Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

30 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

abby_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

📱
This was alright. It was a heavy read at time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Police brutality, Classism, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Racism, Death, and Child death

jerrysaywhaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I think overall that I enjoyed this story. It could have been trimmed down a bit and I do wish the whole thing more Elphaba’s story since the book is called The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (the first half of the book is mostly about her mother, Glinda, Boq, and Fiyero).

I think that the musical actually improved on the overall story of Wicked, especially for Boq, the Lion, the Tinman, and the Scarecrow. I can only hope that the new movies take more from the novel to improve on the musical (I would love to see the inclusion of Sarima, her sisters, her children, and Liir). 

Will I read the sequels? Maybe eventually, but this was a struggle to get through at parts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Religious bigotry, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child death, Dementia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, and Rape

Minor: Death of parent

Beastiality, Child Nudity

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

mandi_lea's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Child death, Grief, Death, Infidelity, Murder, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, and Death of parent

zealandrc's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

5.0

One of my favorites forever

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

g_umnut's review against another edition

reflective tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Murder

Minor: Rape and Death

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

susannahnah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I read this book a year after its release - I was way, way too young. But I finished it and was super intrigued. I revisited the book again a few years later and loved it. When the news came out they were making it a musical, the first word to cross my mind was,”…how???”  The book and the musical are nothing alike. If you’re reading this expecting it to be like the musical, stop now. Unless you like dark, macabre, conspiracy-driven gothic fairytales of a fundamentally flawed heroine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

rosemaryandrue's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.25

Long before Dorothy came to Oz, a baby was born in the east with green skin and shark-like teeth, and whether or not she is given a chance to be good will shape the future of the land.

This is a strange, slant-wise reprise of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a thoroughly grown-up look at the realistic consequences of such political upheaval. I've seen the musical of course, and it is pretty funny how far it drifted away from the source material, as this in turn had drifted from its own. I liked the concept and the claustrophobic quality of the writing, but I felt the characters were held at too far a remove from us and each other, so I couldn't get invested in anyone's relationships.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Animal death