Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Magic for Liars

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

66 reviews

themediocrebard's review against another edition

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3.75

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mjwhitlock18's review

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A murder mystery in a magic high school (the students do predictably teenage bullshit with their abilities) and the MC, Ivy, is a non-magic PI (whose sister is faculty there), and is brought in to solve the case. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Xe Sands, and their performance absolutely improved my experience of this book.

I like getting to experience Ivy’s emotions with her, her insecurity, her grief, her relationship with her sister. Has a few common tropes, some used in a clever way, and some flipped completely around, which makes this book easy to follow and keeps you entertained.

The magic system is a bit lazy; because Ivy doesn’t understand the magic system, neither do we, which allows some hand-wavy stuff by the author that occasionally leaves me wanting to understand more. The identity of the murderer is kinda predictable, and the romantic subplot seems unnecessary. Also,

I think it’s worth pointing out that the primary lesbian relationship ends up being the murdered and the murderer, which I don’t love. Kill Your Gays and all that.

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melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this murder mystery/ dark academia! I was very into the plot and trying to make predictions--some of which came true, but not all. I liked the way it all panned out, and I liked the relationships and the main character!

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foreverinastory's review

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a fun murder mystery!

Rep: white female MC (I think Ivy is queer but I'm uncertain), BIPOC bisexual male love interest, several lesbian female side characters, pansexual female side character, BIPOC female side character.

CWs: Body horror, abortion, cancer, gore, blood, death, murder, medical trauma, medical content, grief, past death of parent, alcoholism, alcohol consumption, terminal illness, bullying, emotional abuse, violence, mentions of past pregnancy that was terminated, vomit, gaslighting, toxic friendship, injury/injury detail, sexual content. Moderate: eating disorder and mention of weight checks, cursing, mention of past adult/minor relationship, panic attack, suicide, sexual harassment.

Content Warnings