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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'
The Magpie Society: Two for Joy by Amy McCulloch, Zoe Sugg
1 review
enmcurrie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
I was really excited for this book to pick up from where book 1 left off, but honestly I was really disappointed with it. I will try to make this a review and not a rant but I think it’s going to be quite hard.
First of all, the first half of the book has awful pacing, it’s very slow and very repetitive (again I think this happens naturally with two authors) but there were some chapters where I really felt I was reading the same thing twice. The middle is filled with a lot of scenes that don’t feel necessary and I think the reason why I enjoyed this book so much less than I did the first is because the whole “who dunnit” aspect sort of gets eroded away. It doesn’t pick up the pace until the end (and I’ll admit the last section of the book genuinely had me hooked because finally we were getting some action - everything seemed to be coming together).
Secondly, just like the previous book, this one was also highly predictable. Some people may have been shocked by the ending but honestly I saw it coming a mile away I mean, Ivy’s character had so much development in the first book, but in this book she turns into the most annoying person to read and just a flat out mean individual. Also if you read the inner blurb written for the first book it literally says how much Ivy dislikes that her new roommate is ‘poking her nose in other people’s business’ - it was so clear from the get go that Ivy was never going to be an innocent character. When her mother had such bitter feelings about her own daughter, that solidified it for me. Also side note, the teacher being the bad guy is such an overused trope in this genre - boring. Again, the tone of the writing is slightly juvenile - the writing is so simplistic that I think I would have loved this book more when I was younger. But then, it’s not aimed at young teens since it’s YA and has swearing so I guess I’d call it good for beginners? Or people getting into the mystery genre? I don’t know honestly.
Thirdly, the plot really wasn’t that interesting. A lot of reviews say they love the Magpie Society storyline but I just don’t think it was executed in a stimulating manner because I found myself getting bored with it quite often. Audrey’s character also just confuses me because one second she doesn’t want to be involved and the next she’s playing detective besties with Ivy, but anyways I digress. I still love the dark academia setting, and I’ll give the authors credit for their ability to create atmosphere, because I loved the small-town, coastal feel to the book and I think they did a good job creating Winferne Bay.
Lastly, the ending felt wrong and out of place. Although I saw something like it coming, I think it was really thrown in there for shock factor because it was (or felt) highly unrealistic. To drop a surprise like that in a short epilogue at the end of the book just makes it feel unfinished (at least in my opinion). It was just a bit jarring to read and conclude the series like that, but hey.
It definitely wasn’t the worst book I’ve read by a long shot. Reading my review back I definitely sound really annoyed but for all it’s issues, I did enjoy reading the series, I love mystery and I love tension. I just think it could have been executed far better, which is disappointing because I wanted to love it.
First of all, the first half of the book has awful pacing, it’s very slow and very repetitive (again I think this happens naturally with two authors) but there were some chapters where I really felt I was reading the same thing twice. The middle is filled with a lot of scenes that don’t feel necessary and I think the reason why I enjoyed this book so much less than I did the first is because the whole “who dunnit” aspect sort of gets eroded away. It doesn’t pick up the pace until the end (and I’ll admit the last section of the book genuinely had me hooked because finally we were getting some action - everything seemed to be coming together).
Secondly, just like the previous book, this one was also highly predictable. Some people may have been shocked by the ending but honestly I saw it coming a mile away
Thirdly, the plot really wasn’t that interesting. A lot of reviews say they love the Magpie Society storyline but I just don’t think it was executed in a stimulating manner because I found myself getting bored with it quite often. Audrey’s character also just confuses me because one second she doesn’t want to be involved and the next she’s playing detective besties with Ivy, but anyways I digress. I still love the dark academia setting, and I’ll give the authors credit for their ability to create atmosphere, because I loved the small-town, coastal feel to the book and I think they did a good job creating Winferne Bay.
Lastly, the ending felt wrong and out of place. Although I saw something like it coming, I think it was really thrown in there for shock factor because it was (or felt) highly unrealistic. To drop a surprise like that in a short epilogue at the end of the book just makes it feel unfinished (at least in my opinion). It was just a bit jarring to read and conclude the series like that, but hey.
It definitely wasn’t the worst book I’ve read by a long shot. Reading my review back I definitely sound really annoyed but for all it’s issues, I did enjoy reading the series, I love mystery and I love tension. I just think it could have been executed far better, which is disappointing because I wanted to love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
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