Reviews tagging 'Blood'

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

8 reviews

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

heart_strong500's review against another edition

I was 40% though and so much time was being spent on things I didn't care about. I looked at other reviews which I rarely do before or while I'm reading and they all said it's very different from the musical. So even if my favorite parts of the musical would have happened I didn't know with how much detail they were or weren't going to be covered. And then the three-way sexual assult(everyone's under magic or something so I see it as sexual assult) with the tiger (which animals are just another race and I knew that before reading) happened and I was done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Racism, Death, Classism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Gore, Death of parent, and Blood

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

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

molliepop's review against another edition

Plot was too disjointed to justify spending a further 200+ pages on, no real character motives after a really strong first act. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Death of parent, Animal death, and Blood

nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

1.75

The writers, producers, and actors of the Broadway production inspired by this novel deserve all the more praise now that I have read the source material. The imagination required to turn this book into the joyful, hopeful, engrossing story that comes to life on stage is phenomenal, and it definitely made me want to go see the show again. 

Gregory Maguire's novel introduces Elphaba's parents--a unionist minister and his lustful, unfaithful wife--leading up to the birth of the green, fanged, fearsome infant who grows up with her mother's Nanny and her mother's lover Turtle Heart. As a teenager, Elphaba goes to school at Shiz, where she encounters Galinda, Boq, Fiyero, and a number of other characters who are mostly undistinguishable. Elphaba becomes passionate about the perceived corruption of the Wizard's reign and progresses from Shiz to the Emerald City, a mauntery (something of a nunnery), and the land of the Winkies.

From the outset, the world that Maguire builds is confusing and incomplete, with countless references to deities, histories, and characters that are never clarified or explained. Contributing to the lack of clarity are the time jumps; between each section, Elphaba has aged an unmentioned number of years and become increasingly more reserved and resentful. Her missions against convention (and corruption) are unclear, and the enemy is never clearly defined. 

With unlikeable--indeed, unapproachable--characters and such confusion, it was nearly impossible for me to enjoy this book, especially as a high fantasy skeptic to begin with. That someone could have read this novel and written the book for the musical is shocking to me, but I'm certainly grateful for all their work and inspiration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Infidelity, Sexism, Slavery, and War

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

shaunaxx's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.0

The beginning and start of the middle was the most dry and boring thing I’ve ever read the only redeeming thing about it is the later middle. The ending was rushed and character development was all over the place. 
None of this is mentioning that it was NOTHING like the musical which is the sole reason I bought it in the first place but I decided to separate the two as different stories all together around 40% of the way through...it would have been a 1 star otherwise...
The writing was very telling not showing and all the questions of religion and morality and of the soul got old within the first 4 pages let alone the other 500....
Overall wouldn’t recommend or at least would recommend WITH THE KNOWLEDGE ITS NOTHING LIKE THE MUSICAL

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, and Religious bigotry

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