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Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall
41 reviews
bzliz's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- 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
Yikes. I really wish I’d read the reviews before I was substantially into this book. I finished it out of spite but that sure is time of my life that I’ll never get back. Reading the audiobook made it worse- I did not enjoy the narrator’s performance at all and each chapter ends with a recipe. I’d never considered how it would feel having a recipe dictated into my eardrums but now I know it feels vaguely sinister for some reason.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Abandonment, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Rape
ahopper7's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- 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
This book was marketed incorrectly. It’s not a cozy witchy small town romance. There was so much potential in the premise but it desperately needed more editing to hone in on a real plot and handle its topics in a thoughtful way.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Rape, and Suicide attempt
flybypages's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death, Cancer, Abandonment, and Rape
Minor: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Murder, and Pregnancy
heatherjchin's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Murder, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Cursing, Grief, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Rape, and Stalking
entropyseeker's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.0
I listened to this as an audiobook and at 2x speed which might color how I feel about it, but the premise was super cozy but I felt immensely off put at the witches still being church goers and reciting Bible verses? There was also so many random things happening and I was caught off guard by the suicide attempt The 10 year gap between seeing the childhood boyfriend and suddenly rekindling their love immediately felt too convenient and the relationships between characters felt a tad off
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment
mzleishman's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
Didn’t love the ending. The plot had nice potential, but have read others in this genre that I prefer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Cancer, Self harm, and Suicide attempt
tallard's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.75
This book had a wonderful cozy small town vibe (think practical magic). That said, while the plot was interesting, I personally wasn't sold on the love interest. In fact, I really disliked Jake by the end and I was disappointed in Sadie for not having higher standards for herself. Truly the whole romance part was lack luster.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Abandonment
Minor: Domestic abuse, Murder, and Sexual assault
michelejenn's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
iristeodora03's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Cancer, Death, Abandonment, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt
gracenevitt's review against another edition
3.75
really cute book!! didn't necessarily expect the christian elements in it because it's a book about a family with witchy magic?? it didn't bother me much though bc it wasn't mentioned overly much. in general, it was a little slow and repetitive at times, but the vibes were adorable + cozy as heck. I also LOVED the fact that there was a recipe at the end of each chapter! I ended up saving over half of them hehe
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Cancer, Death, and Suicide attempt