Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

10 reviews

tess_gee's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

I was a bit caught off guard by how abrupt the ending felt. I still feel like I have a few unanswered questions about the magic systems. Technical questions on my part, sure, but I for one found it a tiny bit distracting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Body horror, Cancer, Gaslighting, Abortion, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical trauma, Gore, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, Toxic friendship, Grief, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Medical content, and Sexual content

Minor: Violence, Abandonment, and Miscarriage

sn03's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Gore, Alcohol, and Death of parent

joepyeweed's review against another edition

mysterious sad medium-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

1.5

Like if Aunt Petunia became a detective and then had to solve a  mystery. Except she doesn’t really care about the mystery and has a drinking problem. The main character was too self-absorbed, and the mystery wasn’t enough of a focus. The ending of the mystery was unexpected though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Abortion, Body horror, Cancer, Murder, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Sexual harassment and Self harm

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

b_lownds127's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this and it held my attention. The plot blended two tropes that normally don't occur in the same universe: we have our broody, cynical, (barely) functioning alcoholic P.I. investigator; and then we have a magical school. I found the main character Ivy unlikable, which is not a deal breaker - but she was also very gullible which felt out of place. People were able to manipulate her easily because she was desperate for love and most often, the hardened P.I. character doesn't fall for that. I liked the book, but I really wanted more about the school and less about how much Ivy was drinking. I think the clues slipping past Ivy's notice were intentional choices by the author, though it made the main character appear a poor investigator at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Cancer, Death, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abortion

foreverinastory's review

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Grief, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Cursing

enchantressreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Ivy Gamble is a private detective, following cheating spouses and people who owe money. When a mage shows up asking for her help with a murder, she has to delve into a new world—the world her sister was born into. The world she’s resented her sister over.

Sarah Gailey has a certain way of writing that just *gets* me. The way they write just sucks me in from page one, on all three of their books I’ve read so far. If anyone knows how to write a good opener, it’s Sarah Gailey.

Magic for Liars seems, on the outside, a murder mystery. But it is so much more than that. It deals with grief, trauma, relationships, love. Tough decisions for both teenagers and adults. It was really nice to see a world in which adults don’t treat the kids as useless, and the adults themselves are not useless. 

The .5 reduction is because I wasn’t a big fan of the relationship with Rahul. The story would have flowed well without it. Otherwise, I really loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion, Body horror, and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying

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.

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