Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Blood Like Magic

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

46 reviews

rae477's review

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dark emotional hopeful informative 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

4.0

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mostlykenny's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

omg, when I first picked up this book I was expecting some cheesy normal romance book because was focused on the potential with Voya and Luc AND THIS BOOK IS WAYYYYY MORE THEN THAT. I fell in love with this book, so much that I ordered the sequel as I was in the midst of reading the first book! CRAZY! Everything is just beautiful. To the world-building, the unique take on witches and the magic system, the story driven narrative, the twists and turns, the characters, the writing. Ms. Sambury you have wowed me. This book not only is family oriented, which I love and talks about how not only romantic love is the only love you can feel and that platonic love exists, but I connected SOOOO much with Voya. Especially her anxiety about choices and decisions and what she wanted to do in the future. I connected with her about her love for her family and also how her community wasn’t as close anymore and I FELT that. I felt that. Off topic but I LOVE the dedication of this book

“To Black girls everywhere: you can be more than a slave or a lesson for someone else. You deserve to be a witch or a dragon tamer. To fall in love with a vampire or lead your friends against a villain. You are more than the best friend or comedic relief. You are a hero.” It inspired me so much to read this and I love this author so much. This book might have just became my favorite book of all time. I love it so much. I can’t wait to read the sequel !! 🩸🕯️❤️⭐️

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mallotar's review

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dark inspiring reflective slow-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

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melodyseestrees's review

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adventurous dark 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

5.0

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jenna_04's review

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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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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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batmayne_reads's review

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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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