Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

20 reviews

emily_dunn's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent

michaelion's review

emotional inspiring lighthearted 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

4.75

Trung Le Nguyen you have a fan in me for life for the art style alone. It felt like I was watching a film. It's so vibrant! For life!!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Outing

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Incest and Cannibalism

dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

4.5

In a semi-autobiographical take on his coming out experience to his family and friends, Trung Le Nguyen transports readers to the heart of connection through the love of stories in spite of hate and fear. 

Not only is this just a graphic novel with pretty illustrations, Trung Le Nguyen has readers sucked into the heart of the story: whether that would be Tiến in the present trying to figure out how he can come out to his family or Tien’s mom reflecting on the sacrifices she’s made to become a U.S. citizen or the various fairytales Tiến reads to his mother. 

Full of heart despite the darker topics addressed in the book, readers will absolutely love the underlying message that happy endings are for everyone. If you’re looking for a graphic novel with coming out themes amidst examinations of fairytales throughout the world, you will definitely want to read The Magic Fish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Outing

Minor: Cannibalism and War

tinyjude's review

dark emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

A really beautiful book that focuses on the relationship between a mother and her son, language barriers, feeling isolated and not truly belonging to one place due to forceful migration and colonisation; and how they are able to understand and support each other through fairy tails such as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. It was beautiful and fascinating to see the different depictions of the same tale depending on the cultural context. The colour palette was used with such creativity, helping the reader identify the past (yellow), the present (red) and the stories within the main story (blue) with complexity and beautiful details. I found myself instantly attached to the characters and the story. It was beautifully crafted and it couldn't come to me in a most precious and sad time to help me too.

The tale she narrates to her child at the end couldn't have been better. I was sobbing and wrecked. So touching.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Genocide, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Gore and Blood

sapphic_alpaca's review

adventurous emotional hopeful

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Outing

Minor: Death of parent

rafacolog's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

mattyb's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism and Death of parent

maple_dusk's review

emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I have to say--this is one of the most relaxing books I've read in a while (it's YA, no less!). Yet, somehow, it manages to beautifully discuss things like immigration, war (briefly), cultural barriers, homophobia, etc.

The art is beautiful and eye-catching. I loved the character designs too! The ending is fantastic and wraps up the whole book so well.

No matter what, I know I can't do this book justice, so I'm just going to encourage you to read it.

Favorite Quote:

"<My Vietnamese is weakening, every day. I'm changing.
My past and present selves speak two different languages.
It feels like I died on that boat. And I'm still stuck in the middle of the ocean.
Far away from my mother . . .
. . . and far away from my son.
I'm afraid Tiến doesn't think he can tell me things.
I'm sure he can feel it. I know I do.
And I wish it wasn't that way.

Did my mother feel that way? Did she feel like this all those years I was away?>"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, and Grief

Child marriage (Minor)

dee_hzz's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Grief, Cannibalism, and Outing

Moderate: Homophobia and Religious bigotry

pam_'s review

dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Cannibalism

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Outing