Reviews with content warning for Racism - Blood Like Magic

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

60 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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thirdeyeangel23's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

Blood Like Magic is one of the most intense as Sci-Fi Fantasies I’ve read. Voya Thomas hails from a long line of magic, but all of that is put in jeopardy when her Calling demands she complete an impossible task. In order to preserve her family’s magic, Voya must destroy her first love. This story was a page turner from beginning to end. More than anything I love that while Voya has the entire world on her shoulders, she still acts her age. Such a wild and emotional ride. I can’t wait to get into book two!

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tinysierra's review

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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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gellyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense 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

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annorabrady's review

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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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