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Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey (Review #156)

"Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magic. She is perfectly happy with her life. She has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It's a great life and she doesn't wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha.

But when Ivy is hired to investigate the gruesome murder of a faculty member at Tabitha’s private academy, the stalwart detective starts to lose herself in the case, the life she could have had, and the answer to the mystery that seems just out of her reach."

Review:
Another satisfying read! For the most part I loved this book. This story above all else was about Ivy and the broken relationship between her and her sister Tabitha. Brought back together by a suspicious death of a teacher at Tabitha’s magic school, Ivy has struggled deeply with her own identity as a result of the divergence between the two sister’s lives because of Tabitha’s magical abilities. 

Ivy’s life is nothing but isolation and all at once she is surrounded by things she is forced to face - her sister, her first murder case, a potential love interest, and most importantly her own insecurity with being nonmagical. 

A few of my favorite parts are Ivy’s interpretation of lies as choices and how she constantly refers to her own deceptive tendencies as choices. I also loved Ivy’s double vision. Throughout her time at the magic school, she keeps seeing what her life would have been like had she also had magical abilities like her sister. It made me wish she had known that other life. 

My one dislike of this story was the case of Miss Sylvia Capley. It was not as mystifying as I thought it would be. There were a lot of key elements I picked up early on, and though the killer was not who I expected it to be, the climax was not all that climactic. I’m hoping that this isn’t the end of the story, because there was so much more we got a taste of but didn’t resolve. 

The end was beyond perfect though. It wasn’t a perfect done deal with everything wrapped in a nice bow, it was messy and unclear and everything a real person’s life always is. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I don’t wanna spoil anything for anyone, so if you decide to pick this one up, let me know your thoughts and feels, because I could go on a whole tangent about the case! 

Catch ya on the next one!


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