Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

66 reviews

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

Moderate: Homophobia and Religious bigotry

abookwormspov's review against another edition

emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Cancer, Homophobia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Outing, Physical abuse, Bullying, Medical content, Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Chronic illness, Murder, Death of parent, Colonisation, Death, and Terminal illness

tilo's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Beautiful story - both visuals and narrative. I loved the way the fairy tales were woven into the story and I appreciated the afterword of the author explaining the choices made to the tales.
I found it fascinating how the story dealt with the issue of coming out. It was underlining the story and certainly was a driving force, but it showed a refreshing complexity around it. Although the author says that "language" was intended to be the focus, I felt there were many other intriguing and arguably more present key aspects such as grief that I was compelled to see play out in this heart-warming story.
The story of the mother was not "overshadowed" by the coming-out story of the son but had enough spotlight to show how guilt, diaspora, and feelings of displacement all make up an intriguing story of migration. I valued that a lot in this story as it gave a clear perspective on the parent's end without needing the (in my opiniom) overplayed and somewhat problematic trope of the parent who "just needs time" to figure out how to deal with the news of having a gay child. The mother's story, therefore, was captivating and to me, is the best part of the narrative.

The ending was perfect, showing a simple yet powerful way of showing acceptance to your kid despite having a lack of words or means to verbalize it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Domestic abuse

Due to the nature of fairy tales, this book has a bit of gore and some images could potentially be a bit too graphic for younger readers.

chaoticnostalgia's review

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

Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Animal death

Minor: Colonisation and War

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, and Cannibalism

emily_mh's review

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

4.75

This graphic novel was so incredibly clever. The way the fairytales Tiến and Helen tell each other are tied into the narrative not only to reflect particular events but, as the author points out, more overarching themes of immigration. The way the fairytales are used to communicate ideas between the characters - this really highlighted the power of stories. And the fairytales were fantastic in and of themselves! The author also explains so many layers of meaning that I missed my first time reading, so I think this is one of those books where you’ve got to reread to pick up on all the nuances. For example, he discusses how imagery of the fairytale being told changes based on who is narrating, which blew my mind when I flicked back through the book. I could just tell that so much thought and detail went into expressing the story.

At its core this book is about a mother-son relationship which it displays impeccably. The love and the care Tiến and Helen had for one another! Their desire to understand and be understood! I especially loved that Helen was included as a character in her own right, as it is rare for a mother-figure to have this. This inclusion brought the theme of a two-sided relationship to life as both sides of the story were shown.

The art was gorgeous. There was super effective use of colour in that only three were used (in different tones) so as to demarcate parts of the book: red for the present, blue for fairytales, and yellow for the past. The detail of the clothing and hair of the characters was wonderful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, Child abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Physical abuse, Medical content, War, Torture, Gore, and Hate crime

Moderate: the refugee experience, sick loved one, loss of a loved one, forced separation from family, death of pet Minor: child bride, drowning

rosie_valadez's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Cannibalism, Animal death, and Blood

phantastic's review

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

The artwork is absolutely stunning and innovative; I appreciated the creative decision to make some artwork depicting important scenes be unrestricted by the panel boxes. Sometimes the art and/or speech bubbles don’t follow a linear path, which I thought added a nice touch to the way the story was told.

The writing can feel clunky at times, but that’s not to the detriment of the overall story or message. I recommend it to anyone looking to read a deeply personal, heartfelt story; This is a beautiful graphic novel about the struggle of immigration—being stuck between your old life versus your new life—and coming to terms with your identity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Outing, Cannibalism, Blood, and Murder

meaghanelizabook's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Homophobia, War, Murder, Death of parent, Animal death, and Blood

jessie_h's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This art in this graphic novel was absolutely gorgeous! The story even more so. It gave us a look in what life would be like for a child of an immigrant family and the complications that come with that. Like not knowing a word to describe something in your parents' native tongue to explain an important thing. It's also a story about changes and how you can't go back even if you wanted to. It made me tear up in several spots and gave me the opportunity to see a perspective that I did not have before.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Homophobia

Moderate: Death of parent, Outing, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death