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A review by incrediblemelk
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was the first dark academia book I’ve read where the protagonist is not a student, isn’t part of the academic community and has no special talents that would help them join it, so the book felt strange to me, and I found myself craving a sense of competence from the protagonist Ivy that she didn’t possess.
But that was the tone: Ivy’s inferiority complex and fear of being unmasked as an unqualified interloper. For this reason the book never really explains how the magic works because the narrator herself doesn’t know.
Ivy’s main strength was interviewing people, and the book was at its most nuanced in scenes where Ivy was deliberately seeking to set a tone and control a conversation.
I have to admit I was surprised that the book never took the easy way out of “what if it turns out that Ivy actually does have latent magical powers that were never trained?” But that would have been corny so I am pleased it never went there.
It had a strange, bitter vibe of an older person looking back at their life and their teenage self and wishing for a do-over that would never come, but also having the distance to recognise that the teen characters are kind of lost and that what a younger person would see as charisma is mainly bullying and bravado.
The plot twists were pretty easy to anticipate. The character of Dylan felt like a YA fantasy cliché and it was clear he was being established as a Chosen One stereotype because he absolutely was not a Chosen One.
This was an easy read and was not an outstanding, memorable story, but was not bad either. The stakes felt small and I would not be in a hurry to revisit this world and characters in a different book.
But that was the tone: Ivy’s inferiority complex and fear of being unmasked as an unqualified interloper. For this reason the book never really explains how the magic works because the narrator herself doesn’t know.
Ivy’s main strength was interviewing people, and the book was at its most nuanced in scenes where Ivy was deliberately seeking to set a tone and control a conversation.
I have to admit I was surprised that the book never took the easy way out of “what if it turns out that Ivy actually does have latent magical powers that were never trained?” But that would have been corny so I am pleased it never went there.
It had a strange, bitter vibe of an older person looking back at their life and their teenage self and wishing for a do-over that would never come, but also having the distance to recognise that the teen characters are kind of lost and that what a younger person would see as charisma is mainly bullying and bravado.
The plot twists were pretty easy to anticipate. The character of Dylan felt like a YA fantasy cliché and it was clear he was being established as a Chosen One stereotype because he absolutely was not a Chosen One.
This was an easy read and was not an outstanding, memorable story, but was not bad either. The stakes felt small and I would not be in a hurry to revisit this world and characters in a different book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Abortion