.
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Self harm, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Slavery, Sexism, Murder, Torture, Racism, and Child death
Minor: Vomit, Sexual content, and Death of parent
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