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A review by itschelseaw
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I think the marketing of this book kind of ruined it for me. It was marketed as a mix of Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic, and because of that I saw just how much was inspired by Practical Magic and just how lacking it was in comparison to Gilmore Girls.
Gigi killing Florence’s boyfriend to save her. All of the Revelare’s magic having a curse associated with it. The curse that keeps Sadie from looking for love!! Like! It became really difficult for me to see it as a truly original story; it felt like a semi-fan fic of PM that reimagined things slightly? And also weirdly like a cookbook?
It felt like this book was trying to do too much at the detriment of the story and building up the characters.
All of the aunts and uncles felt like caricatures rather than characters worth investing in. Sadie was very much caught up in her own head (fair) but that kept her from actually connecting with people, including her twin.
Her immediate reaction to Seth telling her his magic was just the proof he needed for exactly why he didn’t tell her before. She wasn’t good at listening to others, but blamed it on wanting to keep her magic.
I had been so excited to read this one, only to feel let down by the chaos of the story. It also seems like it’s setting things up for a sequel that I will not be reading!
Edit: I’ve seen other reviewers say this was both under AND overwritten and honestly YES. That’s EXACTLY it. It was too much and not enough and both of them were in exactly the wrong ways.
It felt like this book was trying to do too much at the detriment of the story and building up the characters.
All of the aunts and uncles felt like caricatures rather than characters worth investing in. Sadie was very much caught up in her own head (fair) but that kept her from actually connecting with people, including her twin.
Her immediate reaction to Seth telling her his magic was just the proof he needed for exactly why he didn’t tell her before. She wasn’t good at listening to others, but blamed it on wanting to keep her magic.
I had been so excited to read this one, only to feel let down by the chaos of the story. It also seems like it’s setting things up for a sequel that I will not be reading!
Edit: I’ve seen other reviewers say this was both under AND overwritten and honestly YES. That’s EXACTLY it. It was too much and not enough and both of them were in exactly the wrong ways.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, Suicide attempt, and Death