Reviews - The Secret World of Maggie Grey

695 reviews for:

The Secret World of Maggie Grey

Granger

4.34 AVERAGE

sincerelydebi's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Oh my… What do I say about 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐎𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐲? Let’s start with everything I loved.

a book about an all Black urban paranormal HBCU? Vampires, Witches, Sirens, etc? Yes. Immediately, yes.
a fantastic storyline. From beginning to end, I can honestly say the world building was amazing. A page turner for sure! Getting to understand the ins and outs of this underground world; a place that was specifically created for Black people. Getting to walk along side the protagonists while they navigate a new world that everyone else is so familiar with; as they figure out who they really are, and where they belong.
that this was a Black book. Things that some believe can only be white. Things that some Black people shy away from. (Example: people freaking out because an animated mermaid is Black…) We exist in these spaces as well, and this book definitely highlighted that.
quan the talking cat.

Things I didn’t like or…:

this might be controversial. Fight me. Maybe it was a little too present day socially urban for me🤷🏾‍♀️I mean heavy on slang. Heavy on the ratch. I almost wish we could’ve gatekeeped it. It’s not for everyone. This is a BLACK book.
the men. I’m aware or at least I hope, the point of this was to showcase real life situations and behaviors. I disliked all the men🤣they were extremely perverted & vulgar assholes. Minor spoiler: The fact that he was so disgustingly rude to ol’ girl only for there be a possibility that they’re destined…🤢
the authors obsession with Kodak Black. Please. Nurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
too many povs. It just wasn’t necessary to me…and to others I’ve spoken with lol
lastly, it could’ve used more editing.

Other than that, it was good. Now that I take a step back and reflect on it; I think I’m going to continue the story. The author left us on a cliffhanger, and she has plenty of time to change her mind on who 👀🤣iykyk.

Content Warnings

susukhair's review against another edition

2.5

dark funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love the idea of a magical HBCU where the characters are black, proud, and still navigating the real-world issues of racism, sexism, etc. What I needed more of was a plot. I found myself not understanding what was going on or why. I had to go back and reread for it to make sense. What I needed less of were POVs. There were too many, and some didn’t drive the story forward to me or help shed light on what was going on. For a murder mystery, and the murder mystery doesn’t happen until the last two pages, it is annoying and underwhelming. I’ll still read the second book to see if the plot and things I was confused about tie in together better.