A review by just_one_more_paige
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

dark 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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 
Another home-shelf backlist read - go me! Honestly, the synopsis for this one, a sort of detective story in a magic school setting, felt absolutely up my alley, so I was psyched to find this is the used section at a local bookstore. I grabbed it so fast...and then got around to reading it a bit slower. Haha. I tried to recommend it for my long-distance book club at one point, but it didn't win the popular vote. Regardless, I got there... Also, I know that Gailey has a number of unique and interesting-sounding (and standalone!) novels that I for sure will be looking into more of now. 
 
Years ago, Ivy Gamble and her twin sister, Tabitha’s, lives diverged in a way they’ve never overcome. Tabitha was invited to attend a prestigious magical boarding school and, despite all her efforts, Ivy remained decidedly…not magical. But it’s ok. Ivy doesn’t even want that. She has a successful business as a private investigator. However, when she is hired to investigate a gruesome murder at the very same academy that Tabitha now teaches at, Ivy’s lives – the one she has and the one that could have been – collide in a way that will force her to face the estrangements of her past and, perhaps, embrace a new kind of future. 
 
I have seen a few mixed reviews for this book and I can sort of see where they are coming from. To be honest, this started, and mostly stayed, much slower than I had expected considering the content of the blurb. It’s not misleading, as it is exactly what they book is about, but I can definitely see where a reader might anticipate a faster paced story, with potentially more explosive(?) magic. And this definitely reads as a more purposefully-paced, noir-style murder mystery. However, once I realized that’s what I was getting, and adjusted my expectations to match, I settled into the story nicely (which apparently not everyone was able to do). Regardless, I ended up really enjoying the more character-study murder mystery vibe, psychological in the way that reading personality types/profiling is, with some very dark undertones. To that point, there is quite a bit of foreshadowing with a unique “omniscient/looking back” narrative voice, along with a sort of tightrope winding and unwinding of tension, that was reminiscent (for me) of the vibe from Plain Bad Heroines. All in all, it may have been less immediate drama and magic than the story description might suggest, but compelling all the same. 
 
As I got further and further into reading this, I found that, a few times, I totally forgot about the overarching murder-solving plot. And in this case, since the book was so much more about setting and character and vibe (and because things were definitely happening to keep my attention outside of that primary storyline), I feel like that might be a credit to the writing? I haven’t decided on that yet. But I can say, I didn’t dislike it, the jolting feeling every time we can back to the main thread and I was like “oh yea, the murder!” Because Gailey does a wonderful job exploring other themes and stories here as well, and many were more compelling to me than the primary. For example, the intensely high level of sibling rivalry and anger and deeply seated resentment, honed over years of separation and assumption, was written spectacularly. (A note here: though it was accurate, be aware that there is a heavy-handed “coming to terms with my own feelings of jealousy and inadequacy” from Ivy that felt very juvenile. It makes sense, because the adult she is never got over feeling them as a child, plus this took place in a high school so the perspective fit the setting, but it was sometimes aggravating to read.) 
 
Speaking of the [magic] high school setting, I loved that Gailey poked fun at some classic “magic-school” and “chosen one” fantasy tropes in a way that was not too overdone but gives the reader cause to smirk a few times. And at the same time, mixed in actual high school aged issues (like secret relationships and dalliances) with the much darker sides they sometimes have (major content warning here for abortion and medical trauma and, while I’m at it, cancer/terminal illness). The way this was all combined to show that many un-dealt-with emotions, when combined with power, can become a profound cautionary tale, but in a unique way that gives both youth and adult examples, as well as showing that even successful over-powered-ness can get out of hand. It was an intense combination, one that made the book much heavier (and more heartbreaking) than I has anticipated it being. But at the same time, the gravitas made the book something more than the “fun escapist” read I’d thought it would be, and I can’t help but appreciate that.  
 
Honestly, a high school setting for an adult coming of age is ironic in a darkly humorous way (though this is not at all a humorous book, so don’t be misled) and I tip my hat to Gailey, for that fits the vibe they created here exactly right. This was a fascinating combo of real-world, gritty detective story and theoretical (and mostly incomprehensible, considering the narrators lack of it) magic. A slow burn noir, light gore and horror, mystery/thriller, and I was….pretty into it. 

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