Reviews with content warning for Death - Magic for Liars

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

70 reviews

kaybee23's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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jes7037's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This story is going to stick with me. I wasn't expecting the emotion gut punch that I received from this book. It broke my heart in the best way possible, and I highly recommend it.
The writing was great, sometimes funny and snarky, sometimes emotional and reflective, sometimes tense and dark. The relationships between characters (especially Ivy and Tabitha) were complex and emotional, with some of Ivy's inner thoughts causing me emotional damage with how poignant and raw they were. The characters felt real in the way they interacted, and I actually enjoyed the romance in this book.
The world and its magic were so interesting, especially the combination of medical and magical.
The audiobook voice actor was absolutely amazing, and I want to listen to more books narrated by them. And of course, I'm going to devour anything else this author has written.

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kiwi_00's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Sarah Gailey cooked. There is such a good balance of romance, mystery solving and magic related issues that keeps the plot moving so it doesn't get boring. The characters that Ivy interacts with are such interesting representations of tropes around school settings such as

the popular and unpopular sibling duo, teen pregnancy, the creepy male high school teacher, the older female teacher who's seen it all

, it's so interesting how Ivy manages discussions during the investigation to push or pull an individual to say the right amount of information. Even though there are a lot of moving parts, Gailey does a really good job of keeping everything neatly tied together.

Romance aspect of the story-
I enjoyed the flirtations and dates of Rahul and Ivy and I wish that they had one final discussion about how she messed up and a possibility of fixing it (I wanted them to end up together), it was a shame that her inferiority complex towards her sister got in the way
.
Mystery- Brilliantly done especially because the investigation is not some Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poirot investigation where only they could have solved it. Since everything is so realistic and Gailey takes care to make sure that the details in the story align well enough that when particular details stuck out to me, I was trying to solve the mystery alongside Ivy even though I ended up being way off. Once the perpetrator is revealed and gives an explanation, it makes so much sense why
Tabitha did what she did but I was surprised that Ivy didn't say anything. Tabitha losing two people that she loves to cancer broke her mind and she was willing to do anything to save Sylvia even though she ended up killing her. Harbouring the feeling (and then finding out that Ivy blamed her) that she was somewhat responsible for her mother's death and then conjuring a plan to remove all the cancer from Sylvia? Despite being the perpetrator, you can't help but feel sympathetic
Magic- I liked how realistic it was, it felt so different to other stories about magic on a school campus.
It was more akin to science and even then just physics theory. I liked how in the background magic stuff was in comparison to the rest of the story especially the part about a prophecy and a 'Chosen One'
. I think not
being able to do magic
is such an integral part of Ivy's inferiority complex towards her sister which helps to make Ivy feel more human than a perfect detective who solves every single case with no issues.

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carly_golightly's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I really liked the premise. I really loved the setting. The writing is super funny and clever. I laughed out loud at silly metaphors such as “like a bird doing push ups”.

The word “oubliette” came up so many times and I had to google the meaning every time because it threw me every time.

The characters felt a little flat and the ending was the least powerful part, but I will def be reading more Sarah Gailey. I think it was excellent storytelling.

TW: death, cancer, body horror

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bodybeingsoulstl's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.5

2nd Sarah Gailey novel and gave much the same vibe of mystery + horror with a touch of magic.

You might like this book if you...
... dreamed of being at Hogwarts
... like being a detective / sleuth
... have a strainted relationship with your sister

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tess_gee's review against another edition

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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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mheffner3031's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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defunctfridge's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

incredibly written and highly addictive. my biggest belief on mysteries and plot twist is: if your audience cant go back and find the clues you wrote a bad twist. and this book is littered with bread crumbs that you can put together with ivy. if you pay attention you can solve it, which is such a good feeling as a reader to put the pieces together be wrong and rearrange them. the characters are also so well written with such care and depth.

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lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Decent plot / mystery. Noir with magic.

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xosirenox's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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