Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

97 reviews

lily1304's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective 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

4.25

I got so invested in this story so fast! Ivy is a funny and sympathetic narrator, and the mystery was juuuuust the right level of difficulty. I couldn't figure it all out on my own, but I might have if I had taken notes. But it's not just a mystery, it also gave me feelings??

Yeah, it takes place at a boarding school for magical teens, but it's definitely not Harry Potter.

I would have rated it higher, except I feel like it has low reread-value - but the first read was SO fun!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Blood, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Terminal illness, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

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

Minor: Vomit, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

katymat18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Vomit, Abortion, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

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: Body horror, Cancer, Gore, and Blood

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

Minor: Vomit

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, and Abortion

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death of parent

quasi_hatrack's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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

4.25

Excellent all around.  I would have rated it higher if I hadn't figured out the perpetrator very early on, although I was wrong about the how and why.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

rhi_books's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

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