Reviews with content warning for Violence - Magic Bites

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

38 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

The story is typical of YA published in 2007. It's heteronormative, casually misogynistic, and full of werewolves and vampires. The vampires are brainless monsters though, and the gore and body-horror bits are liberally flexed. I do wish that the romance angles weren't so liberally peppered with red-flags. Men nagging you to go out with them might make you feel important? but it's also obvious that these dudes are not emotionally capable, and have serious issues with boundaries.

I've had good previous experiences with GraphicAudio productions, but this one is badly done. Dialogue is cut together poorly with some parts of dialogue overlapping or questions answered over the top of being asked. Some of the sound effects are utterly inappropriate – silently pulling a door closed is not a "Crrreeeak-kaThunk!" moment, and a roaring, magical, water-powered car should not sound like a child's bubble blowing machine.

The setting of the world is fairly intuitive, and is shown rather than told, which I really liked. Although the key plot points are predictable, there are some extra short stories on the end that I found quite fun. I liked the focus on Russian folklore.

This would have been a lot better if there was less fixation on describing clothes, (and less combat), and more tension around emotional vulnerability. I'm not enthused to read more of this series, but might pick the next one up if I get really bored.

Content Warnings

audreylee's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

hazelgirl21's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

While this book is very much a product of its time in some aspects, it was still very enjoyable.

To start, I listened to the Graphic Audio version. I was super unsure about this version going into it, but in the end it was my favourite aspect. I listen to a lot of audiodramas, so it was a lot like them just with narration. I really enjoyed the cast and their performances. Overall I thought it really added to the experience. This version ALSO had some of the extra content for the series of the prequel novella and Currin’s two POVs of events in the book. Having these are part of the book was really nice. I was in the middle of trying to sort out how to get and read them when the audiobook started reading one of them out.

Outside of the performance, I really enjoyed Kate as a character. I liked her sense of humour and it was a nice change to have a more loner FMC as opposed to a loner MMC. I didn’t find that aspect of her character annoying either. I think it also helped that she had several allies that DESPITE the loner attitude still liked her/put faith in her.

The mystery of the book was also really enjoyable. I had a pretty easy time following most of the trains of thought for what was really going on. When the twist was finally revealed it felt like such an “oh obviously moment.”

I also LOVED the world building. While sometimes it could get a bit info dumpy, I appreciated that the reader was just thrown into the world. I had a pretty easy tome following the world and its functions, even if it wasn’t fully explained. And as more was revealed it felt well thought out and made sense.

Despite how much I enjoyed the book, it did have its flaws. Which again, are mostly a consequence of the time. So while I do understand that, it still rubbed me the wrong way.

To start, there was a level of casual sexism in the book that really threw me. Especially from Currin and his POV chapters. It just gave me the ick. I don’t think it happened often, but it happened enough that I had a few comments on it.

The other is Currin’s whole deal. Especially in his POV he felt like a classic “super tough guy who only feels horny and angry”. There is MORE to his character than that, which is appreciate. It’s just that that aspect tends to bleed through more. So while I DO ship him and Kate it’s more of a “if I close my eyes I don’t see the red flags” thing.

Overall it was a super enjoyable book! I’ll be continuing the series and I think it still mostly works today.

Content Warnings

cgwynne's review

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

twoweeeeks's review

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

alexga's review

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adventurous mysterious 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? No

4.0

Entertaining, fast read. The worldbuilding is confusing, not enough information is provided about time period or how magic works.

This book does not require "romance" tag frankly speaking.

I was planning to read next book in the series but I read negative reviews of it and realized that Curran is the main romantic interest and since I dislike him, I don't want to invest my time. I liked Nick better, at least he respects Kate unlike lion boy who quite often invalidates her. I read some reviews for the following books in the series and it seems like not only he gets better, on the contrary he became more of a douche. No thank you.

Content Warnings

susannah_knox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.5

I don't know how I read this book so quickly and still found it boring, but I did. The world-building and the characters were flat and I just couldn't bring myself to care.

Content Warnings

fulper's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

accidentalspaceexplorer's review

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4.5

Ok this is super fun. The "everyone wants to sleep with Kate" thing is a little gratuitous, but I ended up enjoying this a lot anyways, and I immediately started book 2.

Also I originally forgot to mention this but there is a decent amount of sexual assault discussion/threats in this book because of the nature of what they're fighting, so if that concerns you I would definitely look up the content warnings! I will say after reading all 10 of the books in the main series it's a theme that is only very lightly present throughout the rest of the books, so I wouldn't really warn for it in the series as a whole, just this first book.

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