Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

This had potential to be so fun, even with darker themes. It, instead, focused on things that weren’t important and whizzed past the reveals that were supposed to be big. The Bethany of it all was very stereotypical and predictable, the love interest sucked, and it dropped some big dark themes too casually and not very thoughtfully. Also, the diversity included seemed like a performative afterthought.

It’s sold as a “cozy” read that feels like Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic but it didn’t deliver any of that.

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amyteurhour's review against another edition

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1.0

Content warning: cancer, abandonment, rape, infidelity, toxic relationship, murder

This was annoying. The mystery/curse was intriguing, but not intriguing enough that I was willing to get through the whole book. The overuse of "pissant" and "shit ass" was also annoying and not an adorable quirk (like what I think the author was trying to go for). This is compared to Practical Magic, and though I've only read a little of PM, I would agree, in that the sexual assault is just super casually mentioned and then buried in boring nonsense. To be honest, I got further than I expected because I've been in between audiobooks and didn't have any I wanted to start on my shelf, so I just kept defaulting to this when I was doing chores around the house.

I also didn't love the audiobook, finding the narration to be either very flat and boring, or super grating depending on the character. I ended up skipping the recipes at the end of each chapter because I was tired of the voice and just wanted to be done with the book. But this book is so long for seemingly no reason.

Stopped at ch 11 (7:37:15).

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lawmixitup's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Started reading it because a review said if you like Practical Magic you would like this. It is like Practical Magic but it overly relies on the miscommunication/ lack of communication tropes that just made it infuriating to me. The ending also makes less sense the more you think about it. Overall it's fine but not more than that.

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mels_reading_log's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.25

This book is worth the hype. I love the small diverse town and their family. I kept expecting one of her amazing family members to be evil, I wonder what that says about me. I also love Jake and Bambi. I can’t wait to see what happens next in this world.

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goodjollymissmolly's review against another edition

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Didn’t love main character-immature; Grandma dropping WILD history truth bombs was too much non-coziness for me

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amberlfaris's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

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tinathesmall89's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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

I loved the book, it was slow, it did meet the notes stating it was practical magic meets Gilmore girls. It was a slow read and I had a bit of trouble at first getting into the book, this isn’t the kind of book I normally read but overall it was nicely written and I loved that at the end of each chapter she has a recipe for one thing that is made in the chapter. This book was creative, loving, it put me in an emotional state since this is about the loss of a loved one and it made me think of mine.

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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