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imds's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Confinement, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Torture, Stalking, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
stories's review
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Self harm, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, and Physical abuse
Minor: Racism
rory18's review against another edition
- 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
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 tobooksthatburn's review against another edition
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
beccaand's review
- 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
probably suffered a bit from having too many perspectives
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Stalking, and Confinement
Minor: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cursing
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, Slavery, Torture, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit
Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Racism, and Stalking
graculus's review against another edition
5.0
The basic premise is that it's set in a world like our own but where magic exists alongside us, so you have 'mundanes' as well who are unaware of magic's existence. Every so often there's something called the Turning, which is all about which House of the magical world gets to be in charge and make all the rules, with challenges issued and then fought by that House's champion, as well as the opportunity for people to found new Houses if they're powerful enough.
The main character is Sydney, who has recently escaped from the House of Shadows, a place which is the source of much of the magic that others rely on - in short, their magic comes from the suffering of others, Sydney being one of them until recently. It reminded me a little of Ursula K LeGuin's short story, 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' in that it seems like most magic users either don't know, or choose to ignore, this fact. Sydney is powerful and takes up the role of champion for one of the would-be Houses, in this case one led by someone from outside the magical world, with a view to exposing the truth about magic to everyone.
Alongside this, there's also a power struggle going on for two of the existing Houses, one with a psychopathic former heir who's been disinherited and is going around killing people for their magic, the other with a man who has lost all of his power over time but is pretending this isn't the case. In the end, the truth comes out, all of it and the author does a very nice job of making us care about many of the people involved and tying off all the loose ends of plot. In short, I enjoyed An Unkindness of Magicians very much and definitely want to get my hands on other novel-length work by Kat Howard.
Graphic: Body horror and Physical abuse
dancingkouign's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
However, I personnally struggled to connect to the characters or feel invested in the story.
I guess they all seemed a little bit too cool for me to find them believable??
I did feel quite a lot of empathy for them, I just had difficulties liking them because they never felt real in my mind (I can even like antagonists so that's not the issue)
I genuienly think most people will love this book tho!
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Body horror