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Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall
109 reviews
bzliz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Edit: I checked out the author’s website after writing this review and she includes Elon Musk in a list of things she loves which really tempts me to drop the rating lower than 1 star. It just feels important for me to include that prior to my regular yapping about why- in my opinion- this book was garbage.
I have several issues with this book. The most grievous is how carelessly the author handled some serious subjects including suicide, rape & murder. The latter two are discussed over just a few pages in which the now-dying of cancer grandmother of our main character (who is nearly 30 years old) decides to impart vital information about her past, including that her mother didn’t abandon them of her own accord but rather because it was part of her curse after her toxic relationship resulted in a rape and forced pregnancy after which the grandmother killed the man. We just breeze right past all that. As for the suicide- I’d normally put this under a spoiler warning but I think it’s important to be clear in this instance- Sadie virtually out of nowhere decides that she needs to die to save her brother’s life and makes a suicide attempt on page. Her brother discovers her and resuscitates her but we also breeze right past this and only 3 members of the extensive cast ever know this happened. This simply didn’t need to happen. If she had thought about it for just five more minutes, it wouldn’t have happened at all.
Next- the romance is stupid. Jake is boring as hell and keeps to himself for way too long that he’s engaged to another woman, who happens to be pregnant. It made me feel so icky when he revealed that information because he had several chances and chose to say nothing. I also hated that the fiancee turned out to have faked her pregnancy to keep Jake around. What a stupid thing to do. Of course that was never going to work. And if your man seems like he’s in love with someone else, you should probably move on because it’s not going to end well. Sadie had her heart broken by him at 18 years old and is equally obsessed when he comes back to town 10 years later. I couldn’t figure out why they still liked each other after a decade apart and I believe it’s merely nostalgia for youth because they have no chemistry.
Third, the author takes normal life occurrences and tries to make it specific to Sadie’s family. They have so many rules about life and family mottos that crop up every few pages. One example is that every Revelare leaves but they always come back. Like it’s abnormal for people to move away from home. I got sick of hearing about that quickly. Each of them also gets a curse to go with their magic. Sadie’s curse is to suffer 4 heartbreaks, which is just a fact of life. The heartbreaks she suffers are that her high school boyfriend tells her he loves her, then leaves her (it sucks but it’s normal), her brother moves away for a year (he could’ve given her a heads up but also normal), and her grandmother Gigi dies (super normal, especially since Sadie is almost 30 years old). So really she has no curse and is whiny about having to live life and be magical. Also, one of Sadie’s aunts actively calls Gigi “mommy” which is just awful coming out of a middle aged woman’s mouth.
I could nitpick forever about the details but my last major issue was the failure to advertise the religious aspects of this book. Christianity is important to all these characters. There are comparisons to biblical stories discussed by them. It’s so incongruous to the witchy vibes and I never would have picked this up had that been indicated in any way. I just can’t make sense of having actual real magic powers and participating in an organized religion that historically doesn’t vibe with magic.
TLDR: this book is a waste of time tragedy porn taking cheap emotional shots to manipulate readers to think It’s better than it is.
Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Abandonment, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Rape
ahopper7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Pros (kind of):
- It definitely has some cozy elements especially in the first quarter of the book
- I loved the family element it was *trying* to incorporate
- The recipes at the end of each chapter added nicely to the story, not enough to redeem but still cute
- The magic was soo close to being a mix of Practical Magic and Mayfair Witches (depending on character) but it wasn’t executed well
Cons:
- The romance subplot is not done well and the characters or their romance are not developed
- The book very carelessly handled serious topics like rape, murder and attempted suicide which didn’t sit well with me and is the main reason behind my rating
- Overall, the story or the characters were just not developed. The team around this book really should have spent more time fleshing out one or two of the plot points instead of throwing in several different story lines and not executing any of them well.
Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Rape, and Suicide attempt
wolters_rachal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual assault
stephanieelyse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I enjoy the aspects of the story around small town, family and cooking and definitely understand the inspiration of Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic, but there were a couple of things I made faces at when they happened in the story.
Honestly the romance aspect could have been cut out and the story still would stand on its own with the family drama, so having a romantic drama as well and being that type of drama I didn’t love, I wasn’t invested in the romance.
The writing is full of similes, listening to them I didn’t mind but reading them I imagine would be a drag and may slow down the story. Not everything needs to be compared to cookie dough and ginger snaps.
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
focusedcomputer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death, Cancer, Abandonment, and Rape
Minor: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Murder, and Pregnancy
meggy1967'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? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, and Mental illness
Moderate: Infidelity, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Cancer
hlbennett's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I'm left with so many questions and I reread these passages several times to make sure that I wasn't missing anything. I thought surely, the explanation is there, I'm just missing it.
- What's up with the voice at Old Ballier [sp]?
- Why did Jake leave in the first place?
- Is Florence the conduit/amplifier or is Seth?
- And if not Florence, why wasn't she supposed to have children?
- Why was there a death owed for the lives of the twins and then Florence couldn't see them, but she's had Sage without mention of murder and shows up with her in tow?
- What are Florence's powers?
- If it's a life for a life, how on earth did Gigi get out of paying the blood debt without a second murder? And why didn't they just do that again? Or better yet, if sacrificing your magic paid the debt, why didn't Gigi or Florence do that decades ago so that this poor kid didn't grow up going through what he says he went through?
Moving on from poor explanations, there are a number of parts that are supposed to be "twists" that are as straight as a board.
- The ghost in the back yard? Gigi gives some ominous direction to protect the house and we're led to believe it's for this spirit, but really I guess it was for nothing because turns out it was just papaw. The reader learns this in a 5 second conversation Sadie has with her mother.
- The damage to the garden? Turns out it's tied to Sadie's emotions but doesn't manifest during her first or second heartbreaks; no, it waits until she's 28 and feeling sad. Also, it seems a bit late in the year for regrowing entire gardens. Even with the magic of it all, why would Jake, who hadn't had confirmation of Sadie's magic, replant a garden in what, September?
- Sadie's sacrifice? First, Gigi knew of a solution and instead of having a conversation with Sadie about it, she chose to leave it in a letter. Yes, because that's what any responsible parent would do when the life of their child hung in the balance and they had literal months to have these kinds of conversations. Second, we're supposed to believe that everyone who'd read that letter didn't understand it meant Sadie giving up her magic? Come on. Third, Sadie just decides to unalive herself with, I can't remember how much time, until the full moon? Like she's not going to wait until they're sure they've tried everything else?
- I almost forgot it, but THE FAKE PREGNANCY? Are you kidding.
It's just not a well built story. I'm not one of those people who can't suspend a measure of logic to enjoy a story and even so, this has too many loose ends to be worth the read.
Moderate: Cancer, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Death of parent
fancyjess_party's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Moderate: Rape, Body shaming, Infidelity, Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
ajileowens's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
- 5 different main plot points, none of which were resolved particularly well
- A 28-year-old FMC with the inner monologue of someone half her age
- A terribly unlikeable MMC, with whom the FMC has no chemistry
- A strange blend of witchcraft and Christianity that serves no purpose other than to let you know the author has read the Bible
- A massive potential trigger that could not have been handled worse / had no impact on the story
I honestly kept waiting for the book to get better but it never did. The one redeeming quality are the recipes - those were cute.
Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt
entropyseeker's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment