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Reviews tagging 'Child death'
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
18 reviews
summerb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Classism, Grief, and Infidelity
Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, War, Kidnapping, and Medical content
susannaobrien's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Child death, and Ableism
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, and Animal death
Minor: Religious bigotry, Slavery, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship
sarah2438's review against another edition
2.0
I don't consider myself easily scandalized by things like *nudity* or *infidelity* but this book took it so much farther than was necessary. I mean there's a freaking threesome with a tiger and it serves NO PURPOSE. All of these people just out here cheating on everyone with no consequences. And everyone, including kids, getting naked all the time for no reason. At one point even the landscape was described as being erotic-- what does that even mean?? It was just weird, made weirder by the fact that this all stems from a CHILDREN'S STORY. You can darkly retell a classic without taking it to this level.
If you can get past that, this book is still a mess. It needed to be trimmed down-- there was so much that felt unnecessary and just bogged down the plot. The plot itself was clunky and meandering. The characters, even Elphaba at times, felt shallow and under developed. The faux depth had me wondering "am I dumb or is this just... boring? And maybe doesn't make sense?" But my lovely buddy in this buddy read had the same issue.
It's really frustrating because there's glimpses where I can see what the author was trying to do, or there's a good line here and there, so I think he might actually be a good writer. But this just wasn't good.
Overall, I would've DNF'd if I wasn't doing a buddy read. I don't hate it, so it's not quite one star, but I wouldn't recommend this.
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Bullying
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racism, and Child abuse
Minor: Child death, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Ableism
gayghostprince's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Toxic friendship, War, Xenophobia, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Colonisation, Dementia, Drug use, Alcohol, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia
I never finished this book when I was younger but I was immediately struck by how vile all the adults in this book are upon rereading it. there are no assault scenes, but people do mention r*pe. the descriptions and implications about specific groups in this people are racist and stereotypical, but not often aggressively malicious. a LOT of the treatment of children in this book is upsetting. content warning for family baggage and child neglect. in addition, late in the book a child is pretty relentlessly bullied by his peers. I added a minor homophobia warning because the way people describe the two obviously gay characters is often homophobic. just coincidentally describing them as simpering or whatever. the equivalent of calling a gay man a fairy, you know? the sex scenes in this book are not detailed or graphic but they are also not well written. take that as you will.jcdudley's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Sexual content and Grief
Minor: Animal cruelty, Racism, Murder, Child death, and Animal death
For a book based on a children's novel and wholesome family film, this story is everything but wholesome and whimsical. It is very dark and features a lot of potential triggers that could upset readers so I'd definitely recommend looking into those before picking this one up.kellyhady's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Violence
Minor: Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Bullying, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Genocide
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, and Death of parent
hettyreads's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Child death, Death, Dementia, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide attempt, and Violence
Minor: Sexual violence