Reviews tagging 'Murder'

An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard

15 reviews

sakeriver's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I’ve had this on my shelf a long time, and I wonder if it would have hit the same if I’d read it back when I first bought it. A story about a person seeing a rotten system and actually tearing it down has a certain extra catharsis in 2024, I think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Murder

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Self harm, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Racism

theliteraryhooker's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I love Howard's writing, but the pacing was a bit off with this one. Certain pieces dragged while others felt way too rushed, especially towards the end of the book. An interesting magic system though and I enjoyed the characters quite a bit, especially Sydney!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Moderate: Vomit

rory18's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Abandonment, Confinement, Blood, Torture, Trafficking, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Slavery, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Incest, Racism, Sexual violence, and Classism

Minor: Child death

Tagged as incest due to

Sydney being raised by Ian's aunt

, but in a manner similar to how Rapunzel is raised, so it's like... Pseudo/adoptive-incest of cousins?

clarabooksit's review against another edition

fast-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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Vomit

ava_marie_sunflower's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Death

louisegraveyard's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism and Sexual assault

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.

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Content Warnings

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

cloudypages's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death, Murder, Violence, and Gore

beccaand's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

3.75

man i love urban fantasy - this was real solid!
probably suffered a bit from having too many perspectives

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Stalking, and Confinement

Minor: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cursing