TW: Gore, death, mugging, possible suicide/self-harm, possible pregnancy complications/abortion



I'd been seeing Magic for Liars around for a while and it looked so interesting. I'd been longing after it and a friend in a literary Facebook group sent it to me with the request that I read it and review, so here we are (not like I wouldn't review it anyway). It's back on theme with These Witches Don't Burn, which I read last month. There's magic, there are LGBTQ characters, there's life and death situations. But this one's not YA.



Ivy is a private investigator in a shady side of town. Most days she's tailing folks suspected of cheating. It's not glamorous, but it pays the bills. When the headmaster of the local magic school (yeah, that's right - magic school) asks Ivy to come investigate a murder, she doesn't exactly jump at the chance. Yeah, the pay is great, but magic's a bit of a sore spot. The magic gene missed her and her twin just happens to be magic school faculty. 


I'm bad about getting into book I've never read description for and therefore, have no clue what they're about. This was definitely the case with this one, and it was more than I expected. The epilogue started out with no restraints. It was dark and horrifying and gorey - beware. Honestly, I thought I knew where the story was going. The entire time I'm thinking "Ivy is not seeing what's right in front of her," and in many ways I was right, but the story was really much bigger than I thought. I was definitely surprised.

I really liked the book was in a high school setting and had total YA vibes, but the material and language was a bit more risque than your typical YA novel. It was like a fun mixture of both, and I really enjoyed that. Now my complaints? There were too many characters initially, and at times the storyline was very confusing. There's something about murder mysteries that trip me up. I know it's kind of the point, but it frustrates me. Other than that, I was really into this book and was satisfied with the ending.





I really enjoyed this book. I think fans both YA and adult murder mysteries and magic will really devour this book.



Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆