Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

114 reviews

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

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

Through luminous and enchanting fairy tale retellings, the young American-born Tiến connects with his mother, who emigrated from Vietnam, as he struggles to come out to her. What a thoroughly enchanting, quietly moving, and engagingly beautiful tale, touching on so many aspects of the queer and immigrant experiences in such powerful and transformative ways!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

rosseshelf's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

I chose this book blindly, and it’s shockingly good. This semi-autobiographical graphic novel about the Vietnamese diaspora takes up fairy tale retellings to explore immigration, communication, queerness, and love. The story in this book warmed my heart and nearly made me cry, while the graphics were exquisitely detailed and striking. The writing and artwork in this book are well-balanced. Unfortunately, though, I found it difficult to get into the story at first since there were parts of it in Vietnamese that were not translated into English. For a while, I was unable to figure out where the story was heading. Overall, this is such a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Cannibalism

dexkit10's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Confinement and War

bexi's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

shelvesofivy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Don't mind me, just literally crying over everything about this book 🥺
The art had me from page 1, and if possible, it just got even more beautiful. I loved the use of color to help move between the fairytale, the modern, and the flashbacks. And of course, the overarching story has me crying, but it's in a cathartic way ♡
I can't recommend this enough, regardless of what you usually read ♡ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Hate crime, and Cannibalism

readingmushrooms's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Minor: Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and War

kshertz's review

inspiring reflective sad 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

It’s such an interesting graphic novel where a family is connecting through fairytales. The mom dealing with grief, the son with talking to them about who he loves. It was equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking. It’s definitely gorgeous and worth a read 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Homophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

gimmiiie's review

emotional hopeful reflective 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

Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. 

Would recommend this for any one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Outing, and War

pastelkerstin's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and War

conversion therapy