Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

47 reviews

jenna_04's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

A lot of repetition in the story, it's very slow paced seeing it took 400 pages to get to the actual task being preformed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Grief, Racism, and Police brutality

Minor: Addiction, Medical content, and Kidnapping

tinysierra's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

“There’s something about lounging in a bath of blood that makes me want to stay until my fingers shrivel enough to show the outlines of my bones.” pg 1

I expected to fall in love with Blood like Magic. The synopsis was interesting and the first sentence hooked me. It’s got black witches and queer representation. Speaking of, I swear I’ve seen this book on asexual rec lists, but asexual and aromantic are two different things. It has an explicit demiromantic (meaning that they’re on the aromantic spectrum) side character. There is another character that does not seem to enjoy physical touch or kissing, but the word asexual is not used. Moving on, another thing that influenced me to read the book was the fact that the plot reminded me of Raybearer, which I really loved. 

Maybe I set my expectations too high. I’m not sure. I originally decided to DNF this book because it was a bit repetitive and felt like nothing was really happening. After a few months, I picked it up again to see if it got better. I enjoyed the interactions we got to see between Luc and Voya. The way the plot was executed just didn’t do anything for me. I think the writing style was too… dense and long winded. The book felt too long. The pacing was not fast. 

I’m disappointed because I also really loved the cover of this one and the sequel. I won’t be reading the second book. 

Themes:

-Broken family

-importance of community

-importance of family ties

-connection to ancestors 

-cooking 

-sacrifice

-trust
-addiction
-poverty
-eating disorder briefly mentioned 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Slavery, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Transphobia

Minor: Addiction, Eating disorder, and Vomit

annorabrady's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

The magic system is interesting and well designed, though I won't lie and say it was particularly nice to read of some of the uses.

Especially in instances where blood mixee on open wounds or when Voya poured the blood into her eyes. The first drew me out of the story with thoughts of bloodborne illnesses and the latter triggering thosd thoughts AND completely grossed me out.

 

I understand and appreciate the resolution, and the point of the challenge. Though I feel angry about how the story wrapped up because Keis deserved betted.

I kept waiting for Voya to realize that self sacrifice was an option, or that revealing the truth to Luc about Justin was also an option. Also, binding Keis to the house with no contract with the outside world was especially cruel and selfish – the opposite of what she claims to be her goal. Hell, bringing down Justin would have succeeded in destroying both Keis and Luc while better appealing to the goal of helping everyone.

The ending is why I can't rate this higher. Though it's not bad enough for me to rate this lower. 

I do greatly appreciate the representation of various minority groups in this story, as well as the social commentaries on racism, colonialism, slavery, generational trauma, family dynamics, communities, dependencies on technologies, etc at various points in history. It's both timely and timeless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Grief, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Mental illness, Police brutality, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, and Medical content

batmayne_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

The novel follows 16 yr old Voya, as she goes through trials of becoming a witch in a futuristic canada. I loved the family dynamic of everyone living together and being strongly connected with their ancestors. There is queer representation and a bit of romance. The novel mainly focuses on family and magic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Gore, Drug abuse, Death, Addiction, Slavery, and Gun violence

Moderate: Abandonment and Eating disorder

xandra_'s review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Blood, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Police brutality, Racism, Deportation, Stalking, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Suicide, and Transphobia

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

csantos's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Racism

Minor: Addiction and Eating disorder

yourstrulyrosie's review

emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Murder, and Slavery

midnightgremlin's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Slavery, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Eating disorder and Addiction

Minor: Police brutality and Gun violence

zias's review

emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

This book is fantastic. I enjoyed the adventure of Voya’s character development throughout the book, and development of other characters. Culture is weaved throughout this book in such a meaningful way to build depth of characters. The cast is diverse in a multitude of ways and are multi dimensional throughout their development. I can’t wait to read the second book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Blood, and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder and Addiction

jennyboj's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

The blurb made me think the "killing your first love" thing was a tradition, but it's actually a unique task and the family is equally horrified about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Torture and Slavery

Minor: Eating disorder, Transphobia, Gun violence, Death, Child death, Police brutality, Addiction, Racism, Kidnapping, and Gore