Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

45 reviews

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

Soooo many mixed feelings about this one. I really like magical mysteries. This one clips along at a fairly good pace, and having the investigator be an outsider is a nice take on the genre. 

But I felt so frustrated by the MC (static and underdeveloped), the interview scenes (tortuous), and the ending

Ivy says that turning the killer in won’t be justice, but it also lets them dodge all accountability, and this killer REALLY needs to be held accountable.

I felt very unsatisfied when I reached the end.

I don’t know if Gailey intends to return to Ivy’s world, but I don’t think I’d follow if they do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Abortion, Vomit, Cancer, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, and Infidelity

vagrantheather's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

Just ok. Pulpy murder mystery meets magical world meets unwilling outsider. There were elements meant to be emotional - "people don't stick" - but none of it really hit. Fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Alcoholism

Minor: Cancer and Terminal illness

petrimagyk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Terminal illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, and Body horror

erebus53's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This was an audiobook I checked out as part of a reading challenge, to read a book that had been nominated for literary award(s),  but not been an actual award winner. I figured that could go one of two ways; the book could be a hidden gem that's only of niche interest, or a promising title that didn't quite match up to the top billing nominees. The book ended up being slightly more of column B.

The narration in this book as brilliantly delivered. The main character is jaded and sardonic, and is a lonely woman with a tendencies toward takeout food and alcoholism. Xe Sands narrates the character expressively and playfully, especially the parts where the characters are getting more and more inebriated. An interesting narrator; I might see if I can find other titles read by her.

As far as genre goes, the story is magic-school meets murder mystery, and a romantic twist, with the emphasis mostly on the crime solving stuff. As a result it slid off me a bit, because murder mystery things aren't really my preferred genre. I did like that there was diversity in the story. There were characters of different ages, and there were several queer (gay and pansexual) characters in this story, but the main character is a woman trysting with a man. Although the characters are ethnically diverse, their ethnicity is not focused on at all in the story.

The thing that probably drove me most to distraction was the slow pace. I generally love stories that dwell on the building of relationships between the characters, but the main theme of this book was the impossibility of being able to really bond with others if you aren't prepared to be honest with them, so the relationship building aspect felt shallow and unrewarding.

On a personal note, this book does deal with the aftermath of losing a mother to cancer. It probably says a lot about how much I have grieved and coped and healed that I didn't find this subject matter really upsetting, but rather, I felt like it represented real-life everyday tragedy and the failure of a family to cope because they couldn't share their feelings openly, and support each other in their loss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pregnancy, Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Bullying, and Blood

Minor: Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

sarahmanuel3's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Death of parent, Violence, Body horror, Cancer, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

chris_reads's review

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Alcohol, Body horror, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Cancer, Gaslighting, Death, Medical content, and Stalking

Minor: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

thewoodlandbookshelf's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death

schnaucl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

I really liked this book.   Even though I guessed some of the twists, I thought it was cleverly written.  I really liked the protagonist's voice, and her ability to imagine herself in different timelines felt very genuine.

I almost expected it to turn out that it was a kind of magic that she was doing, to so fully inhabit the alternate timeline characters.

The characters were interesting and as were the ways the high school was both magical and utterly ordinary.  Ivy's resentment at the wasted magic was understandable, as was the student's "waste" of magic because they're just kids and it's common for them, not the extraordinary thing it is for Ivy.  

It was a very well built world.  I'd like to spend more time there. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Blood, Gore, and Medical content

Minor: Sexual content, Terminal illness, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Abortion, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

luvey_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Self harm, Body shaming, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, and Cancer

imds's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Gore, Abortion, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Body horror, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder and Adult/minor relationship