Reviews tagging 'Death'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

70 reviews

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

If anything about this book’s summary speaks to you, please read this book. An excellent concept executed brilliantly, with a compelling mystery, interesting characters, and an honestly fresh take on the concept of hidden magic schools (which, btw, a nonbinary author did way better than a certain transphobe…). At points I did feel like I was getting ahead of our protagonist with connecting clues, but the mystery still has enough twists and creativity  that it kept me on my toes and surprised. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Vomit, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Abortion, Bullying, Gore, and Grief

theinvulnerabletide's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Abortion

alicelalicon's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Pregnancy

samusc's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

I'm coming to accept that anything by Sarah Gailey is an automatic 5 star read for me.
Magic For Liars contained many of my favorite elements aspects for a book to have:

• Messy main characters (they excel with this)
• Complex sibling relationships
• Unreliable narrator
• Murder mystery where everyone is sus
• Urban Fantasy and Dark Academia setting

Other aspects that I really enjoyed were the romance subplot (with casual bi rep!), a chosen one trope where the chosen one isn't the main character, and the authenticity of the aftermath of losing a parent to cancer in high school.
The way interactions between characters are written out, with emphasis on mirroring people, hit really hard as an autistic reader.
The twists were a wild ride, well plotted and hinted at in a satisfying way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Abortion

nicnevin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is a murder mystery in a high school that so happens to be filled with young mages. 

Ivy is a private detective given the case. Ivy has no magic but her twin Tabitha does. Ivy tries to navigate the world of magic and murder whilst remarking that how similar the high school environments are. 

Its a good book, even if the ending is abrupt and so many loose ends are left dangling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence

thelizzielibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

An interesting combination of horror and fantasy. I struggled to get into it at first (pessimistic narrators are not my cup of tea) but by the end I was really entranced. Kind of iffy on the magic storyline, but I could pass it by.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, and Fatphobia

lilifane's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The premise of this one was SO good: A violent death in a magical school. The protagonist Ivy, a private detective without any magical powers, whose estranged sister is one of the magical teacher, gets hired to find out what happened. This could have been such a cool murder mystery. 

Instead, it was just really weird and kind of boring? 

Beside the premise, I also loved some characters, like Rahul and Mrs. Webb. I also liked a tiny portion of the magic (the healing parts were so cool! I think these were the most exciting and thrilling scenes of the whole book), the queer rep and the setting kind of. 

But that's basically it. The whole investigation was random and full of boring teenager drama I didn't care for at all. The clues and red herrings were ridiculous, especially because it was kind of easy to guess who done it pretty early on. The decisions Ivy makes are the worst ever. The magic system is weird. I mean there are some cool parts to practical magic but the theory? The book lost me there. It just felt weird. And don't get me started on the romance plot...

I'm really torn because it felt like a more realistic take on a magical school, not another romanticized version. With teenagers acting like actual teens and a school which provides sex ed and contraception. I liked this a lot. It felt like the book was written for everyone who waited for their Hogwarts letter to arrive for half their life and finally gets to experience a magical school as a non-magical adult. And it's kind of disenchanting. Also, the way the Chosen One trope is handled here was actually really refreshing. 

But I was expecting SO much more from the actual mystery plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

yavin_iv's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pregnancy, Abortion, Terminal illness, Murder, Cursing, Bullying, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Eating disorder

piperlee's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

What I thought would be an interesting murder mystery with magic mixed in ended up being a highly character-driven and contemplative story about family, grief, and feelings of inadequacy.
I really enjoyed this book, despite the weird. The magical high school and variety of characters kept it interesting and added a lot of mystery to the story. However, the ending left me feeling frustrated. It was too unbelievable for me to justify Ivy’s decision at the end with all the horror and trauma the murderer had caused. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Terminal illness, Abortion, Cancer, Death of parent, Death, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, and Grief

sebrittainclark's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Murder, Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Alcoholism and Bullying

Minor: Eating disorder