Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

39 reviews

summerb's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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

5.0

Review of Wicked

By: Gregory Maguire

            First, I will say this not for everyone even if you loved the stage show adaptation.  The stage show takes elements of this novel makes a less dark and more bittersweet.  In case you don’t realize this the origin of the Wicked Witch of the West, who is named Elphaba, and what lead her eventually to target Dorothy…. Or did she?  

Maguire’s Oz still has that whimsy and weirdness, but it also reflects real world problems such as injustices of minority groups.  One of Elphaba’s biggest passions is the fight for the rights of Animals, animal-human hybrids such as the cowardly Lion and Dr. Dillamond.  The irony is Elphie isn’t even interested in magic, but she is interested in science.  As a character she is brutally honest to point of sounding mean and doesn’t know how to show love and affection.  She loves in her own way and sees herself as someone with know.  She is frustrating, but charming in her own way.  She easily becomes obsessed to the point of not being unable to see past her own beliefs, but we are seeing from her perspective.  It makes the reader actually consider her side and realize she’s not as wicked as she seems, or there at least there’s a reason behind her wickedness.  The novel not only questions how we see her but how we define “evil”.  Glinda and Elphaba’s relationship is complicated and fascinating to read about it.  It is the opposites attract theory as they have respect and love for each.  At the same time, they don’t always understand each other, but there’s still love between them.  There is quite a bit of mature content like sex and drugs.  There is a scene where characters go to what can only be described as a pleasure den.  The Wizard being the villain gives a new perspective on his lack of power in the original series of books.  He is an illusionist and trickster, but in this story, he uses it for political gain.  This spins a darker and complicated read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing and Classism

georginainvisablestring22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Sexism, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Moderate: Violence, War, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual content, Body shaming, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

susannaobrien's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• 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

Pretty disappointed in this, but I may have been expecting it to be closer to the musical which I love. Fantasy fans may enjoy this more, but I found the meandering plot and many small characters hard to keep track of and quite tedious at times. The commentary on religious fanaticism and the way societal expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies was interesting, but often overworked and written in dense, and at times impenetrable language. I also found Maguire's writing of Nessarosa's disability incredibly ableist, and sex and female desire pretty dated and unnecessarily vulgar. Glad I read as it satisfies a curiosity but ultimately it dragged for me.

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Content Warnings

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

rebeccafarren's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Ableism, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Animal cruelty

sarah2438's review against another edition

2.0

I did not like this. I've heard the show is better-- it would have to be, right?
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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Bullying

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racism, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Ableism

lia_nicole_'s review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Animal cruelty

gayghostprince's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

I knew going into this book that it would be phenomenal and it definitely delivered!! Maguire has a masterful way of world-building and storytelling, and I almost immediately fell in love with the characters. This book had me laughing, crying, and philosophizing almost the entire time, and I am STOKED to read the rest of this series ASAP.

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Content Warnings

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

adventurous funny slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity