Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

53 reviews

lexa's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.0

A great fantasy book for people who don’t read fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

I really liked this book. It's a solid murder-mystery that takes a lot of fantasy tropes (specifically those surrounding magic schools) to their conclusion if they were played out in reality. Specifically, what does this magic do to the people who were, in essence, left behind by their magic relatives? What does it do to someone to be told they are a Chosen One with a Great Destiny when they're a teenager having their first love? It's interesting, if a bit depressing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Cancer

Moderate: Abortion, Murder, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

totallyshelfaware's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Body horror, Grief, Cancer, and Death of parent

longlost's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

If you're a fan of mystery books in general, then you'll probably like this. Gailey's take on the 'wizarding school' trope feels fresh (though I admit I never read Harry Potter to base it off of), and the progression of solving the murder feels very well-paced and with the appropriate twists and turns that suit a mystery of this stature. While I didn't connect a whole lot with any of the characters, I hesitate to say that's a flaw on the book's part as I tend to find it hard to connect to characters in books in general. I enjoyed reading about Ivy and Tabitha's relationship and learning their history, along with seeing them reconnect

even if ultimately it may not have led anywhere for them.

 
The school life of Osthorne in general felt very real and present - reading this did make me feel re-immersed in school culture, for good or for bad, and learning about all the magic lore from Ivy's outsider point-of-view was interesting. I very much enjoyed Rahul as a character (my beloved) and I appreciate the affect he had on Ivy's character development. 
Regarding the murder mystery itself: I have some Thoughts.

The general redirect & red herring here and there helped keep the story feeling fresh as you're reading through Ivy's steps towards the answers, but I will admit that I had an inkling about who the killer was from the start. I did like Tabitha a lot and I appreciated her and Sylvia's relationship and the painful circumstances around Sylvia's death, and thought I'm not entirely satisfied with how Ivy chooses to wrap the case I do think it's a choice that's realistic for Ivy and Tabitha as characters.

Gailey's writing style was also very enjoyable to me; in parts of the book where they would delve so deep into a scene that it would take a few more paragraphs to learn of small circumstances that took place during the scene that weren't focused on, a choice that feels like it helped with the tension & mystery elements. Ivy's inner voice also felt very authentic. 
Overall: a good mystery book with some fun fantasy elements and a cache of pain to hit you with when you reach the story's end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Abortion, Gore, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Bullying, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Stalking, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

TW details -

Cancer comes up related to two separate characters. An abortion is performed on an underage student without anesthesia. Main character's parent dies of cancer: this does not happen in the story but is reflected on multiple times by the main character. There are multiple scenes where the main character & others drink together - main character is noted to drink often. Main character's sister at one point drugs her drink. Main character somewhat-inadvertently lies to her romantic interest about her identity and abilities, which may be uncomfortable to read about.

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

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

alicelalicon's review

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

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

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

magkerr's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Body horror, and Cancer

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship