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A review by lilifane
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
I think when you read this book you either love it or you hate it. And I definitely loved it!!!
It was love at first page. The writing is soooo beautiful from the very first few words tbh and these first 3 pages left such a deep impact on me that they carried my interest for the rest of the book. I cannot tell you how often I reread that first chapter. Also the amount of quotes I wrote down is ... worrysome. Then the structure is soooo satifying. I live for these kind of books.
And then there are the characters. I fell in love with them, hard. I didn't know this was even possible. The way you get to know the two protagonists in such an intimate way, I felt all the feels. Especially because they are siblings with such a deep connection and you basically spend most of the plot in their heads. Uff, I cried SO SO SO SO much because of the things they went through, physically and mentally. There is this main plot that is epic and kind of... hard to grasp. It's very abstract and sciency and phantastical. But since I genuinely like these kind of elements in books, I enjoyed that, too. Although I had to just accept some things that clearly went over my head or were too vague. But the majority of the plot is just about (found) family and friendship and love (mainly the love between siblings) and loneliness and trust/loss of trust and longing. It just broke my heart and healed it over and over again.
I know this sounds very wholesome but this book is actually quite.... brutal. So tw/cw for suicide attempt, violence, murder, blood (SO much blood), natural disaster/catastrophe.
It was love at first page. The writing is soooo beautiful from the very first few words tbh and these first 3 pages left such a deep impact on me that they carried my interest for the rest of the book. I cannot tell you how often I reread that first chapter. Also the amount of quotes I wrote down is ... worrysome. Then the structure is soooo satifying. I live for these kind of books.
And then there are the characters. I fell in love with them, hard. I didn't know this was even possible. The way you get to know the two protagonists in such an intimate way, I felt all the feels. Especially because they are siblings with such a deep connection and you basically spend most of the plot in their heads. Uff, I cried SO SO SO SO much because of the things they went through, physically and mentally. There is this main plot that is epic and kind of... hard to grasp. It's very abstract and sciency and phantastical. But since I genuinely like these kind of elements in books, I enjoyed that, too. Although I had to just accept some things that clearly went over my head or were too vague. But the majority of the plot is just about (found) family and friendship and love (mainly the love between siblings) and loneliness and trust/loss of trust and longing. It just broke my heart and healed it over and over again.
I know this sounds very wholesome but this book is actually quite.... brutal. So tw/cw for suicide attempt, violence, murder, blood (SO much blood), natural disaster/catastrophe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence