Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

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

12 reviews

swhitzel's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

What a useless story. So much character build up, so many possibilities, all for nothing. Pages and pages of rambling nonsense mixed in with small bits of interest and intrigue. Entirely anticlimactic. 

A true waste of time. Genuinely amazed that this was the basis for such a fantastic stage play. It seems the musical pulled out the best pieces of the story. Wish I had left it there and not ventured further into this world. 

A letdown.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Child death, Vomit, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Torture, Violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, and Death

alexandra_salisbury's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I want to like it more than I did. This was my second attempt after a DNF. While I'm usually one for closed-door books, I could look past the explicit scenes if it wasn't for the blatant *completely unnecessary* sexualization of children which just made the book really sordid. 

There were very interesting things that happened that would bring you right to the precipice of something happening and then *surprise* - time jump, and it didn't happen. Or maybe it did and you missed it. It was disappointing. Someone needs to write a fan fiction of this fan fiction and do it better- although maybe that's what the musical did 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Ableism, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Child abuse, Body shaming, and Animal death

Moderate: Torture, Fatphobia, Slavery, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Dementia, Death, Classism, and Child death

Minor: Sexism

littleyellowfangirl's review against another edition

Fetishization of inappropriate content

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Incest, Racism, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, and Stalking

jadonmorgs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.0

Let me start this review by saying that I love and adore the Broadway musical. This book is nothing like the Broadway musical but I'm not opposed to it being more grim and less light hearted. I actually prefer the much more darker themes that's in this book, but I feel like the book did not really deliver on the character of Elphaba she just did not feel fleshed out enough. I couldn't really immerse myself in the story and it's characters even though I really wanted to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Racism, Self harm, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

foxwish's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Extremely different to the musical Wicked! the tone of this is much darker with murder and unnecessary sexual content. Far too many time skips, at least 4 major time skips spanning years of Elphaba's life. The plot of the Wizard of Oz makes an appearance, but the portrayal of Dorothy here doesn't quite fit this darker story. I think the Shiz portion is when the book is at its best both character wise and regarding the political, religious and moral themes. Elphaba is a very fascinating main character but she is incredibly unlikeable outside of her passion about her beliefs about Animal rights. 

If you are interested in this book because of the musical be very aware that this is extremely different,  it isn't just darker, Fiyero is a side character, Glinda is a minor character, Boq has a larger role and shares only his crush on Glinda with his musical counterpart and Elphaba is no magical prodigy.

If you want a book that explores the mentality of the Wicked Witch of the West, this is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Murder, Pregnancy, Child death, Police brutality, Sexism, Body shaming, Classism, Grief, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Miscarriage, Racism, Suicide, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

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

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.

itry's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

0.25

Tw: murder, debauchery, sex, cheating, political intrigue, slavery, torture, pedophelia, rape. The last two being extremely prominent and occuring more than once??? Because why not i guess????
Also general depressing tone cus its a tragedy through and through

Toto i don't think we're in kansas anymore

So..... i read the book because i liked thw musical and was like hey ill like this
Welll
I didnt dislike it but i have no idea how the musical became so different from this
As a book it was interesting but the pacing felt a bit off and the time skips werent handled the best
Otherwise as a guilty pleasure, it was enjoyable
Im not gonna read the sequels though because this was depressing holy moly

Read through audiobook

Update: literally had through dissociation forgotten my dislike for the book and the,,,,,,,, y'all know what parts bothered me if y'all have read it and if y'all haven't read it, don't. Disgusting. Worse than attack on titan the mangas one horrifying scene that i try to actively block out of my head but that memory stays lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Sexism, Mental illness, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, War, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Hate crime, Gore, Gaslighting, Genocide, Classism, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Bullying, Animal death, Chronic illness, Child abuse, and Body shaming

Minor: Deportation and Slavery

nasabl3's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Very different from the musical and a lot more lifeless if you are looking for more of the Broadway musical go no further

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Racial slurs