Magic for Liars

by Sarah Gailey

Other authorsWill Staehle (Cover artist)
Hardcover, 2019-06

Status

Available

Call number

PS3607 .A35943

Publication

Tor (New York, 2019). 1st edition, 1st printing. 336 pages. $25.99.

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML: A 2020 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL Sharp, mainstream fantasy meets compelling thrills of investigative noir in Magic for Liars, a fantasy debut by rising star Sarah Gailey. Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it. Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life â?? or at least, she's perfectly fine. She doesn't in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister. Ivy Gamble is a liar. When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sisterâ??without losing herself. "An unmissable debut."â??Adrienne Celt, author of Invitation to a Bonfire At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) appl… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member fred_mouse
This is probably a well written book, but I loathed it. I loathed the viewpoint character, their character flaws, their interaction with other people. I was intrigued by the premise, but in the end I skipped to the end to find out who the murder was/why, and then I've abandoned it.

If you like
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grimdark detective noir, self-destructive viewpoint characters, farce, and dodgy family relationships? This might be for you.
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LibraryThing member Darcia
I love the combination of magic with a PI and a murder case, so I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately, I didn't love the book as much as I love the concept.

I have low tolerance for characters (and people) who wallow in self-pity. Ivy, the PI and narrator of this story, is queen
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of the 'woe is me' category. Her whining is a constant throughout the story. I wanted to give her a shake and tell her to grow up, though with less polite wording.

I loved the way the magic was handled. This isn't your typical magic of fiction, but something more complex and intriguing. For the most part, we only see this on the periphery. I would've liked to be immersed in the magical world.

If you're familiar with the cartoon Scooby-Doo, then you have a good sense of the murder mystery aspect of the plot. Ivy did a whole lot of bumbling around. She'd fail to follow up on obvious clues, and she'd brush off things people said as unimportant. For the most part, she was too busy wallowing to follow the clues being dropped all around her. I found it maddening, particularly since I figured it out long before she began connecting the dots.

And, finally, the ending lacks closure. We find out the whodunit, but then nothing is actually done about the whodunit. Ivy's personal life, which was a major focus throughout, is also left up in the air. So if you prefer solid endings, you won't like this one.

The writing itself is good. This is an easy read that flows well. I just wanted more of some things, and a whole lot less of others.

*I received a review copy from the publisher, via BookishFirst.*
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LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
A good read - filled with high school drama looked at from an adult eye. Everyone is a suspect, from Ivy's sister to the most popular girl at the school. I also liked the relationship between the two sisters, always a bit icy, but a deeper understanding was created.

Its a well written book that
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manages to show high school groups, but does not get subsumed by them. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member jnhk
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey was a quick and highly entertaining read centered around murder, mystery and magic. There’s been a murder at a school for mages and non-magical private investigator Ivy is called in to solve it. The problem is, this is the very school where her estranged and
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magical twin sister teaches. I thought the character development in this novel was written extremely well. I really got to know the main character and rooted for Ivy to solve the murder case in spite of her self doubt. The ending took a little different turn than what I was expecting, but the entire story was original and very different. If you’re thinking “Harry Potter for adults” then you’d be wrong... this one is different.
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LibraryThing member justagirlwithabook
After reading the prologue from an early reviewer site a few weeks ago, I really wanted to get it Magic for Liars in paper and binge it. It had all the markings of a quirky novel with a good deal of magic and a murder needing to be solved. So I nabbed at a chance to read it a month before it
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published and couldn’t wait to get lost in a somewhat realistic magical world.

On the downside, the story ultimately ended up being a bit slower than I expected and much more focused on the main character's personal family history (a mom who died from cancer when she was young, a sister who is magic which led to a rift developing between the two, and a dad who was now a husk of a man after losing his wife), insecurities (not a magical person and nothing special, working as a private investigator doing average jobs), and flaws (has a bit of a tendency to lie, to put out a different side of her based on what people want to see, and struggling with commitment) than a world of magic and mystery.

On the positive end, this story did put a unique spin on the "murder mystery" genre, and about halfway through, the plot thickened and the pace picked up. I started reading much faster and wanted to figure out the pieces of the puzzle.

All-in-all, I think Magic for Liars will be a solid summer read for those in the mood for a nontraditional murder mystery!
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LibraryThing member readingover50
I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books. I also love books set in boarding schools, whether magical or not. So the description of this book checked all the right boxes for me.

I loved the character of Ivy Gamble. The nonmagical sister of a magical prodigy. You can just imagine the resentment she
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feels towards her sister. The characters at the Osthorne Academy of Young Mages are fantastic. I love the no nonsense approach the head master and her staff have. Ivy's sarcastic approach to life is also great. I found some of the students at the school to be a bit much but I guess when you mix teenage hormones with the power of magic, some people would take it too far.

The mystery was interesting, and I liked the addition of a "chosen one" prophecy. The book was enjoyable, and I would love to read more set in this world.

I received an ARC from BookishFirst in exchange for my honest review.
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LibraryThing member flying_monkeys
I'm still in that sweet spot - the afterglow if you will - from finishing a book I think I adore. But I'm gonna let it simmer a couple days before I decide on a star rating and post my thoughts. What I will share right now is, this is the book I had hoped The Magicians would be but wasn't, for me
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anyway... not because their plots are the same or anything, just because.
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LibraryThing member bell7
When a teacher from the local magic school turns up dead, Ivy Gamble is called in as a PI to investigate. She just so happens to be the sister of one of the other teachers, and is nursing a grudge for being, well, not magical herself. But this is what she's good at, and she's determined to get to
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the bottom of it.

This mashup of mystery and fantasy has hard edges to it. This is high school with all its drama and cliques for all that they teach magic alongside physics. Ivy herself is a hard-drinking, foul-mouthed investigator who has her own crap to deal with. It's also a very entertaining story, and once I really got going in it I could barely put it down. If the setup intrigues you, definitely give it a try.
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LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This is a unique take on the "high school for wizards" trope, and rings true far more than any of the others. Ivy is a private investigator, and is not magical, but her twin sister is a magician who teaches at a boarding school for wizards. Ivy has been jealous of her sister's magic her whole life,
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and the two of them haven't talked in years. A teacher at the school is murdered, and Ivy is brought in to investigate the case.

I did get tired of the somewhat relentless "woe is me, I wish I were magic" self-pity, but I appreciated the outsider's perspective on the school for magicians, and the subversion of some of the classic tropes (especially the "kid who is prophesied to be the greatest ever").

As a mystery, it's decent - it has all the classic misdirections and red herrings and an ultimately satisfying ending.
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LibraryThing member tldegray
Sarah Gailey has two books out now, Magic for Liars and When We Were Magic. I read them back to back and enjoyed the different takes on magic and being magic in both.
Magic For Liars is about a private detective investigating a death at the magic school where her estranged sister teaches. It's
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about family and finding your place.
When We Were Magic is about an accidental death on prom night and how the girls involved get through it. It's about friendship, acceptance, and support.
Both books are thoughtful and tender. I highly recommend them.
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LibraryThing member lavaturtle
A super-compelling plot, well-drawn main character, and evocative setting. Reminds me a bit of [The Secret Place].
LibraryThing member g33kgrrl
This is more private detective than magical high school, and I love it, because that's awesome. There's a lot of trope subversion which is delightful. And I got to be surprised by the end, which I enjoyed.
LibraryThing member LisCarey
Ivy Gamble, unlike her twin sister Tabitha, is not a mage. She has no magic at all. Ivy is a private investigator, and is almost getting by that way. And she enjoys it. She really does. And she is not the least little bit jealous of Tabitha, her twin sister, the mage, who teaches at a prestigious
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private high school for young mages.

Then she is asked by the head of that school to investigate the death of another teacher there.

Suddenly, Ivy is immersed in the life she could have had, if she had the magic Tabitha has. She's almost having double vision, the life she really leads, and the life she might have had. She and Tabitha seem to be edging towards reconnection after the long estrangement that followed the death of their mother. There's a handsome and charming teacher there who is interested on Ivy. Oh, and there's the murder case she's trying to solve.

Ivy has never investigated a murder before. It's been a long time since she was in high school. And these kids are mages, as are all the instructors. Yet the kids are still just kids, teenagers, and their magic pranks are pretty much what you'd expect of teenagers. Only a few stand out as different, and neither they nor any of the instructors at first seem to have any motive to kill the dead woman.

Yet one girl, Alexandria, is clearly influencing the feelings and reactions of those around her in a way that, once Ivy focuses on it enough to describe it to the teacher-mages, she is assured is simply impossible. Yes, there's a theoretical way, but nobody has that much power. Her brother, Dylan, believes he's the "Chosen One" described in their family's prophecy, destined to be the most powerful mage in the world--and he really is quite strong. Another girl, Courtney, has something to hide.

And there's a story going around that the dead woman was involved with someone she shouldn't have been. Not a student, but another teacher.

Ivy is trying to untangle a puzzle without knowing what's normal and abnormal in this setting.

The world-building is good and seamless, here, and the characters are excellent. Every significant character is complex, a mixed bag, and completely convincing. Their strengths and weaknesses are human and believable. I really want to read more by Sarah Gailey.

Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.
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LibraryThing member Glennis.LeBlanc
I picked this up after hearing several people say it was really good and that they enjoyed the audio. This is a murder mystery set in a world where there is magical community that lives among us but doesn’t live out in the open. Ivy is hired to solve a murder that the magic authorities had ruled
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an accidental. Ivy’s estranged twin sister Tabitha works as an instructor at magic school where this happened. Magic started the wedge between the sisters, but the death of their mom really cemented the rent between them. This is Ivy’s first murder case and she doesn’t have any legal backing, so no one has to answer her questions. It makes things a bit slower for her to tease the info out of people that don’t want to share. She is also hiding the fact that she has no magic of her own and it does leave to some gaps in her knowledge but does allow the writer to educate the reader without it feeling like an info dump. I liked the book but had figured out the mystery much earlier than Ivy did so near the end it was a bit of waiting for her to put the clues together. I would read more in this setting if there ever is more but the book ends with good closure.
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LibraryThing member quondame
The non-magic PI twin sister of one of the teachers investigates murder at a high school for mages. The plot and characters are pretty good as is the writing and pacing, but this story doesn't have the resonances of the more bizarre Hippo stories. It comes off a bit wanna be.
LibraryThing member LongDogMom
Probably the best book I've read in a while. Such a fascinating world and would love to get to know it better, as well as some of the characters, like Mrs. Webb and her magical surgical skills.

I think what I liked about this book was that it wasn't just about Ivy solving the murder. It was Ivy
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coming to terms with her sister, her resentment over Tabitha being the only one to be magic, and her anger about their relationship and how they grew apart after her sister left to attend a fancy school for learning magic. Ivy had been left not only without magic, but also with a dying mother and a depressed father, and guilt and anger about her sister seemingly abandoning them all, leaving her on her own to cope with it all on her own.

It was also a book about the different personas we wear and the different people we pretend to be, or wish we were, and the lies we tell in order to be liked and accepted by others. Ivy has a lot of emotional baggage, but so does Tabby, something that Ivy wasn't really expecting. It's interesting to see how they both change and evolve as the story goes along. I think it's likely that a lot of sisters who have grown apart and become somewhat estranged could probably relate to a lot of their interactions, including Ivy's self talk in her head about how she is feeling about being with her sister and wanting to reconnect.

Ivy seems very observant and attuned to people's behaviour. She knows how to manipulate people into telling her what she wants to know. She seems very inuitive. I enjoyed her interviews with people and how she handled the questioning, even setting up a visual scene in the library to draw the students in to talk to her, to make them feel at ease, and make them want to help. The one thing that I found a little sketchy was that Ivy investigating the murder, in which her sister is one of the suspects, seemed to be a little bit of a conflict of interest, although that never comes up. The reason she is given for being hired is that she is a non-magical detective, but knows all about the magical world... something that I guess is unique, although again... it's unclear how often a family might find one member becoming magical and needing to go to a special school, since it seemed like the whole magical community was not something regular people knew about. That seemed somewhat confusing and contradictory since Tabby becoming magic didn't seem like it was that abnormal really. It did seem like most of the kids at the school were from magical families, but none of that is really explained. I wish there was more books coming in this world and that it was fleshed out a bit more. I really liked a lot of ideas... the whispering books, the magical healing was interesting, the explanations for some of the magic. I feel like it was a world that could have turned into so much more, that could hold so many interesting story possibilites, so I'm disappointed it's a standalone. But I did enjoy it.
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LibraryThing member Shrike58
The best way to relate to this book is less as a fantasy or as a mystery but as a character study. There is less magic than there might of been, though magic is at the base of the apparent crime. And as a "whodunit" the plot narrows down very quickly to two characters. What one really has here is a
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personality study of the Ivy Gamble, the private investigator brought in to sift the ashes, as in the course of the plot she's going to have to come to grips with a lot of things about her own life and character that she has been denying. I kind of hope that there isn't a sequel, in as much as this story is complete in and of itself.
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LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
When it comes to the genre of gumshoe noir, a bit of magic never hurt. Here, Sarah Gailey blends a world of practical magic with the investigative procedures of a private eye. Mix in a bit of sisterly rivalry and the pot should really boil. Or at least simmer. Even tepid indicates that there has
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been some heat involved. And this novel rarely falls below tepid. There’s definitely something there, even if it isn’t magic.

Ivy Gamble, non-magical private investigator, has been called in to explore the extenuating circumstances of the death of a teacher at a magical high school, a death that the Magical Investigative Service have declared a case of misadventure. Ivy’s never investigated a murder before and she’d really be looking forward to this case if it weren’t for the fact that her (magical) sister, Tabitha, is a teacher at the school. To say that they’ve got issues would be saying more than they’ve said to each other in years. Ever since their mother died of cancer when they were in their respective high schools, magical and non-magical. But Ivy can’t let her disappointment in her sister distract her from the case at hand. And with a little bit of luck she might just stumble on who murdered the health and wellness teacher.

It’s always surprising to find a completely invented world in which things happen so predictably. Every clue is blocked out with highlighter pen. Every surprising turn of events can be seen coming from the other end of the hall. Every…well, you get the picture. It’s a bit like when a reasonably competent wordsmith reads a book on how to write a fantasy novel and another on how to write a detective novel and follows the advice to the letter. How do you establish that the detective is gritty and real? Have her say, “sh*t,” at least fifteen times in the first ten pages. And maybe she should drink gin. Very gritty, right?

That’s sounding a bit too harsh. Because this book was in fact mildly diverting. However, I couldn’t help thinking that if the author had really thought through the ramifications of the world she was creating, there might have been an even more interesting story to tell. But that’s probably unfair. I shouldn’t regret the book I didn’t read just because it wasn’t written. Still…

Only very gently recommended.
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LibraryThing member Verkruissen
A very interesting story about magic and about how to investigate a murder when you have no magic of your own. Ivy's character was a wonderfully descriptive person who had many flaws but a strong desire to solve a murder. When the opportunity arises for her to solve a case at her twin sister's
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prestigious school for mages she jumps at the chance. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two estranged sisters it definitely kept me interested. It was also the first time I read a story about people who were magic but the main character was not. Looking forward to what Sarah Gailey writes next!
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LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
Contemporary fantasy that will appeal to fans of PI mysteries and family dramas.
LibraryThing member grandpahobo
Pretty good story. Writing is good and the plot moves along. A little too much emphasis on the emotional tribulations of the main character.
LibraryThing member Dreesie
This was a fine listen (Xe Sands is one of my favorite narrators), but the foreshadowing in this book is so strong there were no big surprises at the end. There were some interesting ideas, especially the magical surgery and how it has to be done (and then without sedation, meaning the patient is
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watching *shudder*). Fantasy generally isn't my thing though, but this is just magic (as opposed to random creatures), so I tried it.
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LibraryThing member ablachly
Magic for Liars is basically a noir detective story--a PI is hired to investigate a murder that happened at the boarding school her twin sister works at. A boarding school for mages. It's smart literary fantasy, and I absolutely loved it.
LibraryThing member John_Warner
Ivy Gamble lives in a world of haves and have-nots; those who practice magic and those who don't. This fact hit close to home as a child. Her identical twin, Tabitha, possessed magical potential but she never did. She was separated from her mirror twin as a child when her sister was sent off to
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boarding school to develop her gift.

The two are reunited when the adult Ivy services as a private investigator are requested by the headmistress of the school where Ivy's estranged sister is employeed as a teacher. Several months ago, another teacher was found dead, her body separately lengthwise in half. Although the police deemed her death a magical acident, she believes she was murdered and wants Ivy to find the culprit.

Because I read her subsequent book The Echo Wife first and rated it only "ok", I was hesitant to read her earlier work. I'm glad I did since I enjoyed this book much better. I found Ivy Gamble more relatable than the protagonist in The Echo Wife. I enjoyed the mystery set in an academic environment. If Tana French colaborated with J.K. Rowling to write a mystery, this may have been the result. I'm eager to read Gailey's next book.
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LibraryThing member holdenkillfield
This book caught my attention with the lure of mixing magic + magical schools for teens + a murder mystery.

This combination seemed to be a perfect mixture of a reading experience that would be fun, intriguing, and give me the Harry Potter realistic world my 30+ self longs for, but the story fell
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flat and did not produce all that was promised.

It was an ok read, I was still interested enough to continue just hoping that maybe the book would give the jolt I was wishing for, but that did not happen. It started off slow and had the buildup to a conclusion that was predictable.

The writing was a little jarring at times, in that, I as the reader would get confused about what/who/when was being referenced since the author is a little heavy-handed with descriptive flourishes that don't add anything to the scene or the sentence.

The characters weren't fully fleshed out, many just stock characters (view spoiler).

After a week or two, I will completely forget the plot and these forgettable characters.
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Awards

Locus Award (Finalist — First Novel — 2020)
RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist — Mystery — 2020)
LibraryReads (Monthly Pick — June 2019)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2019-06-04

Physical description

336 p.; 5.53 inches

ISBN

9781250174611
Page: 1.8171 seconds